Days after the City of Edmonton announced the long-delayed Metro LRT Line to northeast Edmonton would be opened, but on an interim basis – blaming a contractor for the delays – that contractor has released a statement in response.
Thales released the two-page statement to CTV News Wednesday morning, in it, the company said it had been “misrepresented”, and there was “misinformation concerning the Metro Line issues”. The statement continues in a point-form response to a number of issues brought forward by City administration.
The statement went on to say the company had started work on a staged implementation of the line in February of 2014, at the City’s request: “While it has significantly impacted our ability to progress the actual contract, we’ve expended the additional resourced needed to accomplish the intermediate mode of operation that was requested.”
Thales said they haven’t received an official copy of the Safety Audit Report from the City’s consultant, and hasn’t received a description of the opening planned for September 6. The contractor also said they haven’t been told of any “actual safety issue or deficiency” in the line’s design or implementation, or in the Safety Case for the system.”
“We therefore do not understand the City’s position that the system is deemed unsafe when no such problem has actually been identified or articulated,” The statement reads.
Thales said they haven’t received a plan from the city on the opening of the Line on September 6, or any indicators on how their system will be involved in the opening.
“Thales is unable to endorse or support this service starting September 6. The description provided to Council fails to make clear whether any portion of the Thales system will be involved. If it is not, there will be NO signal protection or enforcement within this totally manual operation. Safety relies totally on the Motorman.”
“The consultant is described as having approved the Thales system suitable for training but not passenger operation. One can wonder why the Thales system safe enough for the train drivers but not the traveling public, and why NO signal protection is better for the public than the level of protection afforded the train operators during training.”
The contractor concluded the statement by saying the interim opening set for September could have been done in the spring.
“Finally, the recommendation to open the Metro Line with this new scheme deemed ‘safer’ could have been made four months ago, when Thales handed the system over for operation.”
The full statement can be found below:
