Memo To Mark Sutcliffe: The Rail Fix

07/26/2023

Here’s what the Transportation Safety Board said about that pesky habit the O-Train has of derailing:

In the cases cited, the root cause of the cartridge assembly failures cannot be attributed to a single component. It is likely that the combination of the newly designed LRV, new Iponam bogies, and a more powerful drivetrain may play a role in the failure of cartridge assemblies.

So the axles and company are not the problem. A new design, bogies and a more powerful drive train are the culpits or a combination of the three could be doing the trick.

So what are Alstom, Rideau Transit Group and OC Transpo fixing? The axles and related parts.

Seeing that in this veil of tears, the only organization that can be trusted is the TSB, might it not be a bad idea to drop a call on that organization about redesigning the axle assemblies?

Maybe Alstom can redesign the axles etc. to make them work despite the faulty factors above. But how will you feel if, 18 months from now, the fix Alstom develops isn’t a fix? How will you feel?

Faulty Alstom LRT Axle Hub Probed In France

Worse, how will the voters feel? Taxpayers are a tad perturbed at pouring their hard-earned money down a toilet.

There’s a disconnect here, Your Worship, and for the good of everyone in this community, including yourself, it might be wise to question these rail geniuses to the Nth degree.

I mean, have they ever been wrong before?

And do you really want to be dragged down by this crew that makes the early ’60s Mets look like the 1927 Yankees?

In the words of the ole perfesser himself coach Casey Stengel about his hapless club (and he could have been talking about OC Transpo) … “Can’t anybody here play this game?”

Ken Gray

Casey Stengel & The NY Mets