OTTAWA, Ontario — Ottawa’s O-Train light rail Confederation Line has been shut down until further notice because of a bearing issue discovered during a routine equipment inspection.
OC Transpo announced the service interruption about 4:30 p.m. Monday. CTV News reports transit services general manager Renée Amilcar informed city officials the move was made “in an abundance of caution.”
An Aug. 8, 2021, derailment on the problem-plagued Confederation line was later attributed to a catastrophic bearing failure; a subsequent derailment led to a lengthy closure of the 7.8-mile, 13-station system [see “Ottawa light rail system faces extended shutdown,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 4, 2021]. The system’s ongoing problems triggered a public inquiry that issued a report last year highly critical of both city officials and the consortium that built the system [see “Report from Ottawa light rail inquiry blasts …,” News Wire, Dec. 1, 2022].
The problem vehicles belong to the Alstom Citadis Spirit LRV family developed for Ottawa’s O-Train. A series of reliability issues have always plagued those vehicles right from the full inauguration of the transport system.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün