Canada Transportation and Ottawa Light Rail Essay

This section will be illustrated by highlighting the transportation sector in Canada first. Then, Canada railway network and will end up with much focus on Ottawa light rail transit; the case study for this research.

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Canada Transportation Sector

Canada is the second largest country in terms of area which has a massive transportation network. Transport Canada has cited that Canada's Transportation sector direct economic footprint was $75 billion in 2016, in addition to over than $1 trillion of international markets goods exchange (Transport Canada, 2017).

In 2016, the Transportation sector represented 4.5% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Canadian economy and provided 897 thousand jobs (Transport Canada, 2017). The Transportation sector plays a crucial role in the growth of the Canadian economy. According to (Transport Canada, 2017), the Canadian transportation system provides middle class with the economic opportunities by enabling people, services, and products easy access to markets. An efficient and modern transportation system is the key for enhancing Canadian's quality of life and having a strong economy.

The Canadian government vision towards the transportation future is "to have more secure, safe, green, innovative and integrated system, thus, support better environment for both economic growth and well-being of all Canadians" (Government of Canada, 2017). The Canadian Transportation Sector consists of four modes of transportation which are Marine, Rail, Air, and Road.

Canada controls one of the largest airspace in the world with 15 million km2 (Transport Canada, 2017). The Canadian Air Transport system includes, "26 airports from the National Airport System (NAS), 71 regional and local airports serving scheduled passenger traffic, 31 small and satellite airports without scheduled passenger service, 13 remote airports providing the only reliable year-around transportation link to isolated communities, and 11 Arctic airports" (Transport Canada, 2017, p. 12).

Canada is heavily relying on the marine transportation for goods such as oil due to its geographic location. Canada has huge coastal areas because it is located between two oceans and contains bunch of lakes and rivers. Canada has 559 ports, 129 recreational and 866 fishing harbours (Transport Canada, 2017). The Canadian government has conducted the Ocean Protection Plan to increase marine safety and coastal protection due to the importance of the Marine Transportation in Canada. The (Transport Canada, 2017) report states that the Ocean Protection Plan aims to restore and preserve the marine environments, enhance partnerships with natives communities, and investing in marine emergency prepared and response plans.

Road transportation is still the most useable mode of transportation by passengers and goods in Canada. The Canadian road network has 1.13 million two-lane equivalent lane-kilometres, 40% paved and 60% unpaved. The Canadian government issued the Motor Vehicle Safety Act to strengthen road network safety (Transport Canada, 2017). The state implemented the act originally to regulate importing and manufacturing of vehicles to reduce injuries or damage of property and the environment. The vehicles on operation should meet safety and technical standards that the state requires which include having a national safety mark to show that manufacturers have made the vehicle according to requirements. The vehicle features such as the controls should be well identified, the brake hoses standards should be high and windshield made to allow defrosting or defogging. These requirements improve the safety of the public who mostly use the roads as their main form of transport.

Canada Railway Network

Canada has a massive railway network which contains high-class railways. Transport Canada has mentioned in its report "Transportation in Canada 2016" that the Canadian railway network contains 40 federally regulated railways, four class 1 railways, 45199 route kilometres of track, and 297 million tonnes of freight. Railway transportation system in Canada consists of different types of railways systems, including: Freight trains, Passenger trains, Streetcars, and Light rail (Transport Canada, 2017).

Canada has only 3 Light Rail systems which are in Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa found in urban areas and, Toronto's streetcars system. Calgary transits network, has the highest number of passengers, in light train transporting to about 320,000 passengers a day (Transport Canada, 2017). In 1981, the Calgary network run only on one leg but currently has improved to four legs to parts of the city .It has different segments which the train connects to through the blue and red line routes. In Edmonton, a capital rail line runs from north south through century park and north east Edmonton. In 2015, the state opened a metro line network in North West Edmonton that interlines with the capital line adding three stations to the fifteen that existed. A new railway line, the valley line, is under construction to cover south east, central and south west of Edmonton, capital city of Alberta. The constructors are also designing the line to connect with the metro and capital lines at Churchill. The state of Alberta has also promised to fund 3 billion for improvement and expansion of these light train networks. The project also involves the construction of an underpass to minimize the congestion at Princess Elizabeth Avenue.(Light rail in Canada, nd) This search will focus on the light rail transportation system where Ottawa's light rail transit will be the case study for this research.

