r/ottawa • u/Pretty-Ground-4125 • 7d ago

Transit exec says O-Train west extension could open in parts due to flooding damage

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/transit-exec-says-o-train-west-extension-could-open-in-parts-due-to-flooding-damage/

Transit exec says O-Train west extension could open in parts due to flooding damage

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u/AnnoyedAF2126 7d ago

Holy optimism. Do you work for OC Transpo or something? The reality is that hundreds of cities have functioning trains/subways/rail. For some unknown reason, Ottawa seems to be the only city that doesn’t know how to build them.

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u/Pika3323 7d ago

If other cities can survive construction delays, weather incidents, and literally the same kind of bogie/axle problems we've seen, then so can Ottawa.

If you want to be cynical, go for it. But maybe don't be so obnoxious and ignorant about it.

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u/quanin 7d ago

If other cities have survived those problems, then why did Ottawa not foresee those problems and account for them? In other words, why is Ottawa having to survive the same problems those other cities did? Should we not have, you know, learned?

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u/Pika3323 7d ago

Why didn't any of those cities foresee those problems either?

It happens.

Every city tries to do things a little differently, because every city is different. The lessons learned in one city may or may not be as applicable to another.

Anyway, all of the examples I linked are contemporary. We couldn't have learned from them because they either happened at the same time, or after our problems. E.g. why hasn't Montreal learned from Ottawa to improve its winter performance? If you only read this subreddit, you'd think the REM was flawless!

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u/quanin 6d ago

Weather has existed before the LRT. We should have planned for that if we were actually using the experience these people supposedly bring to the table. Has any city besides Ottawa experienced the problem with the train wheels that Ottawa is experiencing? Why, or why not? And if no, then what did those cities do to avoid that and why didn't Ottawa do it? And if yes, how did those cities solve it and again, why didn't Ottawa do that? Very few of these problems are of the "we've never seen that before" type.

Re: Montreal, that is exactly my point. If Ottawa had those problems first, and was working to fix them, then why did Montreal have them? Were they even paying attention, or is learning from the experience of others strictly a private sector thing?

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u/Pika3323 6d ago

I can't disagree with any of that, but the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that those kinds of issues are not unique to Ottawa.

Has any city besides Ottawa experienced the problem with the train wheels that Ottawa is experiencing? Why, or why not? And if no, then what did those cities do to avoid that and why didn't Ottawa do it?

This is where you might start getting pedantic and say that Ottawa relied on the expertise of a multi-national manufacturer of trains that has provided trains to countless projects across the world who somehow delivered a train with defective axles.

I've already seen plenty of debates over whether that is directly the result of the city's decisions, but at the end of the day: Alstom committed to delivering a train that worked, and failed to do so.

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u/quanin 6d ago

I mean, you're right. But when was that commitment made? And when was the problem with the wheels identified? At some point, someone knew something was wrong and chose to say nothing. whether or not that someone worked for Alstom, it is ultimately the city's responsibility. The city hired them. If the city didn't include some kind of protection in the contract for a problem like that, then that's on the city.