OC Transpo head doubles down on Trillium Line opening in spring

The head of OC Transpo is standing firm that the north-south Trillium Line will open sometime this spring, despite the transit authority having extended the timeline for opening until at least early summer.

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"I'm confident that it will be this spring as I have already said," OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar told Coun. Riley Brockington during questions at Monday's transit commission meeting.

Brockington asked Amilcar for an update on the opening, after OC Transpo officials said during last month's LRT sub-committee meeting that the opening of the Trillium Line would be delayed until at least early summer, with officials saying training and trial running would need to go smoothly over the next four months before launch.

"We are not expecting the Trillium Line opening until at least the summer of 2024 is that correct?" Brockington asked Amilcar.

Amilcar insisted the training was going 'very well' and they are working to debug any glitches in their systems.

"I think you would agree with me that we don’t want another unfortunate story as the Confederation Line, so we will open the system when were ready," Amilcar said.

A report for the LRT sub-committee shows OC Transpo has given themselves a wider timeline to launch customer service, with the window extending from May to September.

OC Transpo has updated its timeline for the Trillium Line's opening. (OC Transpo)A delay into August would make the Trillium Line opening two years behind schedule.

OC Transpo officials had previously said the O-Train Line 2 would open in the spring of 2024, but Ottawa's director of rail operations Michael Morgan told councillors last month that training and trial running will delay the launch until late June or early July at the earliest.

"If we say three months for the operations and maintenance training to wrap up, three months from today. So based on that, if that goes well – it has to go well, things have to go right - we go into trial running," Morgan told councillors at the LRT sub-committee meeting.

Construction on the Trillium Line was originally scheduled to be completed in August 2022, but was delayed until September 2023. Last September, Amilcar said that based on the progress to date, a fall launch was no longer possible and would be delayed until the "spring of 2024."

Amilcar says a formal update to council on the Trillium Line will be provided during April's transit commission meeting.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Josh Pringle