10-25-2017, 10:31 PM
(10-25-2017, 10:00 PM)Canard Wrote: They're certainly not going to announce any information regarding testing anymore - look what happened the first time they tried to help us fans out by letting us know. They got "rewarded" for that by being crucified by the media and the haters on social media. I'm livid about that, personally.
The problem is that they have typically not provided enough information, and much of the information they have provided was wrong. For example, they said testing was starting on a particular day, even though they clearly did not have a firm plan to do so. With this paperwork thing, why not explain specifically what is missing and what has to happen in order for it to be complete? It’s called transparency, and while haters gonna hate, the rest of us would be much less frustrated with the delays if we had a better understanding of what they are actually about.
They should have had an official blogger throughout the whole construction period, who would have communicated with the people responsible for scheduling the work crews and would have explained “for the fans” what was happening with the construction. Now that we’re moving into vehicle testing, they could write articles focussing on specific aspects of the testing regime. Way more detail than drivers in general need, but still of interest to a significant number of people, and wouldn’t need even a single FTE to do a thorough job. On a project of this size, it’s not unreasonable to have extra communications just for interest. The person could also help with making sure closure communications and so on actually match up with what is really happening.
When Conrad Grebel College did their most recent building expansion they did a great job of something like this. They regularly posted articles with information about what the construction crews were doing, complete with photos from inside the construction zone. I’m not sure if it’s still up — it’s the kind of thing that should remain up eternally but people typically don’t think of it that way. Something like that for the LRT project would have pre-emptively answered all the questions you (for example) ever posted to Twitter.
Instead we got “how ION trains work” videos that clearly cost a significant amount of money to make, but managed not to show a single piece of actual electrical equipment for the system nor even mention the actual operating voltage. We just got confirmation that, yes, the trains run on electricity. A disappointment even for the casually-interested public.