Ottawa light rail trains are not running between Blair and uOttawa stations Thursday morning due to ice on the Confederation Line overhead power system.
OC Transpo tweeted shortly before 5 a.m. that the line was completely closed.
By about 6:15 a.m., he said the westbound section of the line between Tunney’s Pasture station and uOttawa had been reopened. The rest of the eastbound lane was still closed as of 11:15 a.m
Backup R1 buses run from Rideau to Blair stations, and the bus runs between St-Laurent and Cyrville stations to connect passengers to stations on the line during power problems.
ONGOING Line 1: Train service has resumed between Tunney’s Pasture and uOttawa. R1 bus route between Rideau and Blair. Bus transport between Saint Laurent and Sirville. The on-site staff is helpful. Updates to come.
—@OCTranspoLive
In a note on Thursday morning, the general manager of the city’s transport services said two trains stopped at around 11.45pm on Wednesday night between Lees and Hurdman stations. After just under an hour, 37 passengers were escorted to Herdman to board a bus, Rene Amilcar said.
Ice build-up on the power system is believed to have stopped the trains, she said. A video posted on Twitter shortly after 11 p.m. showed bright flashes and sparks around the system near Herdman.
hey pic.twitter.com/2EgJIdjHOh
—@typezero303
There was another power outage that lasted less than half an hour between Blair and Tremblay stations shortly after midnight on Thursday.
Amilcar said that as the freezing rain continued to fall and trains were not running, ice was beginning to form on the power system east of Lees.
She wrote in a follow-up note that the two trains between Lees and Herdman had not been moved as of 6:30 a.m., while a third train was still stopped at Tremblay. Maintenance workers were removing ice from the power system, and that was delaying those trains, she said.
Digital display boards at Bayview Station show 15 minutes between trains west of uOttawa Station, Jan. 5, 2023. That’s the same time between the R1 bus route further east, OC Transpo says. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC)
A freezing rain warning was in effect for Ottawa until 10 a.m. Thursday. Freezing rain was reported at the international airport starting around 10:00 pm on Wednesday, changing to freezing rain early Thursday morning.
Concerns about the LRT system’s winter performance predate its opening, according to reports obtained by the CBC at the time. A provincial inquiry last year said the line was rushed.
Most recently, there were two problems with the power system in the last half of December 2022: a mechanical failure on 17 December near Lees station and a broken wire near Cyrville station on 30 December.
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