Training videos showed some instructors provided hints while trainees copied answers and made jokes about cheating during exams.
An investigation into the training of Trillium Line operators and controllers has raised questions about the integrity of the process.
After reviewing a sample of video recordings of exams administered by TransitNEXT, the consortium responsible for building the north-south rail line, investigators with the city auditor’s office observed instances where instructors provided hints and direction beyond clarification, deputy auditor Joanne Gorenstein told the city audit committee on Monday.
The investigators also observed inappropriate behaviour among the trainees, such as talking among each other, copying answers, and making jokes about cheating during the exams.
In one case, investigators saw a trainee taking unauthorized photos of the exam answers which could potentially be shared with other training cohorts.
“OC Transpo cannot be assured that those successful candidates have the necessary proficiency to undertake their roles effectively,” Gorenstein told the committee.
“Further, these behaviours could be considered a violation of the city employees’ code of conduct.”
However, the committee also heard that the investigation into the training of diesel trail operators, controllers and instructors, sparked by complaints to Ottawa’s fraud and waste hotline, was conducted before the Trillium line was open to the public.
The results of the investigation were brought to the attention of OC Transpo managers. A training program, which takes a minimum of 14 weeks, has since been brought in-house. Training for the Confederation Line is already done in-house under a agreement with Transport Canada.
Evening Update
“While obviously training is a very critical, very important factor, we do want to state that it’s only one aspect of an overall safety management system,” auditor general Nathalie Gougeon told the committee.
The Trillium Line is a federally-regulated railway and the city must comply with federal regulations.
The project agreement with TransitNEXT stipulated that the consortium was responsible for developing all operations training programs, according to the auditor general’s report. This included creating a training curriculum and materials, as well as training and certifying eight OC Transpo diesel rail instructors responsible for training the rail operators and controllers.
The investigation did not include a review of the training program contents.
All operators were properly trained before the Trillium line went into service in January, OC Transpo manager Renée Amilcar told the committee.
“I do not want this to investigation to weaken anyone’s confidence in the safety of the transit system,” said Amilcar. “OC Transpo’s number one priority is the safety of its system and the passengers. As the auditor herself identified, the investigation had a very narrow scope and focussed only on the training component and only for a given period of time.”
Training is only one of many many checks and balances designed to catch safety-related issues that could arise, said Amilcar.
All train motions are constantly being monitored by diesel rail controllers in the train operations control centre and are carefully monitored for issues such as speed and platform overshoots, she said.
Trains also have systems that automatically prevent trains from travelling too fast or taking turns too quickly.
“If there are any issues noted with any of our operators, they would be taken out of service immediately for assessment and would be retrained,” said Amilcar.
Investigators with the auditor general’s office learned that instructors to train Trillium Line operators were mainly selected due to their experience as “legacy” diesel rail operators, said Gorenstein.
Some of the instructors were training the operators before they had themselves had completed all their training hours. During the hiring process, nine relief instructors were hired. Six were hired for the role even though they had been unsuccessful in previous Trillium line instructor competitions, said the auditor’s report.
A sample of 33 operator, controller and instructor training files found that for 23 trainees, there was at least one missing exam in their training file. In 21 cases, there was no record of an exam retake on file when one was required.
Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill, a member of the audit committee, asked whether properly-trained operators were operating the system during the test phase before the Trillium line was open to the public.
“How is it that we had unqualified or potentially inappropriately assessed instructors teaching driver operators, but we can state that we were operating the system safely during the trial and evaluation period?” Hill asked Amilcar.
“We confirmed that we are OK now, so there is no doubt for us,” she replied. “And, as I said, the training is one of many, many tools that the system has.”
Amilcar said she has always said if the system was not ready, the train would not run.
Sabrina Pasian, OC Transpo’s chief safety officer, said there was no rush to get the Trillium line into service.
“One of the lessons we learned both from Stage 1, but also from the public inquiry is that training needs to take place at the end,” she said.
In the first phase of Ottawa’s LRT, OC Transpo had to do a lot of retraining, said Pasian.
“So this time with the Trillium line, we waited until until all the infrastructure, the vehicles, everything was ready to go, so that the trainees were being trained on the system in its entirety.”
OC Transpo recruited 103 operators for the Trillium line, but 20 have left because they found the train was too complicated or too boring, and another 10 have received promotions within the Trillium line, said Amilcar.
“We had to start re-training. Currently, we are in a good position to drive the train. But this is something that was in mind since day one — to ensure that training be part of our security and safety.”
