The door sensors have been known to be problematic for months. Somebody broke a door holding it open. We are hearing that doors are closing before everybody exits the train particularly at the University of Ottawa.
Broken doors usually can usually be manually be closed and locked, so the LRT can continue service with one door out-of-service.
But this case,
the door was apparently jammed in way that it could not close fully -- it couldn't be mechanically closed-and-locked.
Consequently, the vehicle was stuck at the stop -- it couldn't even deadhead out-of-service to the yard with an open door.
They need to drastically work to eliminate the unfixable jammed-open events. Any malfunctioning door must always be manually closeable-and-lockable, and a malfunctioning door can be kept locked at all future stations, letting passengers out other doors instead. There are always teething pains but this is a serious issue that must be resolved quickly at this early juncture to protect the reputation of Ontario LRTs, since this can easily be used as a lobbying point of anti-LRT campaigners for upcoming LRTs if this is not resolved promptly.
It's quite possible that a door sensor triggers a safety interlock that prevents LRT vehicle from moving at all, even with a fully closed door with a failed sensor. If that's the case, then that's another layer of failure.
They should have thought of it...
-- A way to manually crank the doors sufficiently closed even if slightly bent out of shape by up to a few millimeters.
-- Sensor override feature should be available for a door sensor fail, to allow the interlocks to permit deadheading an out-of-service vehicle with suspect door
-- Rapid checklist for jammed doors.
Alstom should hit engineering Errata big-time -- stat! -- and offer this for OC Transpo at no charge -- and before winter hits.
Also, Bombardier's starting to look good again for the other Ontario LRTs.
www.octranspo.com
