Late start to ice clearing contributed to LRT disruption, but no idea why trains stopped

A late start to launching trains equipped with ice-clearing devices might have contributed to the six-day delay seen on Ottawa's Confederation Line LRT, but the root cause of what stopped two trains during a freezing rain shower last week remains unknown.

A late start to launching trains equipped with ice-clearing devices might have contributed to the six-day delay seen on Ottawa’s Confederation Line LRT, but the root cause of what stopped two trains during a freezing rain shower last week remains unknown.

OC Transpo and Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) officials held a news conference Tuesday evening to announce that full LRT service would resume within hours. A memo sent at 8:15 p.m. said service had finally resumed across the entire line, six days after those trains became stuck in the freezing rain.

RTM CEO Mario Guerra said that the first of two trains that remained stuck for six days was removed from the line Tuesday afternoon, and the second was on its way back to the maintenance yard as he was speaking. Then, he said, RTM would be running low-speed and stress tests in the area of track between uOttawa and Tremblay stations before full service resumes.

Reporters’ questions were largely focused on what went wrong and why.

OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar said a root cause investigation into why the trains stalled is underway and it’s too early to have an answer. Guerra said he did not want to speculate, but told reporters that one of the major issues that kept service offline for so long was ice buildup on the line.

“We know what happened. The ice buildup was so extreme that we had to take several steps to remove it and because of that, it took much longer than it normally would have,” Guerra said. “As to why it happened? I think Ms. Amilcar said it’s going to take us awhile to figure that one out, but I wouldn’t expect that to take too long.”

Guerra said a working group formed of experts from RTM, the city of Ottawa, and Alstom, the train manufacturer, has been formed and has already met once, and he anticipates some preliminary information “within weeks.”