City pegs mid-August as earliest opening date for north-south Trillium Line LRT

The City of Ottawa has a target in mind for opening the Trillium Line LRT.

At a joint meeting of the Transit Commission and the Light Rail Subcommittee on Friday, Director of Rail Construction Michael Morgan said, if everything goes according to plan over the next two months, passengers could be boarding northbound and southbound trains before Labour Day.

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"As we sit here today, we're looking at eight to 10 weeks from kind of mid-June to give us the information to come back with a recommendation," he said. "Based what I've just given you, it could be no earlier than mid-August."

The north-south line that runs from Bayview Station to Riverside South, with a spur to the airport, was supposed to open in August 2022. A mid-August opening would put the line officially two years behind schedule.

Opening the line to passengers would be dependent on the final phases of testing going off without a hitch. This phase includes eight to 10 weeks of running the system at its normal service level on the line and a 21-day trial running period.

The eight to 10 week period is meant to ensure operators can safety run the system during normal hours but also to make sure the maintenance team can do its work during the shorter overnight windows between each service day. Morgan said it is expected to begin in mid-June.

Trial running is a 21-day period of testing that is required before TransitNEXT — the SNC-Lavalin subsidiary building the line — can hand the system over to the city to open to the public. This is broken down into two parts, a 14-day service reliability test and a seven-day "failure scenario management" period. It can take place during the aforementioned eight to 10 weeks of service running.

The 14-day test requires a minimum of 98.5 per cent on-time performance, which is calculated using a 14-day rolling average of the on-time performance achieved each day. The city defines 98.5 per cent on time performance as "a train departing the terminus station no later than 30 seconds after its scheduled departure time, while respecting a minimum terminus dwell time of three minutes."

Pedestrian bridge to open mid-June

The meeting heard the pedestrian and cycling bridge over the Rideau River near Carleton University will open June 15. The city has said the bridge's opening is tied to work on the Trillium Line, which has kept it closed for months, even after it appeared to be complete.

During the spring, contractors removed fencing from around the bridge, causing some residents to believe it was open. Several people walked and cycled across it before the fences went back up, as the city said it was not yet ready. 

Morgan told committee that the bridge needs some finishing touches.

"We did a final walkthrough yesterday (Thursday)," he said. "We identified some deficiencies with some handrails that we need to clean up. There are some additional trees that need to be brought into the area and those trees require heavy equipment. There was some hydroseeding and final sod and other work that needs to be in place that also requires some heavy equipment, but otherwise, we're very close."

The bridge connects the Carleton University campus to Vincent Massey Park.