No back-to-service plan yet for Ottawa's LRT

There is no back-to-service plan yet for the Confederation Line LRT after it was abruptly shut down during the Monday afternoon rush, a new memo reveals.

In a memo to the mayor and councillors released Wednesday afternoon, transportation services general manager Renée Amilcar said Rideau Transit Group (RTG) is still developing a return to service plan.

There was no word on any timeline for when a plan might be developed or how long the work being undertaken will take to complete.

OC Transpo shut down the full Confederation Line between Blair and Tunney's Pasture stations on Monday afternoon after a routine inspection revealed an issue with a bearing on one vehicle. R1 replacement bus service is running with 28 buses during the morning and afternoon peak periods, with buses arriving at stops every 5 minutes.

Amilcar's Wednesday memo said that the axle hub assemblies of nine light rail vehicles have been inspected and no issue was found. The underbodies of 35 vehicles have been inspected for signs of excess grease, and no sign was found.

The axle hub from the vehicle that had the issue, prompting the system-wide shutdown, was sent to the manufacturer for a detailed investigation.

A test train will be coupled with a light rail vehicle equipped with "smart bugs" to gather additional data about the line. A test train ran for much of the day Tuesday to gather data on the wear and tear that the wheel hub assembly of the trains may be experiencing. Tests also measures the width and height of the rails relative to each other. That data still needs to be analyzed.

Amilcar said Tuesday that service would not resume until all inspections are complete and all data are analyzed. 

More buses added to R1 service

Amilcar said more buses will be added to R1 service Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.

Thirty-two buses will delivering R1 service Wednesday afternoon, up from 28. On Thursday, OC Transpo plans to deploy 36 buses during morning and afternoon peak periods.

"This change is being made to increase reliability and mitigate traffic issues that impact bus service," Amilcar wrote. "Service continues to run well, and our Transit Operations Control Centre is working with Traffic Services, to make adjustments to R1 service to further increase reliability and reduce wait times for customers."

Clint Crabtree, the head of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, which represents OC Transpo drivers, told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron that the more R1 buses OC Transpo runs, the fewer buses can operate on regular routes.

"I think my members are doing the best they can to service the public, but they're being pulled off regular service to do R1 service. It has an effect on the whole service when the train is down and we pull to R1 service, so it's affecting everything," he said.

OC Transpo must make sure trains are safe before service resumes: Sutcliffe

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the safety of transit riders and OC Transpo staff is the top priority, as the O-Train remains out of service for a second full day after a bearing issue was detected on one train.

Rideau Transit Maintenance, Alstom and OC Transpo are inspecting all axle hubs on trains to look for excess grease and wear and tear on the axle, and a geometrical rail inspection is taking place on the full LRT line.

Speaking with Newstalk 580 CFRA's Morning Rush with Bill Carroll, Sutcliffe says he supports the idea of "being extremely, extremely cautious" with the O-Train and "putting safety first."

"I think we only want to provide that service if we're 100 per cent confident in the safety in the service, and when there's an issue with the wheel bearing and when we've had derailments in the past, there's no level of risk that's acceptable," Sutcliffe said Wednesday morning.

"I think it was the right decision to shut it down out of abundance of caution. From what I understand, the other trains that have been tested so far do not have the same issue, but we still need to know why this happened and we still need to identify the root cause and fix the problem and make sure the trains are safe before we allow passengers back on them."

OC Transpo general manager Renee Amilcar couldn't say on Tuesday when the O-Train would return to service.

In a memo to council, Amilcar said Rideau Transit Group, Alstom and the city are working on scenarios to resume passenger service, and establishing the requirements of the safety regime to allow passenger service to resume.

No issues were identified in the first five trains inspected by RTM on Tuesday.

"We'll see in the coming hours and day or so is a decision on how much do we know about the problem, how comfortable are we saying it's isolated to one train, how comfortable are we putting the other trains back into service. That's going to come from engineering expertise," Sutcliffe said.

"The other part of this is it's about holding our contractors accountable to deliver the train service that we paid for, and so we've got to keep pressing and keep pushing forward and identifying these issues and fixing them with an engineering solution so that we get the service we paid for."

Sutcliffe says OC Transpo and the city need to keep identifying the problems and holding the contractors accountable.

"If there are major changes that need to be made to the tracks, to the wheels, to anything like that, they're going to have to make them for us because that's what we paid for when we bought this service."

A derailment in August 2021 at Tunney's Pasture Station was due to an "undetected catastrophic roller bearing failure" in the axle bearing assembly, the Transportation Safety Board has said. 

Last July, OC Transpo pulled all O-Train vehicles that had travelled more than 175,000 kilometres out of service for additional inspections after a failure was discovered in one of the wheel hub assemblies on a train, an issue that appeared to be different than the one that caused the Aug. 8, 2021 derailment.

The O-Train was partially shut down for six days in January after freezing rain caused an ice buildup on the overhead catenary system near Lees Station.  In April, the LRT service was disrupted for 33 hours following a freezing rain storm.

Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, a member of the transit commission and the LRT subcommittee, told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron that he believes the curve in the track around Hurdman Station could be the culprit.

"I've been highlighting this curve near Hurdman since this thing began running, when we took the inaugural ride and I thought there was a lot of screeching there," he said. "I think we're not examining that curve enough and we have to look at it."

Tierney suggested that the city might have to expropriate land and reconstruct a section of the track near Hurdman.

A rookie councillor, and former OC Transpo employee, says a decision on when to throw in the towel on LRT fixes may be coming.

"I don't know when, but I have a feeling we're going to come to that decision very soon. We have to stop patching and patching and patching and at some point we're just going to have to face that very tough decision," Wilson Lo told CTV Morning Live.

"It could be a very costly and disruptive fix for the public and it's going to have to be a pill to swallow."

Sutcliffe says the new inspection criteria for the LRT appears to be working.

"What I am encouraged by is the higher levels of testing we have put in place are catching these kind of issues before there is a catastrophe," the mayor said.

"We got to keep doing this testing regularly, over and over again do this testing. Whenever there is an issue, identify it, address the safety aspect, solve the issue, get the trains back in service – if we keep doing that eventually we will resolve the issues and have the train service we deserve."

Ottawa's LRT was "a mess," premier says

Premier Doug Ford was asked about the LRT shutdown while in Ottawa for a funding announcement.

"First of all, it's unfortunate. I think the previous administration and the previous mayor are accountable; it was a real disaster," Ford said.

"We're supporting them on funding; they're the ones building it and operating it.

Ford adds Mayor Sutcliffe is doing a "great job."

"He's taking the recommendations from the inquiry and he's fixing it. We are there to help them any way we can, but they're the ones that built the system – that's not a good system that they built so let's just hope Phase 2 gets built properly right from the get-go because there is a lot of money invested and people want proper transit here in Ottawa."

In December, Ford said the LRT project "stunk to high heaven" and that senior city officials did a "terrible job."

On Thursday, Ford reiterated the LRT project in Ottawa has been "a mess."

"That's all I can say; the inquiry said everything," Ford said.

"But we're always there to support the people of Ottawa, we're there to help any way we can. There's a new administration, I think the world of Mayor Sutcliffe."

"People want transit and we'll be there to help."