Ottawa LRT trains travelling slower due to snow buildup

If you've taken the LRT recently and it seemed a little bit slower than usual, you're not imagining it.

Trains were travelling slower on some sections of the Confederation Line on Monday, city of Ottawa staff confirmed. Customers reported similarly slow speeds on Tuesday.

The reason, in short: the snow buildup is interfering with the trains' detection system.

“Customers may have noticed that trains were travelling slightly slower on certain sections of Line 1 earlier this morning," a city spokesperson said in a statement Monday attributed to Troy Charter, OC Transpo's director of transit operations.

"An accumulation of snow resulted in some false readings on our Guideway Intrusion Detection System (GIDS), which warns rail operators about a possible intrusion on the tracks near a station," the statement said.

When that system is deactivated, OC Transpo implements temporary slower train speeds in the area so train operators have enough time to see a potential obstruction and stop safely, Charter said.

"Additionally, under certain track conditions, we may adjust the train’s brake and acceleration rates to be more gradual when approaching a station," he added. "These routine operational adjustments ensure safe operations of the train and result in minimal to no impact to customers’ trip times."

Ottawa has received more than 200 centimetres of snow so far this season, including almost 100 cm in January alone.

The LRT has fared well during storms that involve just snow. But part of the line was shut down for six days after some freezing rain fell early this month.

On Sunday evening, service on part of the line was shut down for about 90 minutes due to a power outage.