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Last week, Manconi told the finance and economic development committee that a sliding door in the vehicle cab needed to be repaired. After the meeting, he told reporters the customer doors sometimes jammed and there were error codes in the train computer that need to be debugged.

Manconi said there are about five areas flagged by the city and some relate to RTG submitting final paperwork. Macconi said the city was waiting for final sign-off on a document for the tunnel ventilation system, which has passed testing, and a letter that says RTG is committed to enhanced protocols for winter operations. The city also brought up a concern about a telephone system related to escalators.

All 34 vehicles are operational and in testing.

“There are no show-stoppers, outside of the vehicles, that are problematic,” Manconi said last week.

He stressed that the problems with the vehicles are typical for the startup period and that everything was fixable.

If the certifier deems the project substantially complete, RTG can begin 12 consecutive days of testing that could lead to a system handover to the city.

Almost a year late, RTG would really want a declaration of a substantially complete project so it can finally get closer to recouping $261 million in construction payments from the city. The payments are linked to milestones: $59 million for substantial completion and $202 million for revenue service availability.

The city and RTG are approaching the “long-stop” date in the contract, which says if the completion date is 365 days after the original revenue service availability date, RTG is in default of the agreement and the city has the right to terminate it.

Cancelling the contract, however, would be a huge problem for the city since the job would still need to be completed by someone.

The original revenue service availability date was May 24, 2018. It was pushed to Nov. 2, 2018, which RTG also missed. The company missed the restated March 31, 2019 revenue service availability, too.

jwilling@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JonathanWilling

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