When parts of the brand-new LRT fall off, is it time to worry?

It's hard to know what has become more tiresome when it comes to our not-always-reliable Confederation Line: officials' apologies to commuters for their "frustration" or those same officials' rationalizations that, whatever the issue du jour — door jams, cracked track welds, stuck elevators or, this week's transit surprise, a huge swath of downed electrical cable — it's simply par for the course.

The apologies, at least, are understandable. While surely most transit riders would rather have a more reliable light-rail service, the least they should expect from their city officials is an apology for their troubles.

Over the past few months, they've received them from everyone from Mayor Jim Watson, to OC Transpo boss John Manconi, to LRT-constructor Rideau Transit Group CEO Peter Lauch. 

That they've had to plead for forbearance on the part of OC Transpo customers on numerous occasions is bad enough. That they appear careful to apologize exclusively for the inconvenience caused to customers appears downright patronizing.

The real question plaguing commuters

Because at some point — and arguably, that point has now arrived with the downing of 80 metres of overhead electrical wire, close to the length of an entire LRT train  — officials need to move past our frustration at being late for work and address the real question plaguing the people of Ottawa: How robust a system did RTG build us?

• City, LRT builders apologize for latest breakdown
• Riders don't want to be 'held hostage' by LRT

When we try to ask those questions, we are told that all the safety protocols worked as they were supposed to.

In this week's incident, for example, as soon as the overhead wire moved, the Confederation Line's brain shut down the power to that section of the system. Lauch told us that customers were never in danger.

And that's good news.

LRT crippled by 'serious incident' involving broken power line, RTG says

5 years ago

Duration 0:59

Rideau Transit Group CEO Peter Lauch said he's confident in overnight repairs after a power line broke Thursday afternoon near St-Laurent station. Mayor Jim Watson apologized to commuters, many of whom were forced to wait for replacement buses in frigid weather.

However, Lauch also told us that falling electrical wire is "not an unusual occurrence." He did say it was serious, and not "normal", but that it has happened in other places such as Edmonton and Dublin.

Google has not immediately produced for us any stories on a similar wire-collapse in Dublin, but CBC did write about wires being pulled down on the Edmonton LRT back in 2015. 

But here's the thing: the Edmonton LRT line has been trucking for 40 years. Ours has been operating for four months.

Brand-new system

We have a brand-new LRT system for which we paid more than $2 billion. Don't we have a right to be worried when a significant piece of infrastructure is pulled down from the ceiling?

This week's incident is arguably the most serious problem we've seen with the LRT, causing the eastern part of the line to be shut down for more than 14 hours.

But it's not the only problem that leads us to question the physical quality of some aspects of the LRT.

Occasional sparks are an expected occurrence at the point where the pantograph — the arm that connects the top of the train to the overhead wire — meets the electrical cable. But is it normal for the sparks to reach the platform where passengers are standing? That's what some passengers have reported, confirmed OC Transpo, and the transit department is looking into it.

Elevators stuck

Then there are the elevators. There are 58 of them at the stations along the Confederation Line. In the first three months of operation, from mid-September to mid-December, they broke down 65 times; on 17 occasions, people were stuck in them. City officials tell us that in some instances people tried to pry open the doors, or jump up and down in them, which apparently was enough to make the new lifts stall.

Of course, in the month since CBC received these statistics, there have been more instances of elevators breaking down, including during Thursday's brouhaha where people were trapped in a Hurdman station elevator for about 40 minutes. Even OC Transpo staff said it wasn't the fault of the folks stuck inside.

So while an apology is all well-and-good, what most of us would like something more substantive. Starting with an explanation of why some pieces of the LRT are falling down.