Trial running of Trillium Line LRT to begin Oct. 7

Transit Services General Manager Renée Amilcar says the 21-day trial running period for the north-south Trillium Line LRT will begin Oct. 7, meaning the line could open to the public as soon as mid-November.

The final phase of testing for the much-delayed Trillium Line LRT will begin next week.

Transit Services General Manager Renée Amilcar said Thursday in a technical briefing at Ottawa City Hall that the 21-day trial running period for O-Train Line 2 and Line 4 will begin Oct. 7, meaning the line could open to the public as soon as mid-November.

"TransitNext has spent the last several years preparing for this test. This is TransitNext's final exam, and it will be a rigorous one. TransitNext and OC Transpo have studied hard, have practiced multiple times and we are united in our confidence in the reliability of the system," Amilcar said. "But the proof will be in the daily testing results. Those results alone, which everyone will be able to see, will determine the success of trial running."

Trains have been running on the line for months as TransitNext and OC Transpo completed a series of prerequisites required for trial running. In August, staff said two of the nine trial running prerequisites were done. All nine are now complete. These prerequisites include fully testing the entire fleet of light rail vehicles, making sure all stations are substantially complete, ensuring there are no outstanding defects affecting the rail systems, and making sure TransitNext and the City of Ottawa are fully prepared to begin trial running.

Trial running is a minimum 21-day period of testing during which TransitNext, the SNC-Lavalin subsidiary that has designed and built the extension, is tested on on-time performance and ability to react to problem scenarios. It will be divided into two sections, a 14-day on-time performance evaluation and a seven-day maintenance and operations evaluation. It is one of the final phases of testing for the system, which is more than two years behind schedule.

The trains must run the line on a simulated normal public schedule and must achieve a minimum on-time performance level of 98.5 per cent over a 14-day rolling average. If this is not achieved after the first two weeks, this testing period will be extended. Additional days will also be required if, at any point, one-day performance drops to 78 per cent or less.