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Transit drivers rack up overtime caused by LRT breakdowns

Labour costs contribute to budget shorftall


By Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald; With files from Richard Cuthbertson, Calgary Herald.


Besides the added waiting and travel times for passengers, the recent spate of unplanned LRT system shutdowns has another cost: unbudgeted overtime pay.

A council report for this week's finance committee listed "shortterm bus service in response to LRT service interruptions" as one of three causes for the $2.7-million shortfall in the transit budget for the first half of 2011, along with lower riderships and overtime triggered by bad weather.


That doesn't cover July, August and September, when the C-Train system's aging electrical works and cars broke down more regularly.

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On Tuesday, when broken wires caused a daylong shutdown on the northeast leg, the city spent up to $15,000 on staff overtime pay, for 28 shuttle buses subbing for the trains.


There's a ripple effect, too. If trains go kaput during rush hour - when the bus fleet is going full-bore - dispatchers will initially redirect buses from other routes to ferry the passengers whose train isn't' coming.


For most unplanned disruptions, the city asks drivers headed back to the garage after their shifts to volunteer their service, for overtime pay.


One of the fixes Wong's system is pursuing for the breakdown problems is to add more crossover tracks, so that one broken train or overhead wire doesn't cripple huge stretches of track.


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Such upgrades are coming in as stations expand with four-car platforms, but it will take another two years to be fully in place.


Meanwhile, the mayor is proposing a new transits users' advisory board to raise problems and seek improvements for customers.

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