Ottawa LRT return to service stalls again; more infrastructure work required

“So now we know what is the problem. So we just need the manpower to be able to do the job.”

Published Jul 28, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read

A file photo of LRT Confederation Line tracks near Cyrville Station. No trains have run since the system was shut down on July 17. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

About 10 more days of work has to be done on the tracks before the LRT system can return to service, Ottawa transit officials said Friday.

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That is in addition to a risk assessment to be conducted over the weekend.

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A limited return to service had been planned for Monday, with eight single-car trains running every seven to eight minutes from Blair Station to Tunney’s Pasture Station and continuing R1 bus service.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe acknowledged the frustration of transit riders and apologized for the new delay.

“I hope that, when residents step back and look at what’s going on right now, they will see, in the long term, that we are working on the long-term solutions that will once and for all deal with this issues so that, going forward, we will have safe, reliable service,” he said Friday.

“If we were continuing just to do patchwork and fix the short-term issues, then we wouldn’t be any closer to a long-term solution.”

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The Rideau Transit Group, which maintains the system, and Alstom, which manufactured the trains, have conducted instrument tests that found a need for infrastructure work to be done so there is no contact between the train wheel and the restraining rail on the track, particularly on 16 curved sections of the tracks.

More details are to be released on Monday. As it stands, R1 bus service, with 36 buses in operation, will continue. Work is underway to increase the numbers of buses available, said Renée Amilcar, the city’s general manager of transit services.

“I will work with my team this weekend and we’ll be very creative to see what we can do to improve the service,” she said.

City officials had been waiting to clear the final hurdles before the service received a green light to resume service: a report by Texelis, a French company that designs and manufactures high-performance axles and that had disassembled and analyzed the axle hub that sparked the shutdown on July 17, as well as the safety note from RTG and Alstom.

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While the city received a draft safety note on Wednesday, a revised safety note said the additional work had to be done.

Restraining rails are a “passive safety device” used to mitigate the risk of derailment on curves. Inspections of the LRT track have shown that, although the restraining rail is within the design tolerances of the track, contact has been made between the restraining rail and light rail vehicle wheels.

Under normal conditions, the joint stock is able to deal with these forces, Enrique Martinez Asensio, RTG’s general manager, said Friday.

“In this specific condition, we believe that this contact is creating exceptional forces in a way that is potentially contributing to the actual failure,” he said. “This is why we’re taking this action of eliminating the contact.”

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OC Transpo hasn’t run any LRT trains since shutting down the system on July 17. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

The eight cars scheduled to be used in the planned limited return to service on Monday were intended to take some of the pressure off the bus service.

Typically, 11 double-car trains would be in operation on the system at this time of year. Each car has a capacity for about 300 people.

The reason for the change to the trains is that a new inspection regime means axles will have to be replaced every 60,000 kilometres, not every 175,000 kilometres, as has been the case previously.

That means all of the 45-car fleet must have the axles replaced. While adjustments are made to the restraining rails, more cars can be added to the fleet at a rate of about two light rail vehicles every two days, Amilcar said.

She said she believed that the problem was “so close” to a resolution.

“I used to say I cannot fix things if i do not know if they are broken or not,” she said. “So now we know what is the problem. So we just need the manpower to be able to do the job. And, don’t forget, we have a final fix as well. This is temporary.”