Something New For The City. The Truth: BENN

Two quick lessons for city staff and elected officials regarding effective communication.

First. Short and sweet is far more effective than verbose.

Last week staff released what it referred to as an update on the LRT construction projects. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of words that tell us … not much. Nothing about why the Stage 2 LRT construction projects are years (note the plural) late? Nothing about when the city can expect to open these long overdue mega public transit infrastructure projects. Just a lot of words that tell us that the errors of the premature Stage 1 Confederation Line opening will not be repeated. At least not for the Trillium Line.

What was not disclosed in what might get a passing grade if it were a mid-school level report was why the Trillium Line construction is late. That was reserved for a CBC interview, during which it was disclosed the switches that control the single set of tracks entering the tunnel under Dows Lake are not functioning satisfactorily.

See how simple that is? Short and sweet. A key component is not working properly. Okay, maybe it isn’t so sweet. After all, automated switches on train tracks have been in use for decades. Decades as in the plural of decade. But aside from that.

Second. The truth trumps lies. Every time.

According to transit committee chairman, Stittsville Councillor Glen Gower the two week closure of the western part of the Confederation Line, between Tunney’s Pasture and Rideau Station for routine maintenance is not unusual for LRT lines. Except … it isn’t.

A simple Google search (the limits of which are set between my keyboard and the back of my chair) revealed that the Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver LRT lines do close short sections for routine maintenance. On weekends. Sometimes consecutive weekends. But not for two weeks. Calgary did have a recent extended closure of a short section of its LRT system because they were doing extensive work on a station. Calgary did not classify it as routine. Oh, and as an aside, there was no mention of closing the roads that the replacement buses were routed along.

Will staff and elected officials seize the opportunity to learn these lessons?

Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.

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