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It might go down as one of the City of Ottawa’s finest audits.

Of course, what followed the Sept. 14, 2019 launch of the $2.1-billion LRT system was nothing but a rollercoaster, from the highs of the trains running without many problems in the first three weeks, to the lows of trains conking out at stations during peak-hour commutes.

The city still considers the LRT system unreliable and blames the Rideau Transit Group (RTG) for deficiencies.

While the auditor general in 2016-2017 was impressed by the city’s preparations, his reports included some observations that today could be considered red flags.

The auditor general in 2016 had already noticed a potential schedule lag in getting trains ready.

“While supply chain issues and the training requirements for new staff initially caused RTG to fall behind their production schedule for the vehicles, trained staff have been brought in and oversight increased,” the auditor general wrote, before noting that RTG submitted a revised schedule showing the final vehicle would be delivered on time.

On June 18, 2019, Mayor Jim Watson had the CEO of Alstom and other RTG bigwigs in his boardroom at Ottawa City Hall to press them on the necessary train fixes to get the fleet operational. The trains still weren’t ready for customers and the state of the 34 cars was the main reason why the LRT delay happened through 2019.

Alstom, the train manufacturer for the Confederation Line, is using its Citadis Spirit model for the first time ever, though the Citadis family of vehicles are in operation all over the world. The Spirit was created specifically for the Ottawa market and a cold, snowy climate. Council knew it was getting a new train model for LRT.