The city's bus fleet was pulled off the road in mid April after it was discovered several had cracked frames. It was later confirmed all the vehicles had the issue.(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Cracked frames

Independent engineer to inspect P.A.’s troubled transit fleet

May 4, 2021 | 8:49 AM

Prince Albert city council has voted to hire an independent engineer to examine the city’s fleet of cracked buses and deliver a report.

The damaged vehicles were inspected by city staff, the manufacturer and the operator on April 20, but Mayor Greg Dionne says the opinion of an impartial outside party is needed.

“We’ve got three-way finger pointing… I think it’s prudent of us as elected officials to get an independent report on the situation,” Dionne told Monday night’s meeting.

The city purchased the seven vehicle fleet of fully accessible buses in 2018 for $3.34 million. On Friday, paNOW reported cracked frames have been discovered on all of them. The cause of the issue is not yet known.

While the manufacturer says the cracking is due to lack of maintenance by the operator, the operator says the issue is structural and therefore the fault of the manufacturer, Dionne told paNOW after the meeting. Meanwhile he doesn’t want city administration staff involved in the review because “they’ve been involved in the last three years and in my opinion the buses got worse, not better, and the in-fighting between the three parties has not improved.”

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“It’s time as elected officials that we step up and make sure it’s corrected and done right,” he continued.

On Friday City Manager Jim Toye told paNOW the manufacturer, Grand West Transportation Group, had agreed to cover the cost of repairs under warranty, but Dionne said if the issue is due to a structural defect, that doesn’t go far enough.

“Are they going to replace the frame or just put a weld in it,” Dionne questioned. “To me, if you’ve got buses that are cracking, that tells me they’re going to continue to crack, that’s why we’re going to hire an independent engineer to look at the materials and the design and tell us what’s the issue.”

Legal matters

Council has also directed the city’s lawyer to review documents related to the purchase and maintenance of the buses.

Dionne said that’s necessary “to make sure we got what we ordered.

“There’s been some discussion that we ordered one kind of chassis [vehicle frame] and it was changed to another,” he continued.

While the cause of the cracking is still unknown, Dionne said once the origin of the problem has been determined, council will move with expediency.

“We’re going to do it quickly because we’ve got to get our buses back on the road and they have to be safe,” he said.

Other council member expressed similar sentiments.

“We need to look at what’s the problem here,” Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick told the meeting. “Was it maintenance or was it manufacturer, who’s to blame? And then we need to rectify the situation and most importantly, we need to get our transit back in operation in a normal fashion.”

Smaller temporary replacement buses have been covering five of the city’s six bus routes since mid-April. A sixth route has been suspended.

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alison.sandstrom@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alisandstrom