>> Jeyan: Last week, service resumed on the Confederation line LRT in the nation's
capital.
It's been quite a ride -- so to speak -- for the light rail transit system.
With us now to explain is Sarah Trick.
She is an Ontario hubs editor and she joins us now from Ottawa.
Hello, Sara.
>> Sarah: Hello, Jeyan.
>> Jeyan: Let's go through the time line of the LRT project.
The project started in December 2012.
The Ottawa City Council approves the project that year.
Construction would start in 2013.
September 2019, a whole six years later and a whole year overdue, the Confederation line
launchings.
Less than a month later -- October 2019 -- multiple service disruptions due to technical
issues occur.
Between 2019 in December to 2020, there are a number of technical issues continue.
Fewer trains are in service as well.
And then we move into 2021.
August 8th, 2021.
The first of derailments -- an empty train derails.
No injuries thankfully in that one.
September 19th, 2021, just a month later, a train derails.
Damage is hundreds of metres of track.
Service is suspended.
Dozens of people are in the train but thankfully no injuries there as well.
And we move on to November 12th, 2021.
Several months later.
Partial service resumes.
This was just last week.
And then just this week, November 17th, 2021, the Ontario government announces a
public inquiry.
A very busy, busy time line for this light rail project here.
Sara, Sarah, let's break it down a bit.
This project has a price line of $2.1 billion.
Let's start with why it was delayed a whole year.
>> Sarah: Jeyan, there's not a single response here.
Some background here.
The train is being built and is being run by a consortium of transit companies operating
under the name of Rideau transit group.
So Rideau transit group tried to construct the trains and then they were supposed to hand it
over to the City of Ottawa.
After which the City of Ottawas going to complete its own testing.
So there were a lot of issues with the construction.
I think the biggest one was the sink hole that happened in 2016.
There was a massive sink hole underneath Rideau street.
That opened up there.
And really was related to the underground tunnel.
Rideau transit group wanted to go toward a partial open of the line but the city said no.
They want add full line opening.
They were a also missing parts and just other delays.
>> Jeyan: Let's talk about there's lots of excitement with the launch of this -- of the
transit system here.
But it was only a few months later that there were technical and mechanical can issues.
What were some of those issues that sort of led to the chaos that a lot of us have seen
photos of large crowds packed on sort of the outside waiting for trains?
>> Sarah: I am going to correct you there.
It was actually a couple of weeks.
So what happened was in the first couple of weeks that the train was in service, everything
seemed great.
But at that time there were also parallel bus routes still running while people got used to
the train.
So people could take the bus or the train to wherever they had to go.
And then after a couple of weeks and everything worked smoothly, they took those bus routes off
the streets and the idea was that everyone would use the O train after that.
Basically, in the notion couple of days after that, which I think was October 6th, there
started to be issues with the doors.
So the doors were on a timer, as I understand it, and as people tried to open the doors, it
would basically stop the train.
It would freeze it.
Because they were using door bolts.
And that would bring the entire system to a halt.
Basically.
So during that week, there were issues with the doors, issues with the computers.
The issues with the computers continued.
One else the door issue was fixed there were issues with the trains driving that winter.
What was supposed to be special about these trains is that the trains were specifically
designed for North American winters.
It was an update of an older model that allowed for winter conditions and it was
specifically designed to work in Ottawa.
So everybody was really excited about these trains for that reason.
But then the train computers couldn't -- the trains couldn't go through snow.
The switches on trains would freeze.
Things like that.
And so there was a lot of technical issues starting that winter.
>> Jeyan: Now, derailments are fairly serious events.
I'm curious about the most recent one, the one in September.
What exactly happened in that case that caused, you know, the train to completely fall off and
damage hundreds of metres of track?
>> Sarah: The September derailment.
The train came off the tracks.
Travelled in a derailed state -- including over a bridge -- and then eventually stopped -- came
to a stop when it collided with a signal box.
And in that case, the train was out of service for 54 days and it came out in a transportation
and safety board report that the second derailment was due to "inconsistent and incomplete
maintenance" following the first derailment.
So maintenance procedures were not logged correctly and certain procedures that needed to be
done after the first derailment were not treated properly.
>> Jeyan: Sarah, the Ontario government just announced a public inquiry.
What can we expect from that and what should we know about that?
>> Sarah: I am not sure what to know about that because the parameters have not been
announced as of now.
And do you know that there has been -- there have been a couple of motions in City Council for a
judicial inquiry both of which have been defeated.
Partially because of the amount of time that the judicial inquiry would take.
The judicial -- the provincial inquiry would not have the same scope as a judicial inquiry but
it is hoped there will be answers brought forward by it.
>> Jeyan: We'll keep an eye out on that.
And as we know service resumed just last week lot of people will be looking at that as well.
Thank you Sarah, really appreciate it.
>> Sarah: Thank you.