Ottawa Light Rail Transit

Ottawa's Light Rail system is called O-Train which consists of 2 lines. The first line is "Trillium Line" which connects the south to north by 4 stations as shown in figure 1 and has been operating since 2001 (OC Transpo, 2018). The Trillium line is 8km and was built to supplement the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and it is served with 6 diesel engines trains. It runs from Bay view to Greensboro station to connect to the bus rapid transit network .The state opened the trillium line in 2001 with the name O-train until its upgrade to the confederation line. The diesel powered east west line in the system was named confederation while the north south became the Trillium line.

The second line is the "Confederation Line" which consists of two phases. According to Mayor Jim Watson, Phase 1 construction has been delayed for 5 months due to the wrong estimation of the complexity of the project in the beginning (Willing, 2018). However, Phase 1 is supposed to be done November 2018, which will not affect the schedule for starting the construction of Phase 2 by 2019 (Steeves, 2017).

The Confederation Line Phase 1 will provide service from east to west passing through downtown (OC Transpo, 2018). The Confederation line is 12.5 km including 2.5km tunnel under the downtown (City of Ottawa, 2012). The Line will have 10 ground stations and 3 underground stations as shown in figure 1. Both Confederation and Trillium lines will connect at Bayview station with no level crossing. Phase 2 will be an extension of the Line in East and West (Steeves, 2017). The extensions are expected to be working by 2022 and 2023 respectively. 2023 is the date for the completion of all the O-Train extensions. By then, 70% of the residents are going to be within five kilometres of rail which will help to solve future traffic problems and conjunctions (City of Ottawa, (n.d.).

The level of growth in Ottawa population is significant. It is expected that the population will increase by 25% by 2031 (City-of-Ottawa, 2018) which means the increase in houses and cars, and will result in more traffic problems. To serve the travel demand of this growing population, the existing transportation network may be inadequate or full in capacity, so O-Train Confederation Line will be helping to substantially improve the overall performance of the transportation system by providing the ease of transportation. The two O-Train lines will be the backbone of the 2018 transit network (OC Transpo, 2018, p. 1).

The focus of the Canadian Transportation Strategy is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support rapid population growth, and increase mobility of residents and visitors. The O-Train Confederation Line represents the willing of the Canadian Government for better sustainable transportation. The Line will be served by 17 environment friendly trains and each train will consist of two-car train. The 17 trains are 100% electric with zero train emissions and can accommodate up to 10,700 passengers per hour each way (OC-Transpo, New Trains, 2018).

Section two: Risk Management & Risk Assessment

The Ottawa light railway will start its operation on November , 2018 as opposed to its set date which was six months ago (Dubes, et.al, 2018). The delay was because of the risk that the railway line poses. The Rideau Transit Group under a public private partnership works in structuring, building and maintaining the railway line whereas the OC Transpo takes care of the phase one system. The several risks that this construction poses are based on transforming from a system where buses are used to the combination of using both buses and trains. The critical risks range from planning of the transition structures, safety and the cost of operation. The downtown tunnel poses risks such as ground water sipping into it because it goes through fault lines. The vehicle delivery would also delay the project because of supply chain problems.

Risk management framework

The project plan is should be well planned to fit the standards and goals of the confederation line service model. To accomplish this, the project is thorough and divided to 25 sub sections. Each section is managed by different persons who follow a specific document detailing severe risks and how to avoid them. Their roles in the project are clearly defined with the help of two expert advisors who were involved initially in the start of the project. Customer satisfaction is a key element in the project and a communication strategy was proposed to inform users of the train on the benefits that it would provide as a multi modal network.

The other risk was that the implementation f this network would delay vehicle delivery. However the Rideu Transit Group in conjunction with the section leaders reassigned a new assembly to monitor the supply chain issues so as not to be behind schedule. Financial constraints influence the construction since the project is expensive (Cheng, 2017).Residents also complained the train might derail causing risks of fire because of fuel containers transported in the freight line and accidents caused by train derailment. These risks affect the project in general.

Fault Tree Analysis

A fault tree analysis aims at defining the reliance of the project and helps to identify the possible causes of the project failure before it occurs. The analysis can reduce the undesirable effects of the Ottawa light Railway Transit such as accidents in crossings of the bus and the train (Dube et al., 2018). The method quantifies the accidents that have already happened and the minimal causes that leads to the big problem, which is derailment. The model then assesses the inevitable cause of the top event which was realized.

The model is developed based on the recommendations set to avoid accidents and derailments. Structural issues like the bogie parts breaking and stiffness could be caused by the earth sliding and the water that seeps into the train washing out the substructures. This breakage could lead...