“We got the resources in line with what we thought we were going to get, which turned out to be a better performing system.”
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From the beginning maintenance staff were up to speed on fixing problems with the Ottawa LRT and as a result their work was affected leading to a downward spiral and eventually a derailment, there was a public consultation on Wednesday.
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Richard France, an Alstom employee who manages the maintenance side of the LRT operation, testified at the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry that, when he joined the project in 2019, he began hiring more staff to prepare for the eventual test and operation of the Confederation. line.
He had previous experience working in transit in Dublin, where a larger rail system was being maintained with only slightly more staff than he had available in Ottawa.
But, upon arrival in Ottawa, France discovered that Ottawa Light Rail Transit Constructors, the consortium that oversaw the construction of the Confederation Line, was not giving maintenance crews access to the tracks and parts of the system.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “We would have liked to have started maintenance sooner, if not started maintenance, gained access so we could really learn.
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“It’s speculation,” he added, “but my feeling is that on the one hand, maybe they didn’t want us there because we would identify problems that they would then have to deal with, but that wouldn’t be good for them. partly because, if anything, it would be an opportunity for them.”
There was also no facility where staff could perform maintenance on the trains, some of which had already traveled many miles, leaving them with a huge maintenance backlog by the time the line was scheduled to be tested.
From there, the problems continued to pile up, leaving maintenance workers scrambling to fix them.
“We didn’t expect there would be so many shortcomings,” France said. “We got the resources according to what we thought we were going to get, which turned out to be a better performing system.”
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Under cross-examination by an Ottawa city attorney, France admitted that the city knew about the maintenance problems and was pushing for improvements and more staff.
In September 2021, an LRT train derailed for the second time and the Transportation Safety Board blamed inconsistent and incomplete maintenance which led to a quality control oversight: bolts were not properly tightened during maintenance.
It was not the first time that the same problem occurred. Brandon Richards, OC Transpo’s director of safety at the time, also testified Wednesday that in September 2020, about a year before the second derailment, a bolt was found to be improperly tightened on a train.
It added to a growing concern Richards had about quality control and assurance being performed by maintenance teams.
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“There was a lot of frustration at the time,” he said. “There were many commitments and many missed deadlines that were not met. The expectation was falling.”
Quality assurance issues continued, culminating in the derailment in September 2021, and when the system was shut down and inspections on all trains were completed, other quality assurance issues were found.
“There was a clear human factor that ultimately resulted in the critical failure of the train derailment,” he said.
After that derailment, Richards said he made the call to take some trains out of service so improvements could be made, but also to reduce the workload of maintenance staff, who were stretched thin and whose quality of work was beginning to suffer. said. .
Alstom had drastically improved its quality control procedures since the derailment, Richards testified.
Thursday is expected to be the last day of hearings for the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry.
