50 Metro Line mishaps alarming, Edmonton councillor says

A report released Friday reveals moreproblems with Edmonton's Metro Line LRT, showing at least six major malfunctions and 44 signaling mishaps since 2015.

In five cases, crossing gates orlights on the LRTline failed to activate at the proper time, causing "a potentially hazardous situation to exist," the report says.

Coun. Mike Nickel is challengingthe city on its position that the line is still safe.

Somethings not working

7 years ago

Duration 0:23

Councillor Mike Nickel has doubts about the Metro Line LRTs safety after a report listed almost 50 malfunctions.

In the cases where the gates and lights did notactivate, "that means the train was going to go through a live intersection," he said Friday.

"Should we be alarmed? I am."

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In addition to the 44signalling failures, there were two instanceswhennorthbound and southbound trainsended up on the same track Nov. 11.

The city didn't ranktheseamong the major mishaps.

44'fail-safe' events

The two incidents prompted council to askadministration for a breakdown of safety-related events sincethe linewent into operation in September2015.

The city ranked them among44 "fail-safe" events.

AdamLaughlin, deputy city manager with integrated infrastructure services, described a fail-safe event asa "safe response to an incident."

Despite signallingmalfunctions,the "layers of safety built into the system" make sure it's safe to ride the train, he said.

The back-up systems includeoperators and control room staff, he said.

The five instances in which the crossing gates came up or down at the wrong time arecalled"wrong-side failures." Those, he admitted, are inherently a riskto public safety.

"It's the potential of a hazardous incident occurring," he admitted.

The city's overarching message is still that the LRT is safe to ride.

"I think we need to stop trying to convince people that it's safe," said city manager Linda Cochrane.

The city had engineering consulting firm Rail Safety Consulting do a technical audit of the Thales system, and they deemed it safe, she said.

Staff kept council in the dark, Nickel says

Statistically speaking, the sheer number of incidents suggests that it is only a matter of time before an accident happens that puts members of the public at risk, he said.

He also questions why city staff did not bring this information to city council earlier.

"Why didn't they keep us apprised of the more operational side of this, given the sensitivity? And now the scope andscaleis coming forward,not because of administration's volitionbut because politicians have started asking questions.

"That is disconcerting."

The city's Capital Line, which runs betweenClareviewand Century Park,has also been affected.

"There are no immediate solutions to restoring pre-Metro Line service on the Capital Linewithout significant impact to Metro Line service," the report said.

City council will discuss the reports at a meeting next week, including whether or not to part wayswithThales, the company that installed thesignallingsystem.