No new timeline for LRT return to service, OC Transpo says
LRT has been shut down since Monday, July 17
OC Transpo can no longer provide an estimate for when its light rail system will return to service, the transit agency says.
"We will not rest until we have the permanent solutions and the system that Ottawa deserves," Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said at a Monday afternoon news conference. The full news conference is available in the player above.
OC Transpo originally set July 31 as its target date for reopening light rail service, two weeks after the start of the latest shutdown.
Instead, OC Transpo said at a news conference last Friday the target would be missed because a new risk assessment must be completed before an additional 10 days of repairs are done to the tracks.
Sutcliffe said OC Transpo made that target public as part of a more transparent approach to communications, in which the agency shared the best information available at the time.
Renée Amilcar, the city's general manager of transit services, said Monday OC Transpo can no longer provide an anticipated date for the safe resumption of service but does hope to complete the risk assessment by Wednesday.
"When we are able to, we will provide a timeline to restart rail service," Amilcar said.
Conditions for return to service
Before service can resume, the consortium that built the Confederation Line, Rideau Transit Group (RTG), is working with external engineering firm Atkins Global to determine where it must reposition restraining rails along the tracks, according to a Monday afternoon memo. SNC-Lavalin acquired Atkins in 2017.
Restraining rails located at several curves along the track, which are designed to prevent derailments, must be adjusted by a matter of millimetres to stop them from contacting the trains' wheels during normal operation. Those repairs are expected to take 10 days, the memo read.
Amilcar said a "maintenance issue" was behind problems with the restraining rails.
Once work on the tracks is complete, a trial run with no set start date will be conducted.
According to the memo, an analysis of a report from French axle manufacturer Texelis confirmed the degradation of the wheel hub that caused the ongoing shutdown is "similar to what was found" to have caused a derailment in August 2021 and a wheel hub failure in July 2022.
The agency is also in the process of replacing the wheel hub assemblies across its entire train fleet. To date, those assemblies have been replaced on 12 cars.
In the meantime, OC Transpo launched a new express shuttle service Monday in an effort to speed up rush-hour trips from Blair station to downtown.
Ottawa's LRT has been shut down since the afternoon of July 17. A bearing problem is behind the latest shutdown, but the city has not explained why the issue keeps happening.