LRT service won't be fully restored until at least Tuesday
Following more damage and immobilized trains, transit chair calls latest LRT woes 'frustrating'
Elizabeth Payne, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 08, 2023 • 4 minute read
Weekend efforts to restore full service to the city’s LRT system in time for Monday’s return to work and school failed.
On Sunday evening, officials from the city and from Rideau Transit Management held a news conference to confirm that the light rail system would not be fully operational until at least Tuesday. Some trains have been disabled since the ice storm that hit the city overnight Wednesday and Thursday damaged overhead lines.
“I appreciate these past few days have been difficult for you and restoring full Line 1 services has taken longer than expected,” said OC Transpo general manager Renee Amilcar, speaking directly to transit users. “We are doing everything we can to provide you with the best possible service under these challenging conditions.”
She said the full service would only reopen “when it is safe to do so”.
On Monday, the light rail system will continue to run in two loops — one in the west from Tunney’s Pasture to uOttawa and one in the east from Blair to St. Laurent. Those trains will run every five minutes, Amilcar said. In addition, R1 bus service will run between Blair and Rideau stations. Officials said they expect the R1 service to operate every 10 minutes, but noted that running R1 at that frequency could “put pressure on other areas of the bus system”.
The partial stoppage during an ice storm is just the latest in a long line of problems for the LRT system, which opened to fanfare in 2019. Last November, Justice William Hourigan issued a scathing final report after the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Inquiry, in which he said the public was deliberately misled about problems with the system while under construction and it was rushed into service.
The latest problems started Wednesday overnight when, first, an eastbound train stopped between Lees and Hurdman stations and then a westbound train stopped in the same area a short time later. Efforts to tow disabled trains resulted in further damage to the overhead cantenary system and two more trains being stuck on the tracks in the area around Lees and Hurdman stations.
As of Sunday night, two trains had been towed off Track 1. Overnight Sunday and Monday, workers were manually clearing ice and making repairs on the wires on Track 2. The two remaining disabled trains cannot be moved until those repairs are made, said Mario Guerra, CEO and acting general manager of Rideau Transit Maintenance.
He said full services would not be restored until at least Tuesday “if we are as successful with Track 2 as we were with Track 1 (Sunday).”
Guerra said the freezing rain “probably caught us a bit by surprise — how quickly it happened”, but he said he doesn’t believe there are any issues with the system.
Experts from the city, RTM and light rail manufacturer Alstom will meet Monday to determine whether the overhead cantenary system is safe and will then discuss what lessons have been learned. That includes whether de-icing or technology could be used in advance to prevent any future stoppages during freezing rain.
OC Transpo said the R1 bus service will not service the Cyrville station. Customers are asked to transfer at St. Laurent or Blair stations. Officials said they would monitor passenger demand and adjust where possible.
OC Transpo will have representatives at stations to direct transit riders and answer questions. Updates will be available on its website octranspo.com and information is available at 613-560-5000.
The situation has frustrated Stittsville Coun. Glen Glower, the city’s new transit commission chair, who said Saturday it would take time to regain the public’s trust in the system.
“It is frustrating. After going through what we have over the past three years with the LRT, it really seemed like we had turned a corner and that the worst was behind us,” Gower said in an interview Saturday.
“It is a setback in terms of everyone’s confidence and everyone’s trust in the system. We are going to have to work harder to make sure it is reliable.”
He noted that light-rail trains operated around the world in areas that occasionally experience freezing rain.
“Freezing rain is not something that should take a system down.”
Amilcar, who took over as head of city transit services in 2021, said OC Transpo was bringing in external oversight to “closely monitor” RTM’s work and “provide independent advice to OC Transpo and confirm that we have a solid plan to return services to this area.”
The LRT’s poor winter performance was one of the issues addressed during the provincial public inquiry into the construction, operation and maintenance of the Confederation Line.
In his report, released Nov. 30, Hourigan said the train should have been tested in real-world winter weather conditions and not just in lab simulations, as was done for Ottawa’s system.
The chaos caused by last week’s ice storm caught OC Transpo off-guard.
The ice buildup wasn’t as bad on the east and west sections because trains were still operating on those portions and regularly knocked ice off the power lines, said Guerra.
That wasn’t the case along sections of the track where the trains were stopped.
To prevent a reoccurrence, “We need to improve our ability to retrieve vehicles,” Guerra said.
With files from Megan Gillis
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-to-restore-ice-damaged-lrt-hit-new-snag
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