Testimony from a number of high-profile players in the ongoing LRT investigation has produced some dramatic moments, from the revelation that the city’s former transportation manager asked for trial testing to be facilitated to the fact that Mayor Jim Watson forgot to tell investigating attorneys he was getting daily updates for the project – which other council members do not receive.
But these star witnesses sometimes overshadow other testimonies, especially those of a more technical nature. After all, one of the key aims of the investigation is to shed light on the causes of the two derailed Alstom Citadis Spirit trains in 2021.
We now know that the second, in September of that year, was due to human error and – in the words of the Transport Safety Board of Canada (TSB) report – “incomplete maintenance”.
Indeed, the manner in which the maintenance department of Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and its subcontractor Alstom operated is one of the key issues of this investigation.
But what caused the August 2021 derailment? The wheel broke off the axle due to a bearing issue, but we still don’t know what loosened the bolt inside the bearing in the first place.
The final week of hearings for the public inquiry into Ottawa’s streetcar transportation begins Monday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Alstom has a theory.
The France-based company, along with axle manufacturer Texelis, produced a preliminary report in early May. His main contention is that the stress on the components came from excessive pressure from going around sharp turns on the Confederate line.
And not only is there stress on the train’s components, but there’s also “corrugation” on the rail: small wavy edges that had to be removed by sanding. (How often and how well this grinding is done – or should be done – is a matter of some discussion in the inquiry.)
The report claims that “the track actually built is not in accordance with the design as stated” in the specifications that Alstom agreed with the LRT builders.
The axle of an LRT train on Ottawa’s Confederation Line derailed on August 8, 2021, prompting an investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. (Alexander Bene/CBC)
The rail was flatter than expected, according to the train manufacturer.
The inquiry heard from executives at both Alstom and OLRT Constructors – that is the construction arm of the Rideau Transit Group – that the gauge, or distance between the parallel rails, was too narrow. During the testing phase, OLRT Constructors widened the rails.
Lowell Goudge, Alstom’s lead engineer and safety certifier of the Citadis Spirit trains, testified on June 21 that although the company was able to operate the vehicles safely, it still had “concerns.”
The track profile also doesn’t match the wheel profile, the report claims.
“It’s a combination of the track, the wheel rail interface, the running profile,” he said. Gouge, who signed off on Alstom’s preliminary investigation, admitted the company could not make firm causal findings from all its observations.
“The only conclusion we could really make absolutely was that we were taking excessive load in the turns,” he testified. And that unexpected pressure was causing components to wear out prematurely, leading to the August 2021 derailment.
A limited testing window for the LRT may have caused officials to miss problems, the inquest hears
Lowell Gouge, who was a train system engineer for the Confederation Line, said the testing schedule appeared to be “compressed,” which may have caused officials to miss problems that would have arisen if the testing had gone on longer.
However, the Rideau Transit Group disagrees with Alstom’s preliminary conclusions.
“RTG has commissioned an independent root cause analysis that will review Alstom’s findings and evidence, as well as information provided by all other interested parties,” according to a statement from Helen Bobat, spokeswoman for RTG and its parent companies, SNC-Lavalin, ACS Infrastructure and Ellis Don.
The manager of the city railway, concerned about tracks, derailment
The track itself has been the subject of discussion in local rail circles for years.
A CBC access-to-information request for communications about the flat wheel issue in the summer of 2020 revealed that one of the city’s own rail managers raised concerns about a possible derailment a full year before the two in 2021.
On July 13, 2020, Russ Hoas — Rail Systems Manager, specifically for the Trillium Line — wrote to Director of Rail Operations Duane Duquette about his concerns about wheel cracks. Hoas “strongly suggested” that the fleet be withdrawn until the problem was resolved.
(The TSB said in December 2020 that a protruding jack screw may have caused the cracks, but the final report has not yet been released.)
“Bad track simply adds a higher degree of possible derailment while serving revenue,” Hoas wrote.
He continued: “The poor design, combined with the lack of proper geometry testing in 2017 and 2019 (prior to service), as stated at the time, would have provided evidence of anomalies in the track structure. Remembering that the wheel/rail interface is a key component to cause a derailment Trains screeching around curves [the Confederation Line] is an indication of an incorrect running surface in the absence of balanced cornering speed.”
OC Transpo Troy Charter Director of Transit Operations. (Jean Delil/CBC)
Hoas was one of five city-appointed appraisers, along with railroad director Michael Morgan, who failed SNC-Lavalin in their technical presentation for the Trillium Line extension. SNC-Lavalin still won the $1.67 billion contract.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Hoas worked for Bombardier for 15 years before joining the city in 2015.
Troy Charter, the city’s director of transit services and rail operations, wrote to Duquette that he wanted to meet with Hoas to tap into his knowledge, but also to “make clear that at no time was public safety compromised “.
He also wrote that he was “disappointed” that Hoas believed the city would “ever consider providing a service by putting customers at risk.”
The city did not allow CBC to interview Hoas. Also, the first response sent after CBC’s access to information request did not include the email from Hoas or the response from Charter.
Both materialized only after the CBC requested a second records search.
The LRT constructors’ own consultant had concerns
And testimony Friday morning from consultant Derek Wynn — overshadowed by the mayor’s virtual appearance at the inquiry that afternoon — raised even more concerns about the track.
Wynne is a senior vice president at UK-based SEMP, which was the systems engineering and assurance firm employed by OLRT Consultants from 2017 until shortly after the LRT launched in fall 2019.
He testified that even by 2018, it was clear that the safety analysis was seen as something that had to be checked at the end, rather than something that should have been there from the start.
The commission saw several pages of a PowerPoint presentation called “OLRT-C Rail Wear Hazard” from January 2019, which Wynne said was never presented because the track assessment “caused a lot of consternation.”
The presentation concluded that based on the design of the wheel interface, there was “significant potential for the development of a rail defect hazard” which could lead to “premature failure of the rail component”.
Wynne said that at the request of OLRT Constructor executives, he came up with a “softer worded report” that called for more restrictions and system maintenance as opposed to “significant changes” to the track.
“Both options are valid – either fix it before the revenue service or maintain it extensively during its operational life,” he said, adding that the problems were “very well known” before the LRT was in public service.
The UK consultant, who testified he had nothing to do with Alstom, appeared to agree with a number of the rail company’s assessments of what may have led to the bearing failure that caused the August 2019 derailment.
The safety certificate he finally signed toward the end of the project included warnings about how the track should be maintained, but it wasn’t clear to Wynne when he returned to Ottawa — two years after the LRT opened — whether all the restrictions he has placed have been followed.
On Monday, City Manager Steve Kanellakos is scheduled to testify, followed by independent certifier Monica Cecchiari of the Altus Group.
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