Verster to CTS: “Another Unacceptable Delay Tactic”
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
Metrolinx President and CEO Phil Verster. Metrolinx photo
Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS), the consortium of ACS-Dragados, Aecon, EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin building Toronto’s much-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT project, is purposely engaging in tactics based on “looking for new ways to make financial claims,” according to Metrolinx President and CEO Phil Verster.
According to Verster, CTS informed Metrolinx on May 15 that it intends to litigate and stop working with Eglinton Crosstown operator TTC (Toronto Transit Commission). “This is another unacceptable delay tactic by CTS at a time when it should be submitting a credible schedule to Metrolinx for completing the project,” Verster said. “While Metrolinx is driving and supporting CTS to complete the project, CTS is looking for new ways to make financial claims. CTS’s behavior continues to be disappointing, especially for our Toronto communities, which have been waiting patiently for the completion of this project.”
Metrolinx and the TTC, Verster noted, “have been working collaboratively for years to get the Eglinton Crosstown LRT ready for customer service, but now require a schedule that describes how they will complete the testing, commissioning, safety and quality rectifications of the rail line. Metrolinx will defend this latest legal challenge by CTS as we have done several times before. The cost of CTS’s delays are for CTS to bear. Metrolinx is already withholding significant payments for poor performance. We will continue to hold CTS to account and examine every remedy under the Project Agreement to ensure the project is delivered to a high quality and that it is safe and reliable to open.”
Eglinton Crosstown is the latest in a series of rail transit projects involving SNC Lavalin-led consortiums to be mired in controversy and corruption allegations. Withholding of information on the part of the Rideau Transit Group (RTG, consisting of SNC Lavalin, EllisDon and ACS Infrastructure Canada), and Jim Watson, Ottawa’s former mayor, was largely responsible for the technical failures on Ottawa’s Confederation Line that could have been identified and remedied had the city and the private consortium been forthcoming about known issues around design and testing, according to Ontario Provincial Judge William Hourigan. There was no overall systems integrator, leading to the mismatch of rail and wheel profiles and curves too sharp for the trainsets to navigate at operational speeds, according to the judicial inquiry ordered by the Ontario government.
