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Waterloo Chronicle | Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 4 With the purchase of —any 5 fresh meals. — C103 95 King St S. T Uptown Waterloo _ @OO macrofoods .www.macrofoods.ca Not valid with any other coupons or offers. Valid until May 31st, 2023. Waterloo store location only. waterloochronicle.ca HB OPINION FIGHTING THE FREEZE: ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR LIGHT RAIL TRAINS WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SETTLE FOR SECOND CLASS WITH OUR WORLD-CLASS TRANSIT SYSTEM, WRITES MIKE FARWELL i. MIKE FARWELL Column letroland file photo Me An ION train moves down the tracks from Market Station toward Ottawa Street in Kitchener in February. rain event in Waterloo Re- gion is different from one in Toronto, where tall buildings help to create “heat islands" that can duce or eliminate ice accre. tion. With: n freezing rain events recorded this Feb- ruary It seems this winter lulled all of us into a false sense of spring, including those in charge of keeping our light rail trains - thought we'd got Dean, general manager of Keolis, during a presenta- tion to regional councillors recently. "We were saying at the end of January, ‘Hasn't Med on pretty be- eolis is the company that operates and main- tains our light rail transit system, and while those of us who are not exactly en- thusiastic about winter ‘an be forgiven for hoping it had skipped us this year, it is Keolis's job to be pre- for the season's Le} worst. This winter, though, Ke- olis was ill-prepared, and our (almost) billion-dollar transit system was idled by consecutive freezing rain vents. Dean's presentation to regional council highlight- ed the unique nature of weather impacts from one community to the next, ex- plaining that a freezing er frequency in the future — there should be an ur- gency attached to our ef- forts to keep the trains run- ter how in- It could be nn that such urgency did not exist Ascraping tool that can be used to keep our sys- tem's overhead wires free from ice buildup was deliv- ered last November, after almost two years in pro: duction. (Iguess we got lucky last winter, too.) But even when the scraper did arrive in No- vember, we enough for about half our i leavi us hoping for the best as this winter approached. It might also leave us Wondering why at least half the trains, scrapers at- tached, couldn't k eep run- ning during last month's storms. Along with the scraping tool, our LRT operators al- so have a de-icing agent that can be applied to the overhead wires to deter the ice from building up. And, finally, we also have the op- tion of keeping a train run- und the clock to prevent snow from build- ing up on the tracks, and ice from building up on the overhead w' Dean explained, though, that train and track mainte- nance schedules can some- times interfere with 24 hour operation. While a maintenance schedule is no doubt im- portant, surely the timing of that maintenance can be shifted when the situation calls for round-the-clock operation. And when we are provided several days’ notice of an approaching storm, well, surely this is ample time to adjust a maintenance schedule — if keeping the train running is our highest priority, that is. fe had some freakish Fel bruary weather and were faced with seemingly unprecedented challenges as a result. When trains stopped in their tracks, our ability to deliver offective shuttle bus Pralsewor thy. ut we shouldn't have to sete for second class with our world-class transit sys- m. Knowing that more se- vere and frequent freezing rain events are in our fu- ture means we need height- ened urgency in solving these problems. We already have the ex- pertise to get the job done. Columnist Mike Far- well is a broadcaster, MC and advocate. Follow him on Twitter at @far- well_WR, or connect with him via Mike.Far- well@rci.rogers.com.