LRT REPAIR: Sutcliffe’s Mayoralty In Jeopardy

07/25/2023

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe better make sure this redesign of the LRT wheel-hub assembly works or he’s not the mayor.

If this repair is completed in 18 months, that gets it to January 2025. Now let’s see … the next term of mayor begins in 2026.

So the repairs fails. Ottawa has light-rail outages throughout 2025 from the new faulty hubs.

This light-rail fiasco was once the property of former mayor Jim Watson, city manager Steve Kanellakos, OC Transpo general manager John Manconi and Kanata South Councillor Allan Hubley. Those are names that are unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon. They created this mess. Sutcliffe inherited it.

Alstom, RTG To Redesign LRT Wheel Assembly

And hilariously, Watson is skulking around Kitchissippi and its environs trying to raise his profile for future public-policy jobs … having abandoned his spider-hole after a few months. Do the words Ottawa Centre mean anything to you? That said, it would be wrong to under-estimate Watson’s electoral ability. He has name-recognition (now associated with the light-rail mess), a winning record and mountains of developer money waiting to be donated. Come election time, he’ll have nice signs.

Sutcliffe? He’ll have years of light-rail cock-ups because those current axles and bearings can’t stand the strain of this light rail. That pile of used axles at Belfast Yards might become the highest somewhat free-standing structure in Ottawa. The mayor will be lucky if he can get through his term without people being injured or killed by this hideous light-rail monster.

Furthermore, we’ll will have two-week shutdowns of the Confederation Line through his term. The current set-up doesn’t work. New axles and company are like throwing band-aids at a gunshot wound. Those shutdowns don’t scream: “Re-elect Mark Sutcliffe for mayor.” Or re-elect the LRT Bozos back to council.

Now the current city council is using the tried-and-true Watson strategy of if there is bad news, go hide. Hasn’t that worked out well. That’s what gave us Scream 2: Where’s The Train? Your Worship, keep taking advice from the people who gave us King James The First. See how that works out.

Take your own advice. That’s better.

City Ignored Oversight With Light Rail: TWEEP

Sutcliffe has to appear to be doing something. And redesigning the wheel hubs brought a big sigh of relief among riders and taxpayers. However, here’s the rub. The Transportation Safety Board said the hubs and friends are up to industry standards. They’re breaking because of unusual strain being put on them.

So is that strain going away? Nope. Are they redesigning the hubs in such a way that they will develop a metal so hard that it has yet to be invented? That might take more than 18 months. Furthermore, the rocket scientists necessary to develop this metal might be busy sending more men to the moon. It’s so hard to get help these days.

Alstom, Rideau Transit Group, Sutcliffe, you’re on your own.

And Your Worship are you confident that the squirrels who gave us this LRT disaster are up to the task of redesigning hubs that work? Faint hope.

Ottawans will believe that when they see the two CEOs of Alstom and RTG holding hands and walking across the Rideau Canal in July (try January, it’s easier). Nothing like a stroll on water to boost confidence.

Maybe Watson will join them. He needs the photo-op.

Ken Gray

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Tags: light rail Mark Sutcliffe Ottawa

Annette Goldenberg says:
07/25/2023 at 12:21 PM
Again Mr. Ken Gray has a lot to say and critize everyone that was involved in this mess. My question to Mr. Gray is, you seem to know all the answers to everything about this LRT thing, why don’t you just take over and do everything you claim to know about and maybe then we won’t hear you repeat the same thing over and over again?. What you are saying is certainly not helping the problem so let’s see what you can do.
Ken Gray says:
07/25/2023 at 4:54 PM
Annette:
I’ve been covering light rail since 1998 so I might know a thing or two about it.
I’d be happy to run the operation. I could do just as good a job as Jim Watson.
cheers
kgray
Merrill Smith says:
07/25/2023 at 7:52 PM
Douggie Ford thinks the new mayor is doing a splendid job, so I guess we’re all doomed.
Ken Gray says:
07/25/2023 at 8:04 PM
lol Merrill, cheers k
The Voter says:
07/26/2023 at 5:27 AM
Annette,
The job of a journalist is to report and comment on what’s going on around them. A lot of the “mess”, as you call it, would still be under wraps if Ken Gray wasn’t shining the light of day on it.
As the provincial inquiry found, a lot of the “mess” is the result of people in various positions with the City not doing their jobs plus withholding information from and outright lying to Council and the public. It behooves us to keep a watchful eye on what the people in those kinds of positions, including the current mayor, are doing or not doing in regards to the LRT.
Most of us understand that we were fooled once and it’s up to us to ensure it doesn’t happen again. That effort is greatly helped by the information on this site both from Ken and various commenters. I, for one, am grateful for the help and support in the ongoing battle.