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After 11 meetings over two years, Ottawa’s light-rail subcommittee examining the construction and operation of the troubled Confederation Line LRT has reached the end of the line.
The small subcommittee chaired by Riverside South Coun. Steve Desroches is disbanding, its oversight role to be assumed by the city’s regular transit commission.
“One of the big mandates of the committee was following up on the recommendations of the commission of inquiry. That part is mission accomplished,” Desroches said after council’s Jan. 22 meeting.
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The subcommittee was struck in late 2022 at the start of the current term of council and held its first meeting on Feb. 16, 2023. Its mandate was to follow up on the recommendations of the public inquiry into the Confederation Line by Commissioner William Hourigan, whose stinging report highlighted deficiencies in the construction and oversight of the first phase of Ottawa’s LRT.
The subcommittee met eight times in 2023 and three times in 2024. The presentations were often highly technical, dealing with issues such as the redesign of the troublesome wheels and axles on the Alstom Citadis vehicles on the Confederation Line, problems with the track and overhead catenary lines that power the electric trains, and leaks in the downtown tunnel.
Desroches said the city took Hourigan’s recommendations to heart and the evidence is the smooth launch in early January of the north-south Trillium Line.
“We learned a lot of lessons and we will continue to learn lessons with the launch of the Trillium Line.”
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said oversight will still continue as the Trillium Line increases to seven days a week service and through the construction of the east and west extensions of Line 1, the Confederation Line.
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“We’ve just had a successful launch, so far, of the Trillium Line, LInes 2 and 4 of light-rail, following a very, very robust and transparent testing process that happened in November and December. That was evidence that we followed the recommendations of the inquiry,” Sutcliffe said.
Rolling the responsibilities of the LRT subcommittee into the transit commission was the recommendation of both councillors and city staff, he said.
“When you look around the table, there’s the same 24 group of councillors plus the mayor, who will have oversight. The work is still going to get done.”
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