From questions about WhatsApp text messages they’ve never seen before, to his role in lowering the test line, to retaining information from board members, John Manconi tackled the toughest question to date in public research of the Ottawa tram on Tuesday. The city’s former director general of transportation, and therefore the public figure most closely associated with the Confederate Line, was in the hot seat for five hours, many of which were baked by the committee’s chief adviser, John Adair. Increasingly, attorneys at public inquiries are leaking information revealed in hundreds of informal WhatsApp messages through numerous group chats to provide information about what may have led to LRT failures. Manconi used the chat channels to ask the mayor’s office to approve the submission of a memo to the city council in the summer of 2019. Staff at the mayor’s office requested daily updates on how the trains were running during the morning tests. The Allan Hubley transit chair would weigh. Adair showed a note written by Madonna This would have alerted the entire city council that the LRT had failed in the first days of its testing and had to be restored. It was never sent after city manager Steve Kanellakos said the city council had to wait until the entire trial period was over. “Why would you only inform the mayor and Mr. Hubley and no one else?” Adair asked. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, in the center and then-GM of Transportation John Manconi, left, led the Confederation line with several other officials on August 23, 2019, the day after the test run was considered successful. (Joanne Chianello / CBC) The lawyer suggested that looking back, Manconi would agree that other decision-makers needed such information, especially for the Economic and Development Committee and the Transit Committee. “In hindsight, I would do the same thing we did here,” Madonna said. “I needed a communication channel to inform them.” While city attorney Peter Wardle pointed out that the mayor has a different role from other council members – Watson is legally the mayor – he did not talk about why President Hubley should have information that other council members did not have. . Osgoode Coun. George Darouze even appeared as part of a WhatsApp conversation in September 2019. Councilors Allan Hubley, right, and George Darouze participated in WhatsApp conversations with Mayor Jim Watson and OC Transpo CEO John Manconi in August and September 2019. (CBC) The use of WhatsApp came to the committee’s attention in mid-June, when consultant STV Inc. tried to include messages as evidence. In early May, Manconi did not mention the existence of WhatsApp messages during an interview with the commission’s lawyers when asked if he had given the mayor or city manager daily updates during the LRT trial. Now he says he forgot to mention group conversations. Adair: Was there no pressure from elected officials to do this thing in the summer of 2019? Manconi: Many questions, disappointments, missed deadlines. Lots of people anxious. “There was no political pressure to do so until a specific date” – @ KatePorterCBC Manconi, meanwhile, denied that he was facing political pressure even with many messages flying around. “The mayor is known for wanting to have a very detailed level of detail,” Manconi explained.
Manconi is the only witness to be confused about the score
Some of the sharpest exchanges took place during the test run – 12 consecutive days of full-service Confederate Line tests that “must be almost perfect” before being delivered to the city, as Madonna told councilors May 5, 2019. It has already been reported that the criteria changed in part during the test run, but the committee read in the file how badly the test went. He revealed that Manconi was sharing this information with the mayor and Hubley in a WhatsApp chat group that included the city manager. “Today was the first day we applied very strictly [project agreement] requirements on what constitutes vehicles ready for revenue service “, Madoni wrote on WhatsApp on July 25, 2019. “Unfortunately, [Rideau Transit Maintenance] “They did not do well and only four vehicles are on the line.” Former OC Transpo chief John Manconi, right, was left on fire by attorney John Adair in a public search of the Ottawa tramway on Tuesday. (Public inquiry into the Ottawa Tram) Adair showed a message early the next afternoon when an employee in the mayor’s office asked how he was doing in the morning. When the Rideau Transit Group reached the milestone called substantial completion on July 26, 2019, only four or five of the 15 trains were on the lines, Adair concluded from the messages. The commission’s lawyer tried to argue that Madonna was the one who suggested changing the scorecard. Manconi testified that he was confused about how the 98 percent reliability score was achieved in 12 days without falling below 90 percent – criteria that the survey heard were created by Rideau Transit Group and agreed by city officials. Following RTG’s proposal, Manconi said there was discussion and final agreement between city officials and experts that they should reduce the score to 96 percent on average in nine of the best 12 days. Former OC Transpo boss John Manconi says it was RTG’s Peter Lauch who suggested returning to the 2017 easiest test criteria. (Stu Mills / CBC) Adair noted that the investigation was heard by many witnesses with first-hand knowledge of the trial and received 1.5 million documents. “Do you know, sir, that you are the only witness who said that there was some confusion about whether it was 98 or 96 [per cent]”Do you know that you are the only person who has given this information?” Madonna replied that he said he was the only one who was confused. “That’s right, and no other witnesses said you were confused,” Adair said. In fact, a text message from one of the city’s railroad directors, Richard Holder, on August 6 read: “Fyi, John is not going to leave 98%. Earlier in the day, Thomas Prendergast, a key transport consultant in the city, testified that it is not uncommon to change the criteria during a test run if it is considered too demanding. When asked by a committee lawyer if he had been asked for his opinion on the change of scorecard, Predergast said that only he knew that discussions had taken place.
