Can the Confederation Line be both safe and pose a risk? Apparently, yes - Action News
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OttawaAnalysis

Can the Confederation Line be both safe and pose a risk? Apparently, yes

Everyone involved in the Confederation Line agrees there's a problem and they're throwing everything they can at it. But there are still few details on what a long-term fix to the system might entail.

While TSB and OC Transpo agree LRT is safe, there are still few details on what a long-term fix might be

A photo of crews walking along the LRT on Aug. 9, 2021. It shows an out-of-service LRT train that derailed after an axle broke.
Eighteen months after the first LRT train derailed, we still don't have a root cause analysis or schedule for a long-term fix. (Alexander Behne/CBC)

"The O-Train is safe," the head of OC Transpo found herself saying Thursday. "I personally took the train yesterday from my house to the office and I will take the train again, and again, and again."

Speaking at the inaugural meeting of council'snew LRT oversightgroup,Rene Amilcar said that OC Transpowouldn't let the Confederation Line operate if she had even the tiniest worry about the system'ssafety.

"J'aime ma vie," she said, to chuckles from LRT subcommittee members.

That the general manager of the city's transit department would have to say any of this out loud and repeatedly isn't a good sign. But it was a necessary reassurance after a report from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) found that the mechanical failures that led to a derailment in August 2021 and a potential one last summer "pose a risk to safety."

So can a light-rail system that poses a potential safety risk also be safe? Apparently, yes.

Even the TSB says so.

"I'd ride it myself," Robert Johnston, TSB's regionalmanager of rail operations, told CBC.

But he said there is still "the risk of reoccurring, of another failure" of one or moreof the parts that make thewheels go round, including the axle and the roller bearings.

Ottawa's transit staff are working through the LRT public inquiry recommendations, and will have a more detailed plan next month.
Ottawa's transit staff are working through the LRT public inquiry recommendations, and will have a more detailed plan next month. (City of Ottawa)

In the August 2021 derailment, a wheel was severed from the axle due to a "catastrophic bearing failure," according to the TSB.In July 2022, an inspection that took place only after an operator noticed some weird vibration found that an axle hubwas so severely damaged it would also have failed completely possibly causing another derailment if it had remained in service.

Johnstonpointedout that the axle hub failure from last July happened within the regular planned maintenance. That's why soon after the incident,transit officials and Rideau Transit Group (RTG) implemented a much stricter inspection and part-replacement timetable.

"You're talking about scrapping components at 175,000 kilometres that should last 1.2 million kilometres," said Johnston.

He saidthe city has made a "substantial effort" to mitigate the risks, which is why he and others say the Confederation Line is safe to ride.

Still, these expensive Band-Aid measures can't continuefor decades.

RTG's maintenance armis paid between $4 million and $5 million a month to maintain the LRT, but it can't keep eating the costs of these extraordinary measures forever.More to the point, customers shouldn't have to use a light-rail system that a federal safety board says still carries a risk of mechanical failure, or ride a train that slows down substantially when it goes around curves in an effort to keep train parts from conking out.

The good news is everyone agrees thewheel-axle related parts are a problem. The bad news isno one seems to know for sure why it's happening, let alone what to do about it.

The TSB report points to the actual design of the train carsas a possible reason for the failures. French train-maker Alstom designed theCitadis Spirit specifically to Ottawa's specifications. It's longer, heavier and goes faster than a normal light-rail vehicle, or tram.

The parts used in Ottawa's trains, which the TSB found were built to the manufacturer's specifications, worked fine in other Alstom models. And investigators found nothing wrong with individual components, rather "damage was widely spread throughout the assemblies."

And at the end of the day,said Johnston, what's different in Ottawa's case is the Citadis Spiritdesign. It may be that the heft of our trains is causing more torque, leading to accelerated wear and tear on parts.

One key TSB recommendation the city has resisted has to do with heat-detection systems. As far back as September 2021, the safety board has urged the city to install monitors that could warn of overheatingin the roller bearing assemblies. And the TSB was pushing the monitorsin its most recent letter, too.

Up until now, the city and Alstom have argued that the heat-detection monitors work with heavy freight trains, like the ones used by Via Rail. The design of the light-rail vehicle doesn't allow for the monitors. Instead, OC Transpo and RTGare trying out vibration monitors there are 10 installed already, with more on order.

Transportation Safety Board investigator Robert Johnston says the city wouldn't allow the Confederation Line to operate if it wasn't safe, but that issues that caused an August 2021 derailment still pose a risk it could happen again.
Robert Johnston, Transportation Safety Board's regional manager of rail operations, says the city wouldn't allow the Confederation Line to operate if it wasn't safe, but that issues that caused an August 2021 derailment still pose a risk it could happen again. (Provided by TSB)

This weekthough, OC Transpo's director of engineering services has changed his tune.

Richard Holder told the LRT subcommittee that given the TSB found an elevated heat level in the axle assembly inlast summer's problem train, he's reconsidering the use of heat detectors. Where he'll find them is unclear, as he told councillorsstaff cannot find another light-rail system in North America or Europe that uses these types of monitors.

But everyone seems to be throwing every idea they've got at the problem.

According to Amilcar, the city and RTG and Alstom are meeting weekly. Consultants TRA are brought into the discussion when necessary. RTG has promised to provide more technical supportas part of arecent legal settlement agreement that saw the city make retroactive maintenance payments.

While TSB has looked at the train components, others are reviewing track infrastructure, the rail itself,switches, even the lubrication that's used.

And the National Research Council has been hired to lookat the interaction between the wheel and the rail, which was raised as a possible cause of the component failures, including during the light-rail public inquiry.

Interestingly, TSB's Johnston told CBC he doesn't think there's anything wrong withwheel-track interface because if there was, "you would have cars derailing in curves and we're not seeing any evidence of that at all."

All to say there's hardly consensus on how to fix this thing. The deadline? Before the eastern Stage 2 extension opens in 2025. But no long-term solutions can be put in placeuntil the root cause analysis is complete and there's no timeline yet for that a full 18 months after the first derailment.

In the meantime, Confederation Line riders have little choice except to use a light-rail system that is safe, butnevertheless still carries a potential risk.