“They were just getting into every little thing there was. Most of it, I don’t think, was relevant in nature.”
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On the 24th and final day of hearings as part of a public inquiry into the construction and operation of the LRT system, two executives who led the maintenance and construction of Ottawa’s light rail project revealed new details about their troubled relationship with the city. .
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Mario Guerra, executive director and interim general manager of Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM), which has a 30-year contract to maintain LRT, told the consultation that when the system began operating, the city was micromanaging maintenance staff, pinpointing problems as small as dirty floors, consuming staff time and resources to the detriment of other key maintenance tasks.
The city deployed “an army” of representatives on the LRT trains in September 2019, the first month the line was open to the public.
“We were just overwhelmed,” Guerra said. “I think, if I remember correctly, there were 900 work orders in September alone, the first month of revenue service. We just couldn’t keep up and as a result some service-critical things weren’t being done in a timely manner because we just didn’t have the time or resources to deal with it all.
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“They were just getting into every little thing there was. Most of it, I don’t think, was relevant in nature.”
It was one of a series of speed bumps that bogged down an overworked maintenance crew who, ultimately, overworked and undermanned, failed to ensure bolts were properly tightened on a train, leading to a derailment in September 2021.
Guerra said the so-called “soft start,” with the system running at reduced capacity for a period, would have mitigated some early maintenance issues.
“The more time you have to test and stress and communicate with all parties on how to resolve issues, the better off the system is when it’s finally in revenue service,” Guerra said. “That is, in my opinion, based on my experience, especially in a brand new system like this one in Ottawa.”
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Guerra also said it would have been helpful to have winter weather as part of that testing period.
But ultimately, as discussed multiple times in the investigation, the city did not want to embark on a “soft start.” Delays had already plagued the system, and by the time it went live, it was plagued with problems.
When these problems began to surface, the city demanded payment penalties from the construction and maintenance parties.
Nicholas Truchon, CEO of the Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the consortium that oversees the LRT, also testified Thursday. He said the withholding of funds contributed to an “adversarial relationship” between the different parties working on the project.
“The performance for the first few months was challenging,” said Truchon. “The city withheld the payments. When the city withholds payments, that means RTG doesn’t get paid. RTG cannot pay RTM, RTM cannot pay Alstom. Those deductions are significant, they are material.”
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The relationship between the parties working on the project and the city has soured, often repeated in the interaction between attorneys and witnesses in the public inquiry. The lawyers often seemed to try to deflect blame for their clients’ failures and problems, and their exchanges with witnesses sometimes turned into verbal confrontations.
Truchon acknowledged that the city was withholding payments because some performance requirements were not being met, but said there were still thousands of work orders that the city was pointing to as the reason it was withholding a significant amount of money from RTG that it did not believe. they were justified.
“We agree that we had some shortcomings. I don’t challenge that. We certainly haven’t delivered the level of service we were looking for. But it’s getting better,” Truchon said.
“We can make this vehicle work. We will make this car work and we will continue to make this car work on the track and in the infrastructure.”
Next, at the public consultation later in July, public-private partnerships will be under the microscope of a panel of experts in a discussion to be shown on the commission’s website. A spokesman said Thursday that the commission expected to release its full report in the fall.
