04-07-2019, 01:41 PM
(04-07-2019, 11:12 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:(04-07-2019, 12:56 AM)jeffster Wrote: This is somewhat true -- but having worked for the government you'd be surprised how quickly words get out. I get a lot on messages in my inbox which is confidential. I had one interesting one that I did want to share, and I asked the sender (one of the high ranking employee in the region) if I could share the info (since I felt it should be shared) and the answer was "no". So I know some things about certain things, but I'm governed by my employment agreement not to share. However, the GRT guys would be under the same employment agreement as me - likely they can not share directly with anyone, but if there is some alluding to things, such as the LRT potential start dates, they might have some merit to what they are saying.
Working firsthand -- when it comes to timelines, they are generally meaningless. Only time it means something is for elections, school bus times, special events and Rangers Hockey (or really, anything at any community centre, pool or arena). Most other things. We just. Don't. Know.
I don't think the original comment was in regard to GRT employees knowing things but not being able to tell us, but about the fact that GRT isn't the one building and testing the LRT. I'm sure Grandlinq employees know a great deal about the state of testing, but GRT employees will know far far less. Maybe they know more than us, but no guarantees.
As for timelines, certainly there is flexibility, but a properly managed project will have a well defined timeline, even if it may move as a result of unexpected things, all that *could* be communicated with the public, but obviously is not.
Concerning the GRT and the Ion, they need to have constant communication with each other. Remember, once the LRT gets going, you'll see service reductions in some of the GRT routes, which means that staff that it retiring won't be replaced. But the longer the LRT isn't operating, the longer the GRT has to hire new operators as other staff retires, and those with longer tenures have increased vacation time (anyone hitting the 3 year mark, 9 years, 15 years, 23 years and 30 years). It's becoming a staffing issue. Normally had the LRT started working, you'd simply not replace retiring staff. As it stands, though, the need for more workers affects the GRT operators greatly, especially those requesting time off.