Two trains taken out of service on Confederation Line Thursday morning

OTTAWA -

It was a slow start for commuters on the Confederation Line Thursday morning, as two trains were removed from service following issues with the 'coupler" and the heating and cooling system.

The transit service insists both issues are unrelated to the axle-bearing problem that shutdown the O-Train for five days two weeks ago.

Transportation Services General Manager John Manconi says an eastbound train arriving at Lyon Station experienced a "coupler issue" at 6 a.m. and the safety systems brought the train to a stop.

"A coupler issue can occur when sensors that allow the two cars in a double train to communicate with each other are not correctly aligned," said Manconi in a memo to staff.

"These issues do sometimes happen on rail systems, and we have processes in place to provide notice and ensure the safety of customers."

Manconi says the operator was able to open the doors and customers got off the train at Lyon Station.

Around 7 a.m., another train at Blair Station experienced an issue with its heating and cooling systems. The train was parked at Blair Station and removed from service at 7:30 a.m.

"Due to the current and anticipated temperatures today, the train was removed from the line and returned to the Maintenance and Storage Yard around 7:30a.m., without affecting ongoing rail service," said Manconi.

The issues come just over two weeks after the O-Train was shutdown for five days following a derailment involving a car departing Tunney's Pasture.

Manconi told council two weeks ago that the investigation identified a problem in the axle bearing assembly as the root cause of the issue. He said a bolt in the sealed axle bearing moved a small amount, damaging the bearing inside the unit and wheel and causing the axle to come off the track.

Nine additional cars have been pulled from service for more analysis on the axle.

Speaking on CTV Morning Live Thursday morning, Mayor Jim Watson said the system had been performing well until two weeks ago.

"Anytime there's a stoppage or a slowdown on any of our systems, whether it's transit or waterworks or public works, it's a concern because we want to give the best possible service to our residents," said Watson.

"If you look back over the last year and a half, we had really good service for a year and a half. Two weeks ago we had one week of really bad service."

About 100 people attended a rally on Wednesday at City Hall, calling for an emergency transit commission meeting to discuss issues with the system. Transit Commission Chair Allan Hubley had rejected calls for the meeting, noting Manconi was providing near daily updates to councillors.

"The vast majority of citizens want us to get the job done; they're not interested in grandstanding and rallies and so on. They want our staff to do a proper job, make sure we hold to account RTM and RTG, and that's exactly what happened," said Watson.

"As I said, the system is up and running after one bad week and a year and a half of very good service to the pubic. We want to make sure that we continue to have that level of service, particularly in September as more kids are back at school and more people will start using transit we have to make sure the reliability is at that 98 to 99 per cent."