The City of Ottawa and Rideau Transit Group (RTG) have reached an out-of-court settlement on the capital city’s light rail transportation system maintenance contract that includes a long-term fix plan.
Details of its terms are scarce, but a joint statement released Friday said the agreement “resolves several disputes between them and resets their relationship.” That’s something Justice William Hourigan insisted after the release of the LRT Public Inquiry’s final report.
“I think this is the best deal for our customers and working with RTG will help us provide better service to our customers — that’s my number one goal,” said Rene Amilcar, the city’s transportation services manager.
According to the statement, Rideau Transit Group now admits it is in default on its contract after a pair of derailments in August and September 2021 — something it previously disputed.
The consortium also has a “robust plan to address the issues that led to the derailment” and is committed to “sustainably resolving these issues” on light rail before the eastern extension of the Confederation Line opens in early 2025.
This includes “sustainably resolving the axle bearing issue.” The August 2021 derailment occurred after a wheel broke off the axle due to a bearing problem. Testimony at the LRT public inquiry suggested a bigger problem: that the way the wheel meets the rail on sharp turns puts too much stress on train components, including bearings.
The statement said the two sides resolved their dispute over “the city’s administration of the contract during the maintenance phase” — the public study recommended the city be fair and not overly punitive in the way it makes deductions from payments .
Asked how much money the city withheld and whether his maintenance partner will now be paid, Amilcar said he could not comment.
Hearing dates dropped
The terms of the settlement are confidential, she said, and Amilcar pointed out that the public will not see the terms or know whether taxpayer money is involved.
The settlement was reached just as the two sides were scheduled to go to court for a hearing in mid-February. Attorneys appeared in a brief virtual conference call on the cases Friday morning and told a judge those dates could be scrubbed from the calendar.
Crews walk along the Confederation Line in Ottawa on August 9, 2021, one day after the axle of this defunct LRT train derailed. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is currently investigating. (Alexander Bene/CBC)
That’s a far cry from late 2021, when the city calculated so many maintenance “points of failure” from two derailments that it sent its private partner a second notice of default — the first was in March 2020, roughly half a year after the issue – the tortured Confederation Line started.
The city needed the judge’s declaration that RTG had defaulted on its contract so it could explore options that include ending its 30-year, roughly $1 billion maintenance contract with the consortium, which includes SNC-Lavalin , ACS Infrastructure and Ellis Don.
A year and a public inquiry later, the stated intention is now to work with the Rideau Transit Group. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe admitted as much to the city council on Wednesday.
The transit committee chairman reiterated that Friday morning.
“One of the conclusions in Judge Hourigan’s report was that for our transit system to be successful, we must operate in good faith, we must have good communication, and we must cooperate with the partnership. I think that reflects that,” said Coun. Glenn Gower.
OC Transpo confirmed Friday’s settlement was unrelated to the separate lawsuits involving a major $130 million lawsuit by the city of Ottawa and a countersuit by the Rideau Transit Group over the line’s construction.
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