The CEO of the Rideau Transit Group says he is confident the $2.1 billion light rail transit system will be ready to hand over to the City of Ottawa by March 31.
Peter Lauch told the City’s Finance and Economic Development Committee Tuesday he does not foresee any other scenario.
“We don’t contemplate any other scenario than handover the 31st of March,” he said. “We have a very committed contractor; we have a very committed vehicle supplier, so I am still confident we will meet our obligation and hand over on the 31st of March.”
But Transportation General Manager John Manconi says he’s far from convinced.
“I am concerned about March 31st,” he said. “There’s only days to get to March 31st. I’m happy to be wrong, but I’m highly skeptical that they’re going to achieve March 31st.”
Manconi points to eight items that he says are critical to the LRT system being ready that must still be completed.
“We’re down to eight things to complete this $2.1 billion, state-of-the-art LRT project,” he told FEDCO near the start of the meeting.
“The first: you need your fleet. We need 15 double-vehicles running from end-to-end to provide peak-hour service and then there are 4 single vehicles that are needed for spares. RTG and Alstom have some work to do in that regard to get that fleet availability count to where it needs to be.
“Station occupancy: I think that’s imminent. Mr. Lauch and his team have been working with building services and we think that we’ll have station occupancy very soon, certainly in the east and then head in a westerly direction.
“The tunnel ventilation system: these are very critical, life-saving systems in the event of smoke or fire in the tunnel … There’s rigorous testing; there are three critical elements we’ve asked RTG to complete and they’re working on that to provide us that information.
“The testing of the train control system: It’s progressing very, very well. There are some final tests and protocols that need to be signed off on by Thales [Rail Solutions] and by RTG and then that completes that part of the regime, so there’s progress on that front.
“The operations and monitoring control system: that’s fed into our control room. That’s so our operators can see the trains, the fans, the customer-facing elements and can make adjustments on the fly as they need to, to provide that integrated mobility to bus, ParaTranspo and the diesel train system.
“The final tests of the power system: there are some final checks and balances RTG is doing there.
“Number seven is very, very important. This is the one that will make us all sleep well at night and that’s the independent safety auditor signing off on a very rigorous system assurance plan. That’s thousands of pages of documents signed off by engineers, mechanical engineers, system engineers, track specialists, where that information is provided to us and is signed off to ensure the system is safe. That’s another check that’s been built into the contractual requirements.
“And number eight: This is the practice plan. RTG has offered to do practice planning; they’re not contractually obligated to do it, but running end-to-end 15 double-trains so they can get ready for some critical tests that lead to revenue service availability. We think that’s an important element that needs to occur. Unfortunately, that has not occurred because of the fleet count but we’re looking forward to them achieving that one.”
RTG says it plans to do a 12-consecutive day test run starting on the second week of March.
Manconi says if RTG is able to meet all of these requirements and hand over a robust system by March 31, he expects riders will be on board by the end of April.
“If they achieve March 31st, we need about two weeks of prep work, and then we can get into launch mode, so by the end of April, we’re launching.”
But Manconi says he will not accept a system that does not meet the standards the City demands.
“I’m not suggesting RTG is proposing this but there’s no way – unless I’m directed by Council – to accept a subpar system,” he said. “To RTG’s credit, everything they’re building and once it gets done and tested and commissioned, it’s state-of-the-art, it’s top notch, it’s right up there, but they have to understand that this system has to be very, very robust for those 325,000 customers that we move around every single day.
“We’ll not have a second chance to launch,” Manconi said.