Madonna wants to know “what this is for me”: Lauch
The test run started on July 29, 2019 and the Confederation Line failed immediately. As it happened the next day. The system did not pass even on the third day. After a two-day hiatus, the LRT went on for four consecutive days – until August 7, when it performed so poorly that it triggered a “restart” of the 12-day trial. That day, the then CEO of RTG, Peter Lauch, wrote to the members of the consortium board, telling them that he was waiting for the restart that day and although the LRT had spent the previous days, “as a passenger experience, the days which would be horrible for the city and the public outcry would be brutal, as well as by the mayor and the council “. As a passenger experience, ticket days would be horrible for the city and public outcry would be brutal.- Peter Lauch, RTG Lauts goes on to write: “Madonna has made it clear that he wants to know ‘what this is for me’ so that I can give you a PASS in the test run.” Suggests that Manconi gets some heat not only in Stage 1 of the LRT, but also in Stage 2, where RTG works SNC-Lavalin wins $ 1.6 billion contract without exceeding technical rating threshold. It is not clear what Lauch meant by that – he testified Wednesday morning – and Manconi told the committee he did not remember saying that. “This is not my style,” Madonna said. “I would never make that statement.” Former RTG CEO Peter Lauch told his board on August 7, 2019 that even in the days when LRT was in trial, the customer experience would be “awesome”. (Jean Delisle / CBC) But Adair points to Lauch’s letter as the reason why Manconi decided to change the test criteria. “What happened is,” the lawyer suggested to Manconi, RTG to get them a pass by restoring the old criteria as long as they are ready to help you in Stage 2? ” Madonna replied, “I disagree with that, one hundred percent.” The criteria changed on August 14, the trial operation was completed on August 22 and the next day, a ceremony was held at the town hall announcing the delivery of the Confederation Line. CLOCKS Highlights of this delivery event: Has the city set September 14 as the start date for the Confederation Line?
The downgrade to 13 trains changed the contract
On several occasions, Manconi told the council, the public, and even at the highest levels of government that 15 double-decker trains were required to operate during the morning and afternoon rush hours. In fact, 34 light rail vehicles consisting of 17 trains have always been considered a prerequisite for a reliable LRT system. In the city’s quarterly report to the province in March 2019, the city wrote that “RTG’s ability to consistently operate 15 double cars” would set the delivery date. Manconi announced on August 23, 2019 that it would only need 13 trains for peak hours because passenger levels were lower than expected. However, the contract provided for 15 trains and reducing this requirement to 13 meant that city officials had changed the terms of the contract with RTG without notifying the city council in advance. The search continues Wednesday, with Lauts appearing in the morning and a committee of city councilors and transit commissioners in the afternoon. Mayor Watson is scheduled for Thursday and city manager Kanellakos, for …
