Ottawa Confederation Line MSF Safety Case

The project

The Confederation Line, Ottawa’s light rail transit system, inaugurated in 2019, is an integral part of the city’s urban infrastructure. Its Maintenance and Storage Facility (MSF), located on Belfast Road, serves as a crucial hub for storing and maintaining the Line’s 32 Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs).

The challenge

Following SEMP’s development of the entire rail Safety Case that enabled Ottawa’s Confederation Line Phase 1 to enter into revenue service in 2019, we were subsequently engaged by the constructors to provide specialist expertise in the development of the Safety Justification Report for the introduction of Unattended Train Operation (UTO) and Automatic Train Protection (ATP) in the Belfast Road MSF Yard.

SEMP’s ultimate goal was to support maintaining Safety Certification in line with safety principles and CENELEC standards, while addressing any safety and operational challenges the Operator and Maintainer might encounter as a result of introducing UTO/ATP functionality.

The solutions

The SEMP team approached the challenge with several core objectives:

• Define the risks, hazards and opportunities with respect to current procedures and practices.
• Produce updates to original safety documentation and/or validate updates to the same provided by other parties.
• Produce an updated MSF Safety Justification to facilitate safety certification and produce a safety certificate for UTO/ATP in the MSF.
• Enable the constructors to meet their contractual obligations.
• Create a safe working environment

Using an approach aligned with CENELEC, CMREA, AREMA and industry-accepted best practices for RAMS, and informed by our deep understanding of rail safety standards and principles, we initially conducted an “As Is” assessment of the MSF. This allowed us to understand the current status of the safety management practices in the project area, identify the systems in place, identify gaps and areas of improvement.

This Discovery phase enabled us to identify and optimize the necessary steps to be taken in subsequent phases to support the delivery of the required Safey Justification and the eventual upgraded Safety Certification of the yard. As a result of our analyses during this phase, we advised the client that UTO introduction would not add any additional value in the operation of the MSF. This led them to decide against UTO, thereby saving them money, time and effort in
its implementation. SEMP’s main activities included:

• Producing a definitive certification plan (deliverables, schedule, input required, etc.)
• Producing a comprehensive ‘Systems Definition’ document through a rigorous review of existing documentation and drawings.
• Diligent review of existing signalling and rolling stock Safety analyses along with all the relevant artifacts, including requirements, design documents, operational procedures, HAZARD Log and incident reports.
• HAZOP/HAZID (identify hazards) workshops.
• Updating of Operational Restrictions Document
• Production of Contracts Requirements Compliance matrix
• Identification of safety and operation gaps based on the analysis and providing guidance and to implement solutions.
• Analysis of past incidents to guide safety management strategies
• Development and submission of the updated ATP Safety Justification

The results

Our team produced a comprehensive updated MSF Safety Justification Report following a multi-tier review process, which lead the constructor to present their case to the infrastructure owner for contract closure. Our work also provided the roadmap for achieving greater efficiency and safety in the operation of the yard, with a series of recommendations to be adopted by the Operator/Maintainer.