Staff gave members of the transit committee an update on the ongoing issues plaguing Ottawa\u2019s Line 1 light rail transit (LRT) system, noting when the vehicles could be fully restored.<\/p>\n
The meeting heard from senior staff at OC Transpo who walked councillors through what has been going on with the spalling issue that was first discovered in January on many of the LRT vehicles. This is a new issue with the cartridge bearing assemblies on the trains, forcing the agency to pull all trains with mileage higher than 100,000 kilometres from its fleet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since then, the line has been operating with 70 per cent of the vehicles out of the system,<\/a> which means the LRT has not been running at peak capacity during peak times. <\/p>\n \u201cOC Transpo confirmed that every effort is being made to accelerate this work safely. Based on current information, Line 1 capacity will continue to increase and may be fully restored by the end of May<\/a>,\u201d a press release states.<\/p>\n Committee members heard that the transit agency has been planning with Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the operators of the LRT, and Alstom, the contractors who designed the vehicles. \u201cIncremental progress\u201d was made on the containment plan, which focused on implementing a monitoring system to ensure this issue doesn\u2019t happen again, replacing the cartridge bearing assemblies and conducting a technical analysis of the mechanics.<\/p>\n It is one of the priorities for the agency to address the problem, along with how environmental factors also cause disruptions to the system.<\/p>\n Sam Berrada, light rail regulatory monitor and compliance officer with OC Transpo, said that the overhead catenary system is high on the priority list for the agency to address this year after the\u00a0city received 22.7 mm of rain and freezing rain<\/a>, which coated wires, vehicles and roadways.<\/p>\n