Could Bluesfest crowds have broken the LRT?

OC Transpo is looking into whether passenger weight on the LRT during the recent Bluesfest contributed to the bearing problem that has shut down train service since Monday. 

"One of the tests that we are doing with the instrumented bogie, we will simulate load" by using sandbags, said Renée Amilcar, Ottawa's general manager of transit services.

The city's director of engineering services said during a Tuesday news conference and again an interview on CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Thursday that those tests will include the type of load during Bluesfest, which at times is near the maximum these trains are designed to handle.

"We really consider that the extra loading is a factor but there are other issues as well," Richard Holder said Thursday.

"We've gone through a very hot period … we get extra humidity at certain times of the day because of the difference in temperatures between the rail and the air."

Amilcar said it's too early to say what caused the issue but that Alstom is gathering data and will hopefully be able to determine the cause soon. 

OC Transpo is currently checking all trains and running a test train after a routine inspection found more grease than there should be on one of the axles under the train that connects to its wheels.

In a memo on Monday, Amilcar wrote a further look at the axle found "the bearing play was over the threshold at which it could stay in operation."

The city said an inspection had been done eight days before the issue was found and if there had been a problem with the bearing at that point, it would have been identified. 

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"We need to gather data [and] do tests, once we review the results from those tests it may be that that promotes further tests," Holder said Thursday, adding these tests are more detailed than the ones done before the line's launch in September 2019.

As of Wednesday afternoon, OC Transpo said it had inspected the axle hub assemblies of nine light-rail vehicles and the underbodies of 35 light-rail vehicles with no issues detected.

R1 buses are running instead of the trains until further notice. Holder said Thursday the testing could last until this coming Monday at the current pace, but extra resources could speed that up.

'Trains heavily used during Bluesfest'

City media relations said in an email that about 160,000 trips were made to and from Pimisi station during Bluesfest between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. from July 6 to 9 and July 12 to 16.

In comparison, on June 8 to 11 and June 14 to 18 between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., the city said approximately 8,050 customer trips were taken to and from Pimisi Station.  

"We recently had trains that were heavily used during Bluesfest," River Coun. Riley Brockington, a member of the city's transit commission, told CBC News. 

The festival ran for nine nights from July 6 to 16, including the period between the two inspections.

Ticketholders got free OC Transpo rides to and from the festival.

"OC Transpo wants to know if … the added passenger weight in any way contributes to the deterioration," Brockington said.

TSB report flagged weight issue with trains

This isn't the first time OC Transpo has had issues with axle bearings on its trains. 

The derailment in August 2021 involved a wheel that was severed from the axle due to a "catastrophic bearing failure," according to the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada.

In a February 2023 letter to city officials, the TSB said the problems that caused the derailment in August 2021 and a component failure in July 2022 "continue to pose a risk to safety until the issues are resolved."

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It also pointed out the Citadis Spirit trains ordered by Ottawa are longer, heavier and required to carry more passengers at higher speeds than trains in other cities such as Paris and Istanbul, which use Alstom trains with the same cartridge assemblies but have had far fewer defects.

The letter goes on to say the original operating speed and number of stations on the Confederation Line means frequent starts and stops that "could potentially introduce accelerated wear to motor bogie drive and brake components."