School buses cancelled in Ottawa and eastern Ontario on Thursday following storm

A prolonged period of freezing rain created slippery driving and walking conditions on Thursday, cancelling school buses for all school boards in Ottawa and eastern Ontario and slowing down the commute.

The freezing rain warning ended for Ottawa just before 5 a.m. Ottawa received 13 hours of light freezing drizzle and freezing rain, according to Environment Canada.

The city of Ottawa says all crews have been deployed to clear the snow and ice off roads and sidewalks.

"Our main focus has been to treat those icy conditions from the storm last night," Bryden Denyes, area manager of Ottawa roads, told CTV Morning Live. "We were focused on our priority roads and our sidewalks. Now we're going to be moving into looking at getting over those priority networks again and then moving into our residential streets and sidewalks this morning."

OC Transpo is reporting O-Line 1 launched on time at 5 a.m. and service is available at all stations. The transit service does warn commuters should expect delays on OC Transpo and Para Transpo routes due to the slippery conditions.

Ontario Provincial Police reported "multiple collisions" on Highway 417 overnight due to the freezing rain.

"Thankfully, no injuries were reported. Remember to slow down and drive according to the conditions," the OPP said.

Highway 401 was temporarily closed overnight near Brockville due to a collision.

The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority says school buses are cancelled for all students in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and Ottawa Catholic School Board.  Schools are open today.

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Buses are also cancelled for the following boards across the region:

• Upper Canada District School Board
• Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario
• Renfrew County District School Board
• Renfrew County Catholic District School Board
• All Conseil des ecoles catholique du Centre-Est schools in Ottawa, Arnprior, Brockville,Carleton Place, Almonte, Pembroke, Prescott-Russell, Kingston, Marionville, Merrickville, Kemptville and Trenton
• Conseil des ecoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario

All schools are open.

OC Transpo

OC Transpo says Line 1 (Confederation Line) launched on-time at 5 a.m. on Thursday, and service is available at all stations.

Bus and Para Transpo service is operating, but OC Transpo warns delays are expected.

"Plan ahead and be cautious when boarding, exiting, and at station platforms," OC Transpo said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

In a memo to council, Transit Services general manager Renee Amilcar said service was running on time.

"Thank you to our colleagues in the Public Works Department who have been out all night doing a great job to clear roads including prioritizing the transit network," Amilcar said Thursday morning.

"We are monitoring the forecast and expect challenging weather conditions to last into Friday. The OC Transpo team will continue to implement our robust winter operations plan throughout this weather event to keep our city moving. "

OC Transpo and Rideau Transit Maintenance operated out-of-service trains along the O-Train line overnight to mitigate ice buildup from occurring on the overhead catenary wires.

The transit service says de-icing solution is regularly applied to the overhead catenary wires to prevent ice build up, and carbon strips have been installed on trains to scrap ice from the system.

Ottawa Airport

The Ottawa International Airport was only reporting one flight cancellation for Thursday morning, as of 5:45 a.m.

Five flights are delayed today.

The airport is reminding travellers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

School exams

Ottawa's two largest school boards have rescheduled exams set for today due to the storm.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board said on social media that, "there will be no evaluation tasks or exams taking place today for secondary students."

"All final evaluation tasks, exams, and student success opportunities scheduled for today will take place tomorrow. The rest of the scheduled secondary evaluation tasks and exams will shift to the next day. Your school will contact you with more details."

The Ottawa Catholic School Board says all exams scheduled for today have been postponed and rescheduled for Friday.

"Additionally, all other OCSB exams will be shifted by one day, with the last exams that were scheduled for Tuesday, January 30, now being written on Wednesday, January 31," the board said in a statement. "It's important to note that during a snow day, all schools remain open, but exams are not written."