Still no firm date for LRT completion

After two delays of Ottawa's $2.1-billion LRT system, there's still no firm date for when the city will get the keys, or when the public will ride those rails.

In a verbal update to the finance and economic development committee Wednesday, transportation servicesgeneral manager John Manconire-itererated his earlier estimate that the LRT would be up and running sometime in the first three months of 2019.

However, there does appear to have been some significant progress on the system. According to Manconi, Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the consortium building the east-west Confederation Line, has met some key milestones:

• On Tuesday, six trains made 55 successful end-to-end trips along the 12.5-kilometre route, from Blair to Tunney's stations.
• Stations east of downtown uOttawa, Lees, Hurdman, Tremblay, St. Laurent, Cyrville and Blair are essentially complete.
• Trains have been able to run at their maximum 83 km/h, although they won't operate at that speed.
• Fare gates and vending machines have been installed.

As well, RTG is going to launch a "practice plan" later this month essentially, running the system with a full fleet.

RTG is not contractually obligated to run the practice plan, which would be added to the 12-day testing period that is part of the contract.

Mayor still 'confident'

Mayor Jim Watson told reporters that he had "great confidence" that theLRTwould be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

"When we finally saw the train run from one end to the other, with the right speeds and the right times for loading and unloading people, it tells me we're coming very very close to having full service by the31stof March, 2019," said Watson, who tweeted a video of a test run.

Financial consequences

The delay is expected to cost the city millions, as the more economicalLRTsystem was supposed to replace many buses by the end of 2018.

The city treasurer has been working on a comprehensive report on the exact cost of the delays, expected in the next couple of weeks, councillors heard Wednesday.

Watson and the rest of council have talked about putting off the 2.5 per cent transit fare increase that was supposed to come into effect on Jan. 1, 2019, until the LRT is operating. It's unclear whether that lost revenue can be recouped from RTG, which is in theory responsible for any delay-related costs.

But Manconisaid that while the city may go after RTGfor certain costs, there's no guarantee the consortium will agree to the city's demands. Even a $1-million penalty for missing the Nov. 2 deadline may be up for dispute, according to the OC Transpo boss.