OTTAWA — After a new problem involving wheel hubs led to light-rail vehicles being removed from service Saturday on the troubled O-Train Confederation Line, much of the line has been shut down today (Monday, July 25) because of what the agency OC Transpo is calling “a technical issue.”
Bus service is being substituted between the Confenderation Line’s western terminus, Tunney’s Pasture, and St-Laurent, just two stops from the line’s eastern end. No trains are operating between Tunney’s Pasture and Hurdman, a stretch covering nine of the route’s 13 stops.
The CBC reports that all trainsets that have more than 175,000 kilometers (about 108,700 miles) over service have been removed from service after a “failure” in one wheel hub assembly, a problem found after an operator reported vibrations on one trainset.
Renee Amilcar, OC Transpo transit services general manager, wrote in a memo to Ottawa’s city council that equipment manufacturer Alstom had indicated the failure affected the axle and bearings, and that the builder and contractor Rideau Transit Maintenance were conducting testing to determine the cause of the issue.
The issue left 10 trainsets in operation as of Saturday, with others to be returned to service as they are inspected.
The problem is different than one that led to an August 2021 derailment that was also blamed on an axle bearing issue.
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