Here's what happens if the LRT goes down when it's open to the public
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: September 6, 2019
There will be times when the $2.1-billion LRT system isn’t working and transit customers will just have to deal with it.
They might be shocked to hear that, but, if there’s one thing city transportation boss John Manconi has tried to prepare city council members and the public for, it’s the (hopefully very low) prospect of arriving at an LRT station during the hours of operation and the trains aren’t running.
The roughly 10-hour stoppage of the Confederation Line between Tunney’s Pasture and Hurdman stations on Wednesday, chalked up to a data transmission glitch in the tunnel that started at the same time a storm rolled through downtown, might make passengers wonder what would happen if trains suddenly stopped running when the LRT system is open to the public.
The public launch is scheduled for Sept. 14.
The list of reasons for a stoppage is likely endless, but some examples could include medical emergencies, police investigations or technical problems. The city doesn’t know for certain if severe weather could cause a stoppage.
“There is no system that is 100 per cent. Around the world you will never get a foolproof system,” Manconi said during a media briefing Thursday. “These interruptions will occur, whether it’s a thunderstorm or something else. The question becomes, do you have the plans in place to communicate and to make sure your customers are accounted for and managed safely and they have backup plans, such as limited bus bridging?”
If LRT is down, there will be some resources available for a replacement bus service, whose route will be marked as R1, but nothing that will come close to duplicating the capacity of the LRT line.
“We will have limited bus service. We don’t have thousands of buses waiting around,” Manconi said.
Transpo will largely count on LRT passengers finding their own methods of transportation if the trains aren’t running. The small-scale replacement bus service will be there, but Transpo’s expectation is people will walk, bike or order a ride from a taxi or private transportation company.
If a problem impacts only one set of tracks, crossover infrastructure between tracks allow trains to roll onto the other rails to deliver reduced service if it’s safe to do so.
Here’s another popular question from future LRT customers: what will happen if trains stop somewhere between stations? Will people be stuck in a train for hours?
That shouldn’t happen.
“Our system isn’t designed to do that,” Manconi said.
Transpo can manually guide the trains at reduced speeds to the closest station, he said.
Manconi said transit staff have chewed over several scenarios when it comes to reasons the LRT system needs to stop.
“You can never have 100 per cent, but you want to minimize that risk,” Manconi said. “Then the question becomes, when it does occur, and it has occurred across the country, across North America and the world, do you have evacuation procedures? We’re practising those things.”
The worst-case scenario is passengers needing to leave trains between stations.
“The thing you don’t want to do is do evacuations along the rail line, but I will tell you right now, that is one of the drills that we’re practising,” Manconi said. Only in the “rarest cases” would passengers be required to leave a train between stations and walk the line, he said.
If there is a problem causing a lengthy stoppage, Transpo would likely need some extra time to make sure all systems are ready again for passengers.
On Wednesday, staff realized what they had to do to fix the problem around the lunch hour, but it wasn’t until 2 p.m. that the train line between Tunney’s Pasture and Hurdman stations was ready for service again. Transit staff had to deploy sweep trains — the term used for the first trains launched each day, or after a long shutdown, without passengers to test the system — before entering back into a revenue service schedule.
Transpo will have a lengthy transition period after Sept. 14 to shake out any unidentified bugs.
The transit agency will continue running the bus system like it is today for three weeks after LRT launches, so if anything LRT-related goes down, there’s plenty of transit capacity to move people. After those three weeks, Transpo will pull buses off the road and activate the new LRT-era bus network designed to bring people to LRT stations for any rapid travel between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations.
As of Friday, the city still wasn’t certain why three data transmitters tripped to the off position around 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Those transmitters, which are installed across the rail line, send information to the control centre about where trains are located. There hadn’t been a direct link drawn between the tripped transmitters and the storm, but the possibility was under investigation.
Coun. Allan Hubley, the chair of the transit commission, acknowledged Friday that the city has to do a better job of communicating with the media and public when there’s a Transpo-related problem.
The city released a high-level written explanation to reporters late Wednesday afternoon when asked about the early-day stoppage, but it wasn’t until late Thursday afternoon that Manconi offered a more detailed explanation.
Hubley said he’s working to make sure public communication improves in the new LRT era of Transpo.
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