OC Transpo boss will not commit to Trillium Line opening date
The head of OC Transpo says construction continues to progress on the new Trillium Line, but she will not commit to an opening date for the new north-south light-rail transit system.
Work continues on the new commuter line between Bayview Station and Riverside South, with a spur to the Ottawa International Airport.
Transit Services general manager Renee Amilcar has previously said the Trillium Line will launch this spring, but she told the Transit Commission that several questions remain before the system launches.
"We are making good progress, but I know that the question remains, 'When will it open?'" Amilcar said Thursday.
"Before we can answer that we need to see train operating hours increase, operator training complete and system training advance. We will be better positioned to predict the pathway to passenger service as we move through these activities."
O-Train Line 2 was originally scheduled to open in August 2022, but has been delayed several times. In February, staff suggested trial running could begin in May, with launch at the end of June or early July.
"We continue to see good progress on the testing and commissioning program, as well as training of operators and system controllers," Amilcar said.
"Monday to Friday, we are regularly running nine trains between Limebank and Bayview stations and to the airport station. It was very important to have nine trains; so check done. We anticipate extending the training and testing to include weekends by the end of this month."
OC Transpo has updated its timeline for the Trillium Line's opening. (OC Transpo)
Amilcar says increasing the trial running to weekends means OC Transpo will be "able to identify more vehicle, signal and infrastructure issues and address them."
"This is a key part of the testing phase. Finding these issues now allows us to fix them and increases our confidence that the system is safe and reliable when it opens."
OC Transpo and its construction partners continue to make progress on testing, completing construction and securing occupancy permits.
"Our next steps, once testing and training is complete, will be to run the entire system to build up reliability and overall proficiency of both the operations and maintenance teams to deliver the service," Amilcar said.
"Trial running will start once performance is stable.
OC Transpo and its partner TransitNext will target 98.5 per cent reliability during the 14-day trial running period.
A joint meeting of the Transit Commission and the light-rail transit subcommittee will be held on May 31, with staff expected to provide an update on Stage 2 construction.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.