Transportation boss won't react to 'negative energy' after 3rd LRT delay
CBC News | Posted: March 6, 2019 1:27 PM | Last Updated: March 6, 2019
'Do you react to comments like we're a laughing stock? No.' — John Manconi
The city's general manager of transportation says he's staying focused on getting a safe light rail system and won't react to the "negative energy" stemming from a third missed deadline for builders to hand over an operational Confederation Line.
Earlier this week, CBC Ottawa municipal affairs analyst Joanne Chianello reported on issues with the new light rail trains, citing an internal city report that said they were "currently unreliable" in winter conditions.
On Tuesday, the head of the consortium building the light rail system officially told councillors they won't be ready to hand over the keys by the end of March after all, despite saying they would meet that deadline just a few weeks ago.
Transportation boss John Manconi said Rideau Transit Group (RTG) has been making "good progress" in recent weeks, and that the problems are "narrowing down."
"We're about chasing the outcome, and I know that people I speak to — customers, taxpayers, colleagues, friends — say safety and reliability trumps everything," he told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Wednesday.
"If that means a bit of a delay, absolutely."
'I understand the frustration'
"When there are trying times like this, when there's a big, complicated project that needs to be undertaken, do you react to comments like we're a laughing stock? No," he added.
"I know when it's up and running we're going to be the envy of many, many other cities … and what you don't do when you have setbacks like this is react to negative energy. You basically keep focused on the outcome, which is a very good system."
Asked by host Robyn Bresnahan if Manconi thinks people shouldn't be upset by the third missed deadline, he said no.
"I've publicly said that I understand the frustration that's out there for our customers who are feeling the brunt of this, because they're out there on detours, they're delayed on their commutes and so forth," he said.
"Yes, RTG is accountable for that … what I'm reacting to is that you don't want the city to panic."
'We're not going to report on every single ... issue'
Manconi also denied that there's an accountability and transparency issue with reporting on the system's problems.
"We issue quarterly memos to council, we give a monthly update to [the finance and economic development committee]. Councillors can call me, can call my staff to ask for any clarification. We do report on the entire system on a regular basis," he said.
"Surely to goodness we can agree we're not going to report on every single testing and commissioning issue we have. We'd be reporting literally every five minutes. To be totally blunt, when you're testing and commissioning, you're looking for issues and there have been thousands of issues."
As for the internal report leaked to CBC News, Manconi said it's only part of a bigger picture.
"Looking at that in isolation, without having the broader perspective about where we are overall with the systems and the trains, is not a healthy discussion," he said.
"The right thing to do is to look at where we are."