Ottawa's new north-south O-Train opens to the public

Ottawa's new north-south O-Train officially opened to transit riders Monday morning, more than two years behind schedule.

A large crowd gathered at Bayiew Station just before 6 a.m., in -17 C weather, to greet the first train arriving at the station on the northern end of Line 2 ahead of the first scheduled departure at 6:07 a.m.

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"People are pretty excited with the convenience," Glen Gower, Stittsville councillor and chair of the Transit Commission, told CTV Morning Live. "People anxious to see what this train is like and so far, the reviews are pretty good."

In a memo to council, Transit Services General Manager Renee Amilcar said Lines 2 and 4 launched "as planned this morning."

"Service is progressing well on the first day of the phased opening."

In an afternoon news conference, officials said "light to moderate" passenger loads were observed on both lines and parallel bus service in the morning. 

The first official stop on O-Train Line 2 was at the South Keys station at 6:02 a.m. The first train departed south from Bayview Station at 6:07 a.m., while the first south-north train departed from Limebank Station at 6:13 a.m.

"The ride is very smooth, it's very good," Larry, a transit rider, told CTV Morning Live.

"People waited a long time…but it's certainly a nice ride. The stations look very good. I'm pretty impressed so far."

Line 2 runs from Bayview Station to Riverside South, including a stop at Carleton University, while Line 4 will run from South Keys Station to the Ottawa International Airport.  Trains are scheduled to depart stations every 12 minutes, and a trip on Line 2 will take approximately 36 minutes.

"It's been a long time, so we're glad to see it finally running," Gower said.

"You can already see how this is transforming the city; all the development that you see along the line. We're seeing people deciding to live near the train, and it's changing the way the city is growing."

A train arrives at the Line 2 Carleton Station Monday morning on the first day of operation for the new north-south O-Train line. (Adam Zuccala/CTV Morning Live)

Gower understands some people may be reluctant to trust the new O-Train Line 2 and Line 4 following the issues with the launch of the Confederation Line.

"People have seen what happened with Line 1, but the way OC Transpo has approached this line with the testing and the preparations has been completely different," Gower said, noting OC Transpo conducted six additional weeks of testing on Line 2 and Line 4 before launch.

"I think taking the extra few weeks before Christmas to go through that extra testing and familiarity, I think it's given people a lot more comfort and confidence in the system as we launch today."

A crowd gathers at Bayview Station Monday morning to be the first to ride the new north-south Line 2 in Ottawa. (Adam Zuccala/CTV News Ottawa)

Coun. Shawn Menard was at Carleton University to speak with students using the line on the first day of the winter semester.

"It's been a long time coming, a long wait for university students and staff on campus," Menard said in a video on X. "Really exciting day."

Monday is also the first day for the Line 4 connection from South Keys to the Ottawa Airport. Andrew Paley travelled from Toronto to ride the O-Train Line 4 on its first day.

"It was fantastic. Like, the train is surprisingly consistent; always comes on time," Paley said.

Paley says the connection to the Ottawa Airport is a game changer.

"That is probably one of the best parts about this new system is the fact that it has an airport connection," Paley said. "Not having the connection before was kind of disappointing. Every region should have an air-rail link. That's kind of an important thing to have."

Dennis Van Staalduinen added, "It's just incredible that we can finally get out to the airport by train. It means that people have an option to go at a fairly low cost from the airport to other destinations."

One traveller arriving in Ottawa from Vancouver took advantage of the new O-Train line.

"I think it's good that there is a direct train from the airport and there's no need to use buses or something like that," the traveller said.

OC Transpo is opening Line 2 and Line 4 in three phases, with the first phase offering Monday to Friday service for at least two weeks. Phase two will expand service to six days a week, Monday to Saturday, for another two weeks, at least, before seven days a week service is launched in phase 3 in February at the earliest.

An Alstom LINT train travels towards the Airport Station at the Ottawa International Airport. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

Regular bus service will continue along the two lines as part of a transition period for riders. This includes B2 bus service, Route 97 from the Ottawa Airport and Route 99 in the city's south end.

The $1.6 billion north-south LRT was supposed to open in August 2022, but construction delays and expanded testing delayed the opening significantly. Monday's milestone follows years of construction, testing and assurances that lessons have been learned from the tumultuous rollout of the east-west Confederation Line in 2019.

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Here are the hours of operation for Line 2 and Line 4:

• Monday to Friday 6 a.m. to 12 a.m.
• Saturday: 6:30 a.m. to 12 a.m. (No Saturday service when Line 2 and Line 4 launch Jan. 6)
• Sunday and holidays: 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. (No Sunday service when Line 2 and Line 4 opens on Jan. 6)

A look inside the Stadler FLIRT train that runs on O-Train Line 2. (William Eltherington/CTV News Ottawa)

OC Transpo says times are approximate and subject to “minor deviations as final schedules are developed and implemented.”

Ottawa's transit service will launch its New Ways to Bus program in the spring, which will bring bus routes in line with O-Train service.

“New Ways to Bus includes more than 100 routes and is planned to launch as early as spring 2025, opening up new convenient connections across the city,” OC Transpo says on its website. “Every neighbourhood and most customers will see changes to their trip.”

The changes include fewer Connexion routes and retiring some routes due to low ridership. A total of 126 routes will see changes or be introduced when the new bus system launches.

This is the first of two rail lines OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa will open in 2025.

The Confederation Line's east extension from Blair Station to Trim Station is expected to begin service in the summer or fall of 2025.