Will another winter storm cripple Ottawa's LRT system?

A significant snowstorm hitting the capital has Confederation Line users understandably on alert.

The O-Train system failed before during major weather events, and only recently reopened after a section was closed for six days following a freezing rain storm that damaged the overhead catenary system.

As heavy snowfall begins to blanket the city, Noah Parenteau, who uses public transit to get to school, has no expectation that OC Transpo will be on time.

"It’s not looking good for tomorrow. I might have to plan ahead and leave much earlier than I already have to," the Carleton University student said. "I live in Orleans, so on paper it’s an hour ride but it’s never an hour. Every day, buses are not on time, I’m missing my transfers and the train is always faulty … I did lose trust in the system, (OC Transpo) and it’s frustrating because I am paying for a uPass and you know it’s a lot of money."

With the possibility of freezing rain, many transit users will be looking up at the overhead catenary system (OCS), which powers the train cars along the tracks. Last week, some of those lines snapped after heavy ice build-up during a rainy winter storm.

For six days, a section of LRT track, between Tremblay Station and uOttawa Station, was shut down, pushing passengers to pack into R1 replacement buses, increasing demand for drivers, which caused dozens of bus routes across the city to be cancelled or delayed.

In a memo to council on Wednesday, transit officials outlined some of the recent weather-related issues which cause the system to fail on Jan. 5.

The memo, from transit services general manager Renée Amilcar, says two stopped trains between Lees and Hurdman stations and the one stopped train at Tremblay Station resulted in a higher-than-normal ice accumulation. A power outage that night also prevented trains not being able to travel across the line as frequently as normal, resulting in ice build-up on the OCS, according to Amilcar.

Amilcar notes that a review is underway to look at more mitigation strategies to be implemented during severe weather, including bringing on more staff and running non-service trains more frequently when extreme winter weather conditions are in the forecast.

While so far this season, snowfall has not been the culprit for rail failure, the province of Quebec has been keeping a close eye on Ottawa’s situation and are using the LRT as an example of what not to do. Montreal works to complete a 67 km light rail service, REM, which is expected to begin rolling along parts of the track this spring.

"This is a lesson we learned from Ottawa and other systems around the world," says Jean-Vincent Lacroix, a spokesperson for CDPQ Infra, the contractor for the REM project. "Sometimes taking a little bit more time to put in service the system like the REM, it's a good decision."

Which may ultimately prevent commuters, like Parenteau, from having to resort to other options.

"I don’t know what to fix but they have to do something," he says. "I can’t rely on the bus so I’m getting a car ride instead."