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Three weeks of trial running have been successfully completed on the Trillium Line LRT, but another three weeks are needed before the city accepts “substantial completion” of its newest train line.
Transit general manager Renée Amilcar presented a final summary of the trial running in a memo to the mayor and city council on Monday. The seven-day Operational and Maintenance Evaluations segment of the trial run concluded on schedule Sunday.
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“With trial running activities having now successfully concluded, the O-Train South Extension project will move towards substantial completion, final readiness work, and regulatory approvals. This is expected to take a minimum of three weeks,” Amilcar’s memo said.
As part of the readiness work, trains along the Trillium Line’s two tracks — Line 2 between Bayview and Limebank, and Line 4 between South Keys and Ottawa Airport — were halted Monday so builder TransitNEXT could make final fixes as the program enters its final phase.
The pause will last until Oct. 30.
Amilcar said TransitNEXT will be doing track maintenance, removing graffiti and making other final touches this week.
“This is planned work and an important step to advance us on the path to passenger service on Lines 2 and 4,” she said.
Later this week, OC Transpo will deliver a memo to city council with a “deep dive” technical briefing with the full results of the trial run and “a confirmation of the launch timelines,” her memo said. “It will be the last briefing before the Trillium Line opens to customers.”
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Over the first 14 days of trials, TransitNEXT achieved a 99.5 per cent reliability rating, easily meeting the 98.5 per cent passing grade the city had set for it. While the seven days of testing in the Operational and Maintenance Evaluations was not part of that pass/fail grade, it gave operators experience dealing with a number of incidents they might face when the train starts carrying passengers.
That included what to do if a train breaks down between stations, how to respond to a fire alarm, even what to do if a student protest at Carleton University blocks the tracks.
The Trillium Line was originally set to open in the fall of 2023 but is now more than two years behind schedule. If all goes well, the train could be complete, licensed and ready to carry its first passengers toward the end of November.
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