Sustained R1 service could lead to bus cancellations as LRT disruption continues

The city of Ottawa says OC Transpo is looking at several service plans for Sunday and into the workweek as trains remain stuck on part of the Confederation Line, but those plans could affect other commuters.

Two trains became stuck on the line during a freezing rainstorm on Wednesday, when a significant amount of ice built up on the overhead wires that power the light rail transit system. An attempt to clear ice Friday caused more damage to the wires, leaving a third train immobilized on the line. An attempt to move one of the stuck trains on Saturday caused even more damage, immobilizing a fourth train.

OC Transpo is offering rail service between Blair and Tremblay stations, with R1 service running from St. Laurent to Rideau and then another train loop between uOttawa and Tunney’s Pasture in the west end.

Troy Charter, director of transit service delivery and rail operations, tells CTV News Ottawa that keeping that R1 service running will affect other parts of the bus network.

“Our commitment is to continue to provide R1 with as frequent a service as possible, but I do need to be 100 per cent transparent and honest in this regard, we do know that there will likely be other impacts to increasing cancellations in other parts of the system,” he said in an interview. “The teams are working through that to try to minimize those impacts. And we’re going to continue to work through this all weekend.”

Workers repair a damaged overhead power line on the LRT. Jan. 7, 2023. (Josh Pringle/CTV News Ottawa)

Students are returning to classes on Monday and workers who have been on Christmas holidays are returning to work, which means increased demand on the system.

Charter said there is currently no timeline for a full return to service.

“Our goal is to return to service as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re not going to cut corners. We’re going to do this right… At this point, I don’t have a timeframe, but we are looking at multiple service plans for Sunday, as well as Monday into next week, depending on what transpires over the next day.”

MORE OVERSIGHT

OC Transpo says it is bringing in additional oversight to monitor repairs on the Confederation Line as work to repair the line and resume full service continues.

Transit Services GM Renée Amilcar announced the additional oversight team in a memo Saturday morning.

“OC Transpo is bringing in additional external oversight, in addition to TRA, to closely monitor RTM’s work, provide independent advice to OC Transpo and confirm that we have a solid plan to return service to this area,” she said.

“Once the inspection is complete, repairs to any damaged sections of the OCS will be completed before recovery attempts recommence.”

TRA was hired to monitor RTM after the Sept. 2021 derailment. Amilcar did not specify who would be providing the additional external oversight.

Charter also didn’t specify who was providing the additional expertise but said it was a team that has worked with the city on the LRT before.

“We want to bring in other engineering consultants that have been working with us, with the city of Ottawa, and are very familiar with the design build of the line. They’re consultants we worked with through the construction phase, the design phase of the system, so we wanted to engage them as well,” Charter said.

“At this point, given where we’re at, we didn’t want to bring in a separate consulting firm that needs to be briefed on the situation… we needed to bring in people familiar with the system who could help us immediately.”

'I'M AS FRUSTRATED AS ANYONE,' MAYOR SAYS

Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the disruptions this week are definitely frustrating.

“Like all residents and OC Tranpso passengers, I’m as frustrated as anyone,” he told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s “CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent” on Saturday morning.

Sutcliffe said OC Transpo and the city are bringing in as much expertise as they can to help solve the issue and ensure reliability going forward.

“We need a reliable service; we need a service people can feel confidence in,” Sutcliffe said.

He noted that prior to the current issue, the system has been running reliably.

“For the past nine months, we’ve had a very reliable system,” he said, while acknowledging that this is part of a troubled history with the train. “Whenever an event happens with our light rail system, it’s adding to a list. It’s not an isolated event; it’s part of an ongoing saga of this story we’ve had playing out over the last roughly four years now.”

A train stalled in between Hurdman and Tremblay Stations on the Confederation Line, Jan. 7, 2023. (Jeremie Charron/CTV News Ottawa)

He told CFRA that bringing in additional oversight is a good thing.

“They’re bringing in expertise from outside, which I think is great. Anytime we’ve got an issue and there are other people who can help and have more experience with this, fantastic,” he said.

“It’s been an unfortunate sequence of events. When they’ve tried a solution, unfortunately it’s not worked and in some cases even added to the problem, and that can happen sometimes, but they’re doing everything they can to fix this.”

Sutcliffe ran on a campaign of improving public transit, specifically the LRT. One of his moves was to create a subcommittee at city council specifically to monitor the LRT project as Stage 2 begins.

"I think what's encouraging here is we're seeing OC Transpo and the light rail office, and RTG and RTM working effectively and collaborating effectively to find a solution here, bringing in the outside expertise, those are all the kinds of things that you want to see happening when problems occur," he said. "Of course, you want the problems to be as few and far between, but when they happen, you want to see all hands on deck, communicating effectively."

--With files from CTV's Jeremie Charron.