No pricetag yet for breaking LRT maintenance contract

Frustrations with light rail are running so high that theCity of Ottawa is looking at itslegal options,including how it could terminateits 30-year maintenance contract with Rideau Transit, but there is no price yet for what such a movewould cost.

On Monday, city manager Steve Kanellakosansweredan official inquiry Coun. Shawn Menard had made in January saying the contract is so complex, it would require "significant time and resources" to give a detailed breakdown of the cost of breaking the 30-year agreement.

"That is due to the fact that the cost to the city of termination must necessarily include not only those costs directly associated with termination, but also any costs arising from setting up an alternate service provider," Kanellakos wrote.

• ANALYSIS | When it comes to the LRT contract, there are no ideal options

The City of Ottawa has a contract with the same Rideau Transit partnership that built its new train system tomaintain the new Confederation Line and its future extensions west to Moodie Drive and east to Trim Road.

Rideau Transit, which is made up of ACS Infrastructure, SNC-Lavalin and Ellis Don,in turnhas subcontracted the maintenance of the tracks, switchesand trains to Alstom, the French company that built the fleet of Citadis Spirit vehicles.

Everything on the table

Calls for the city to disentangle itself from Rideau Transithave grown louder in the past week, afteranother rash of problems on the Confederation Line.

The fleet ran withas few as six of the required 13 trains last week, and twice riders had to abandon stopped trains andwalkalongside the tracks back to stations, including in the tunnel.

• Councillors mull 'divorce' from LRT contractor after streak of bad service
• City's hands tied by LRT maintenance contract

Even Mayor Jim Watson, who had previously said the city's focus should be on getting the trains working and not on lawyers, has now been asking for legal options.

Before meeting with lawyersMonday afternoon, Watson couldn't say if he would want to cancel the contract.

"I don't want to do anything rash or knee-jerk to simply say that I'm doing something, because we don't want to cause more harm."

But Watson wants all options on the tablefor a special March 9 meeting of the finance and economic development committee, when council members will discuss a not just the maintenance contract but the decision to award SNC-Lavalin the contract to expand and maintain the Trillium Line.

• Lawsuit risk cited as reason to waive SNC-Lavalin's low technical score: memo

On Monday, thecity released hundreds of pages of documents related to that Stage 2 rail procurement that chronicle how SNC won the competition despite a poor technical score.