Until Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Ottawa’s massive LRT project are fixed, “we’re gonna forget about Phase 3,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday.
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Phase 3 of Ottawa’s LRT won’t get built until Phase 1 and 2 are made reliable, premier says
That leaves some very big questions.
In last fall’s municipal election campaign, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he would push to secure funding for Phase 3 of the LRT, which would extend rail service to Kanata, Stittsville and Barrhaven.
But earlier this year neither the federal budget nor the provincial budget delivered money for public transit in Ottawa. In March, the OC Transpo budget included $39 million in provincial Safe Restart funding, money the city was counting on to balance the budget.
A permanent fix will take much longer. The problematic axle hub assembly will be re-engineered and replaced, but it will take between a year and 18 months to design and produce a prototype, followed by a lengthy testing process, with two to three years before the redesign can be deployed on the full fleet.
At this point, the axle hub assembly, which contains the bearings, will be replaced as well as the axle shaft that goes inside the assembly. It’s unclear whether the axles will have to be replaced.
Ford did not say what would have to happen before the province committed to more funding for Ottawa’s LRT.
“We just want to see a system that runs efficiently,” he said. “We’re holding off on Phase 3 for now.”
City of Ottawa transit services general manager Renée Amilcar said Tuesday she could not speculate on what Ford had in mind, but the city would make sure Stages 1 and 2 were reliable before moving to Stage 3.
Ford’s comments on Tuesday marked the second time in a week that the premier was critical of the troubled LRT system and had taken a swipe at former mayor Jim Watson, although Ford did not name Watson specifically.
In July 2022, a possible derailment on the Confederation Line was averted after an LRT operator noticed an unusual vibration. An axle hub was on the verge of “catastrophic failure,” the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in an advisory letter to the city, released in February.
Parts on Ottawa’s trains have been wearing out early and “well below industry standards for cartridge assemblies,” the advisory letter said.
There was also one derailment near Tunney’s Pasture Station in August 2021 and another near Tremblay Station on Sept. 19, 2021. Both incidents involved failures of the cartridge assembly connecting a train’s wheels and axle to the drive train.
The problem was “totally mishandled” by the “previous administration,” said Ford, who said he had more faith in Sutcliffe as mayor. “I’m confident he’s going to make things move a lot quicker than what happened previously.”
“It seems like every second week, there’s a problem,” he said. “It could be design. I’m not a design expert and not an engineer, but you don’t have to be just to see the problems that we’ve had.”
Ford said he was confident Sutcliffe would make things happen. “He’s gonna hold people accountable and get things fixed here.”
The axle bearings on 44 vehicles in the LRT fleet had been inspected, with six needing further investigation. In total, seven hubs were slightly out of tolerance, said Richard Holder, the city’s director of engineering services.
“The tolerance was exceeded by one-thousandth of an inch, so a very small amount,” he said.
Amilcar said she expected the next draft of the safety letter on Wednesday morning and would be able to talk more then about the return to service.
“But what I can tell you for now is that Blair (Station) to Tunney’s Pasture is on the radar,” she said.
She expected that Alstom would produce a “deep dive” into the redesign within a few weeks. “Alstom is the designer. Alstom will tell us what to do.”
Meanwhile, track measurements are being verified in the field prior to resetting the gauge. The restraining rail is being adjusted to an optimized position on several curves to help minimize contact between the wheel of the light rail vehicles and the rails to improve overall vehicle sustainability. That work is expected to be complete by July 30.
The axle hub that shut down the LRT on July 17 is now in France, where it is being analyzed by Alstom. A report is expected by this Friday.
An instrumented test train outfitted with an out-of-tolerance wheel hub was running along the track at regular speeds on Tuesday to determine the “vibration signature” that would help with analyzing the wheel hub problems.
Amilcar has been hesitant to say whether transit users would be reimbursed because of the LRT shutdown.
Ford said Tuesday that decision was not on his turf.
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TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:ROOT)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TRZ)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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