Stage 2 of Ottawa LRT faces further delay
The long-awaited southern extension to Ottawa's light rail network is facing a further delay, a city committee heard Wednesday.
The Trillium Line, which had been scheduled to open by this September, now won't open for the start of the school year.
City staff told the light rail subcommittee on Tuesday that they are hoping that contractor SNC-Lavalin will hand over the project to the city in October.
"Previously we described the August-September timeframe as a stretch target, and the push to late September early October is really a function of making sure we blocked out as much time as possible for training," said director of rail operations Michael Morgan.
"The last schedule there were some stretch targets in terms of completing some specific activities, but we hadn’t finalized the agreement of the training requirements and how much time we wanted on track to finish the training before we started the trial running period. Now we are in a much better place, we have agreed to that, but that has put pressure on the schedule. That is why you are seeing a shift, and we are seeing September-October instead of August-September."
The delay means that for the second straight school year, students at Carleton University will not be able to take the train to and from campus.
Staff did not provide an exact timeline for when passengers will be able to use the Trillium Line, saying it depends on how the system performs in city-run testing.
"There is a 21-day period that is set aside for trial running, seven days is set aside for operational exercises to prove that diversion and different things work," said Morgan. "And there is a requirement that over 14-day period for the system to achieve an availability of 98.5 per cent, basically a rolling average of 98.5. One of the recommendations from the public inquiry was to have somebody, an independent third party, objectively assess that 98.5 per cent and we are looking at that now, who is best placed to do that and who can then present to you that the 98.5 was achieved."
Construction work on the stations and rail installation continues. Morgan told committee he hopes to see end-to-end testing on the line by Aug. 1.
"At the highest level, when you start seeing trains going from Bayview all the way to Limebank, that is an indicator that we are on track."
The Trillium Line, also called Line 2, is the first major extension to Ottawa's light rail transit system. It will extend all the way to Limebank Road in Riverside South and include a spur to the airport.
It replaces the previous O-Train, which ran from Bayview to Greenboro stations.
The project is now more than a full year late from its original planned opening date in 2022.
EAST EXTENSION ALSO DELAYED
The eastern extension to the Confederation Line is also further delayed, committee heard Tuesday.
The line to Trim Road is 51 days behind schedule compared to the last update. Handover to the city is now scheduled for January 2025, with trial running scheduled for January and February of that year.
Rail and the overhead catenary system will be installed, allowing for vehicle testing by the end of the year, officials said.
The Confederation Line west extension is still 17 months late, unchanged from the previous update. It's now scheduled to open in late 2026.
- with files from Leah Larocque, CTV News Ottawa
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6978861.1722008569!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
At least 4 buildings burned at Jasper Park Lodge, others damaged: Fairmont memo
The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge said Thursday afternoon most of its structures are "standing and intact," including its iconic main lodge.
Major Canadian bank dealing with direct deposit outage on pay day
Scotiabank has acknowledged technical difficulties affecting direct deposits as clients report missed payments Friday morning. On Friday morning, the bank's client services phone line was playing an automated message assuring customers that work was underway to rectify the outage.
Elon Musk's estranged daughter calls out his 'entirely fake' claims about her childhood
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk's estranged daughter, publicly refuted several recent anti-trans statements her Tesla CEO and X owner father has made about her.
Reported rate of child pornography increased 52% in 2023, total crime up 3%: Statistics Canada
Last year, reported child pornography cases increased by more than 50 per cent in Canada, in part due to more cases being sent to police by specialized internet child exploitation units, according to a Statistics Canada report.
Justin Timberlake's attorney disputes he was intoxicated when arrested for DWI
A hearing in the case of Justin Timberlake being accused of driving while intoxicated was held Friday, where an attorney for the singer disputed his arrest in June.
What we know about 'malicious' attack on French train network ahead of Olympics opening
French transport was thrust into chaos Friday just hours ahead of the Olympics 2024 opening ceremony after a series of co-ordinated 'malicious acts' upended high-speed train lines.Here's what happened and what we know so far.
When Barbie learned what a gynecologist was, so did many other people, according to new study
A new study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open has found that the ending in the 2023 blockbuster film 'Barbie' had an influence on online search interest in terms around gynecology, the branch of medicine that deals with women’s reproductive health.
Canada Soccer head investigating 'systemic ethical shortcoming' amid spying scandal
Canada Soccer chief executive officer Kevin Blue said he was investigating a potential 'systemic ethical shortcoming' within the program but has not considered pulling the women's soccer team from the Paris Olympics due to a drone spying scandal.
Federal government posts $3.9B deficit in April, May
The result for the April-to-May period compared to a $1.5 billion surplus for the same stretch last year.