No timeline for return to full LRT service after latest freezing rain shutdown

There is no timeline for when full O-Train service will resume on Line 1 after freezing rain halted service Wednesday morning.

Five LRT vehicles were immobilized Wednesday morning, trapping passengers for lengthy periods of time until they could safely disembark the trains, sometimes with the help of emergency responders.

One of the trains became immobilized east of Tunney's Pasture Station, one stopped at Rideau Station after coming in from uOttawa station, two trains are stuck between Lees and Hurdman stations, and the fifth train was immobilized east of Tremblay Station.

Five trains became immobilized on Ottawa's Confederation Line on April 5, 2023 after freezing rain coated the overhead power lines with ice. (Joey Lavergne/CTV News Ottawa)

Officials addressed reporters Wednesday afternoon, but offered no clear indication of when service would resume on the $2.1 billion system that has experienced numerous systemwide failures since its launch in 2019.

Rideau Transit Maintenance CEO Mario Guerra said the plan for a return to service is to bring trains back online in the west end of the system between Tunney's Pasture and uOttawa stations before working on restoring the remainder of service in the east end.

A news release from the city of Ottawa, sent after the media availability ended, indicated that service in the west end could resume at some point Wednesday.

"Staff are prioritizing areas of the line to restore service and believe it will be possible to reinstate partial service in the west end of the line later today," the city said. "Additional sections of the system will be brought back into service as soon as it is safe to do so."

Of particular issue is the area between Lees and Hurdman stations, where numerous issues have occurred. Two trains became immobilized in that area, where a bridge crosses the Rideau River. Guerra said it appears that area of track is the worst part of the line. 

OC Transpo implemented R1 bus service between Tunney's Pasture and Blair Stations at 9:45 a.m. after a "power issue" with the $2 billion system, OC Transpo said on Twitter. No trains were running on the LRT line through the day. There were 13 trains on the line in the morning, 10 equipped with winter carbons designed to scrape ice off of the overhead wires, but that was not enough to prevent the buildup that eventually shut the system down.

All 13 trains remain on the line. The eight trains that were not immobilized were directed to transit stations, where they were ordred to stop.

Guerra told reporters that the five vehicles that became immobilized stopped when the onboard systems noticed power fluctuations from the icy wires.

"When the overhead wire that supplies the power has ice on it, the pantograph on the vehicle is not making good contact, and we see big fluctuations in voltage. When the vehicle sees that, it shuts down to protect itself," he said. "The vehicles are operating as designed in this situation."

COMMUNICATIONS ISSUES 

The transit service released no details about the power issue and the shutdown of the LRT network four hours after the incident first occurred. In a memo to council at 1 p.m., Transit Services general manager Renee Amilcar said due to a "significant weather event," there were four stopped trains along the system that experienced power loss.

"In anticipation of the forecasted freezing rain, trains were run continuously overnight and this morning 13 trains were running, 10 of which had winter carbons to reduce ice build-up on the overhead wires," Amilcar said.

"Despite these precautions, five vehicles became immobilized and customers had to be safely evacuated.

"Given the current conditions and to ensure customer safety, we have taken the additional step of suspending Line 1 and have implemented R1 bus service. R1 is running between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations at approximately 20-minute intervals."

Passengers have said they were given no indication of what was happening while they waited for more than a hour before disembarking the train.

Charter told reporters the communication issue would be reviewed.

"That is surprising to me that there wasn't more communication, because our operators are on the trains," he said. "That will be part of our debrief. We do have standard operating procedures in place that require our operators to communicate with customers."

PASSENGERS DESCRIBE BEING STRANDED

There were two stopped trains between Less and Hurdman stations over the Rideau River bridge. Ottawa firefighters were called to cut the chain-link fence and help passengers off the immobilized LRT vehicles and walk back to Lees Station.

"We walked back from almost Hurdman all the way back," Charles Ambaiowei said, adding firefighters helped rescue passengers from the train.

"We walked on the track."

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Passengers stranded on a stuck Ottawa LRT train are rescued by firefighters during a freezing rainstorm. (Video: Charles Ambaiowei) #ottawa #ottLRT #ontario #canada #storm #freezingrain #fyp

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An OC Transpo supervisor told CTV News Ottawa more than 150 passengers were stranded on trains in the area between Lees and Hurdman stations.

