OTTAWA -- The Chair of Ottawa’s Transit Commission says OC Transpo is “trending” in the right direction to stabilize Ottawa’s $2 billion Confederation Line in the new year.
Speaking with Evan Solomon on CFRA’s Ottawa Now Wednesday afternoon, Allan Hubley said "we expect this system to stabilize very well", adding it's "trending well, to be stabilized well in the new year."
Hubley tells CFRA that staff feel confident they have a good handle on resetting the issues with the trains as soon as they occur.
OC Transpo says since the LRT service launched on September 14th, there’s been issues with the Train Control and Monitoring System, the Vehicle On Board Control, Doors and Switches.
As an example of signs of progress, Hubley said “stabilized means we have a good week,” with no train delays. He adds stabilized also means staff will report back that “they feel they have good handle” on resetting the train defaults.
Hubley says staff has reduced the time it takes to reset doors and switches to within five minutes, compared to an hour when the system was first launched.
Later in the day, the Councillor told CTV News “based on information that’s coming in, it’s tracking quite well” for OC Transpo to solve the issues that have plagued the system.
There were three disruptions on the LRT system last week due to door faults, and Hubley says they were solved fairly quickly.
OC Transpo is spending $95,000 a week to keep a fleet of 20 R1 Replacement Buses on standby at the Ottawa Baseball Stadium in case of issues with the Confederation Line.
Hubley says the buses will remain on standby until the LRT system has been “stabilized” for an extended period of time. He won’t give a specific date for how long the buses will remain on standby, but he doesn’t see the buses available for a year.
