3 LRT cars are sitting idle in the west end. Why can't they be redeployed?
Line 1 still isn't operating with full fleet weeks after bearing issue emerged
Guy Quenneville · CBC News
Posted: Mar 17, 2026 2:31 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago
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The head of Ottawa's transit committee is asking whether light rail cars currently devoted to OC Transpo's yet-to-open western extension could be redeployed to help bolster service that's been depleted elsewhere.
But officials say doing that would be more complicated than it sounds.
At last Thursday's transit committee meeting, Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower said several people have asked him about three train cars parked west of Moodie station, the last stop on the Line 1 western extension that will also include a spur to Algonquin College.
At last report, the contractor for that extension is expected to hand it over to the city by the end of June 2027.
Gower asked whether the three cars couldn't be put to work on Line 1 from Tunney's Pasture to Blair, which continues to operate with less than a full fleet of train cars due to a wheel assembly issue detected at the start of 2026.
Line 1 needs 26 cars to provide regular double-car service. For weeks, though, only 21 cars have been available as a stubborn bearing issue keeps most of them out of commission.
"It is frustrating to look at the number of trains week to week and not see that number change," Gower said.
But the shortage has not had entirely negative effects. It's forced Line 1 to run single-car trains and resulted in crowding at some stations during peak periods, but it has also meant trains are running at a slightly increased frequency.
Troy Charter, the interim general manager for OC Transpo, said he knows people are seeing the trains near Moodie. They're currently in a storage facility located west of the station.
As Charter went on to explain at the meeting, those trains had to be taken apart to be delivered there, and disassembling and reassembling them again would be "a considerable undertaking."
"It's not just as simple as loading [them] on a flatbed and dropping [them] on the track," he said.
Besides, those trains are needed where they are, Charter added.
While they haven't been heavily used, "you're going to start to see movements in the west and on those [cars]" in the coming days and weeks.
At a news conference following the meeting, CBC asked for more details on why the three trains are needed in the west end.
Charter said they're required for testing, and to verify that the track is set up properly.
Adding the three trains to Line 1 now could provide "temporary relief" but could also cause "other impacts" to the western extension, Charter said.
Gower said the Moodie trains are a good example of the difficult trade-offs OC Transpo has to wrestle with every day.
"If there was a viable way to get them to the east end, if they'd make a meaningful difference to our day-to-day service for customers, I'm sure it's something that council would support and OC Transpo would recommend to us," Gower said.
"But at this time, those trains ... aren't going to have a significant impact, and the downside to potentially delaying the timeline for getting the western leg up and running next year outweighs the small benefit that they might have in the east."
With files from Liam Baker, Félix Desroches, Jayden Dill and Arthur White-Crummey
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lrt-cars-idle-single-car-service-9.7131390
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