Suzanne Plante, 74, was travelling on the O-Train to Tremblay Station, where she was set to board a VIA Rail train en route to Montreal for Easter.

"We were frozen. There's no heat, but they did their best. They did come and get us," Plante said.

She says a passenger on the train helped her bring her bag from the stopped LRT train to Lees Station.

"He took it for me. We're frozen," Plante said.

O-Train passenger Liz Haig told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work she had been sitting on a stopped train for over an hour.

"No updates whatsoever from OC Transpo on Twitter or live in person," Haig said just after 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Haig said approximately 100 people were on her eastbound train when it stopped over the Rideau River.

"About 10 minutes after we got stuck, the driver came out of the little cubicle at the front and said he was going to back up the train. But we have not moved, and we haven't seen the driver since," Haig said Wednesday morning.

"It's pretty disappointing. People are looking very frustrated, anxious."

Haig told CTV News Ottawa at 11 a.m. that firefighters cut open the fence and carried passengers off the train. The passengers then had to walk along an icy pathway to Lees Station to wait for R1 buses.

One passenger told CTV News Ottawa he was stuck on a train for over two hours before being rescued.

Several passengers described sitting on the cold train for over an hour while waiting to be rescued.

The transit service initially reported a stopped train at 8:49 a.m., and trains were only running on the westbound tracks at uOttawa, Lees and Hurdman stations. At 9:24 a.m., OC Transpo announced there was no train service between Rideau and St. Laurent stations.

SENSITIVITY TO FREEZING RAIN

The O-Train was partially shut down for six days in January after freezing rain led to an ice buildup on the overhead catenary system. Two trains stopped east of Lees Station due to the frozen wires, and a section of the overhead power system was damaged.

Officials blamed a "unique combination of factors" for the ice build up on the Confederation Line near Lees Station. In February, Rideau Transit Maintenance crews repaired a broken arm that supports the wire in the overhead catenary system near Lees Station.

On Wednesday, Amilcar and Guerra commented on changes made to the line that could have made the system more sensitive to freezing rain.

"We know that since 2019, we ran those trains and never had any problem with freezing rain. We know that we had a modification a few months ago with the power supply. Is it that it is too sensitive and the train reacts too quickly? We don't know, we have to continue the investigation on that," Amilcar said.

Guerra said changes have been made to the vehicles to improve reliability.

"We have made some changes to the vehicles in the last three years and we're looking at if any of these changes have somehow altered how the vehicle reacts and shuts down and maybe makes the vehicle more sensitive," he said.

The exact nature of the changes was not specified, but both Guerra and Amilcar said they would be part of the investigation into Wednesday's disruption.

SUTCLIFFE 'FRUSTRATED' BUT DEFENDS SYSTEM

Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he was frustrated to see another shut down of the Confederation Line but in an interview on Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron, he defended the system's overall service.

"I would point out that since the last time the train was down for several days in January, there have been seven days with at least 10 centimetres of snow, there have been 10 days with at least 10 millimeters with either rain or freezing rain, and there have been eight days with winds of more than 50 kilometres an hour and through all of those unusual and extreme weather events, the trains were running," he said.

"This is very, very concerning and we need to get to the bottom of it and, once again, learn from what has happened today, but I don't think we should say or can say that every time there's freezing rain, the train goes down. That is not the case."

Sutcliffe said he wants to see the transit system in Ottawa improve, but he also said it will never work 100 per cent of the time.

"When there are extreme weather events, there will be disruptions," he said. "I would point to the fact that the school buses weren't operating today but OC Transpo was operating today. R1 bus service was operating today. It's not the same service, but we were moving people in extreme weather."

Sutcliffe campaigned last year on fixing the transit service. He said Wednesday that the work to restore confidence in the system would take time. He pointed to the newly-created light rail subcommittee working on issues with Stage 1 and overseeing Stage 2. But he insisted that service on the LRT was still largely reliable.

"I agree that we have problems with the light rail system. January is an example, today is an example; but I don't agree with the idea that, quote, the system doesn't work in the winter, because we just had three months of winter with all kinds of weather—extreme snow days, freezing rain, heavy rain, high winds—through all of that the trains were running every day."

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Jackie Perez.