{"id":534174,"date":"2026-03-13T17:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534174\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:57:14","slug":"power-outages-freezing-rain-to-blame-for-latest-line-1-east-woes-memo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534174\/","title":{"rendered":"Power outages, freezing rain to blame for latest Line 1 east woes: Memo"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ice storm is still causing trouble for Ottawa\u2019s infamous light rail transit system<\/a> on Friday after OC Transpo revealed a new problem.<\/p>\n

According to a memo from Troy Charter, interim general manager of transit services, said that power outages near Tremblay and Blair stations and a piece of the Overhead Catenary System damaged and fell at Blair are the reason for Friday morning\u2019s problems. <\/p>\n

This comes after freezing rain on Thursday caused damage to the system<\/a> on the east end. In a memo, officials note that workers were on site overnight to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s issues appear to be linked to the weather event from a day prior, as OC Transpo said it was a \u201cnew issue\u201d that caused trains to stop at stations. <\/p>\n

\u201cOvernight,\u00a0Rideau Transit Group completed the removal of ice buildup across the (Overhead Catenary System), except near Lees Station, and are also working\u00a0to remove a\u00a0stopped\u00a0train at\u00a0this\u00a0station,\u201d the memo at 6:42 a.m. reads.<\/p>\n

Then at 11:\u00a046 a.m., another memo indicated that Rideau Transit Group were conducting inspections between Lees and Blair stations and started to tow three stopped trains from the system.<\/p>\n

It means the east end of the line has not operated since 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. R1 bus service is running between Lyon and Blair stations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"A wire can be seen hanging from the Overhead Catenary System onto a train at Blair Station on March 13. (Councillor Tim Tierney) <\/p>\n

\u201cWork to repair the (Overhead Catenary System) at Blair Station will begin when all the vehicles have been removed,\u201d OC Transpo said. \u201cThis will be followed by inspections and testing of the OCS to ensure no further corrective work is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when the line will reopen to passengers but the transit agency said it is \u201cexpected to take most of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a ghost town\u2019<\/p>\n

Ottawa City Councillor Tim Tierney went to Blair Station just after 9:00 a.m. on Friday to check out the situation and found no one there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking around on the platform. I\u2019m like, \u2018Where is everybody?\u2019 There\u2019s nobody. There\u2019s no Rideau Transit Group. There is no OC Transpo people. It\u2019s a ghost town,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

CityNews reached out to both Rideau Transit Group and OC Transpo to comment on the councillor\u2019s concerns. Neither provided comment ahead of the deadline.<\/p>\n

Tierney said there is a disconnect between what the transportation agency is saying and what is happening on the ground with the latest LRT problems. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why we need somebody else to come in and take over this thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The councillor wants an engineering audit on Line 1 to understand all the issues. He said this would be good to do before the system is uploaded to the province, a campaign promise Doug Ford made<\/a>, and something Ottawa councillors have continued to ask for.<\/p>\n

A video taken by Councillor Tim Tierney shows Blair Station empty just after 9:00 a.m. on March 13. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe province made the commitment to take it over, so let\u2019s call in the province,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cLet\u2019s get it up. Let\u2019s start moving. Because clearly our system is suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n

Line 1 has suffered a host of problems this year, including to the vehicles, which OC Transpo was forced to pull because of a spalling issue<\/a>, which is when flakes break off the metal inside the axle, creating pits that grow over time. This, it says, is a\u00a0separate issue from the axle bearing assembly problem<\/a> that has been plaguing the system for years. <\/p>\n

Since January, the line has been running with 70 per cent of its vehicles in maintenance.<\/p>\n

This has raised serious questions from Tierney, who does not believe the east end extension will be ready by this spring<\/a>, despite what OC Transpo has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way it\u2019s going to be running by the end of the second quarter in the east end,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re in deep trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ice storm is still causing trouble for Ottawa\u2019s infamous light rail transit system on Friday after OC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-534174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}