The Valley Line Southeast LRT is facing yet another potential delay after TransEd said it will proactively replace 140 kilometres of oxidized and corroded signal cables prior to the line's opening, a process which is expected to take anywhere from six to eight weeks.
The company said it will finalize and submit the documentation required to certify and open the line concurrently with the replacement work, which prompted Episode 225 of Speaking Municipally to consider whether there's a silver lining to this latest development.
"So obviously, it's not the best possible news," said podcast co-host Troy Pavlek. "The best possible news is the line is open, everything's perfect."
But after a long series of delays and questions about the line's safety, it's possible that TransEd is aiming for a perfect record on their safety report prior to opening, Pavlek argued.
"I think a safety inspector might have caught those corroded cables and might not have said that this needed to delay the launch, but it would have been on the report," Pavlek said.
Either way, the latest delay has Mayor Amarjeet Sohi feeling frustrated.
"This LRT project should have been in service in 2020 and here we are in 2023, and that's absolutely unacceptable," Sohi told CBC.
He added it was "no comfort" that TransEd is covering the cost of the cable replacement.
Under the terms of the private-public partnership agreement, TransEd was to receive half of the $1.8 billion capital cost during the construction period, with the rest paid out in monthly instalments over the next 30 years of operation. But there are penalties for delays.
"The penalty structure is basically every month that the line is not open past December 2020, when the line was supposed to open, they simply forfeit one of those payments," said Pavlek, citing a Postmedia article from 2014 that was based on the request for proposals for the project.
Acknowledging that the final agreement may have changed, Pavlek said the penalties could be significant.
"My best understanding is that TransEd has given up nearly $100 million of its payments, and every month it's not open, it's another $2.5 million," Pavlek added.
Hear more about the Valley Line LRT in the June 30 episode of Speaking Municipally, Taproot's civic affairs podcast. It also looks at the mayor's panel on the economic benefits of equity, Google and Meta's response to Bill C-18, developments regarding the downtown district energy initiative, and more.
Photo: TransEd said testing for the Valley Line Southeast LRT, which reached the "warm-up" phase in March, is now at the performance demonstration phase. (TransEd/Instagram)