OTTAWA, Ontario — Twenty-eight days after service was abruptly halted, Ottawa’s light rail Confederation Line light rail was slated to resume operation today at 5 a.m. EDT, using shorter trainsets while work continues to address axle bearing issues.
CTV News reports plans call for 11 single-car trains to provide service on 5-minute headways over the full 12.5-kilometer (7.8-mile), 13-station route during the morning rush hours, and 13 trains to operate on 4-minute headways during evening peak periods. During non-peak periods, nine trains will run on 6-minute intervals. For at least the first day, the bus system that replaced the light rail service will continue to operate; further decisions on bus operations are yet to come.
Trains began operating over a portion of the system on Aug. 8. The system was shut down during the afternoon rush hour on July 17 after a bearing issue was discovered on one car during routine maintenance [see “No timeline set for reopening of Ottawa light rail line,” Trains News Wire, July 19, 2023].
Short-term remedies to the bearing issues that have plagued the system include replacement of wheel hub assemblies on the Alstom light rail vehicles and repositioning of restraining rails at 16 curves where those are used to prevent contact with wheelsets. The Ottawa Citizen reports that as of Sunday, 28 of the 45 trainsets have had the hub replacements completed and all 16 restraining rails have been adjusted.
A longer-term solution will involve redesign of the car axles, which will take more than a year.
Is it my imagination, or are wheel and bearing problems much more prevalent today than in the past, especially light rail? Wheels shifting on an axle seemed almost unknown until recently. And bearing problems are no longer just individual cars but whole fleets. Bad design? Poor build quality? Poor maintenance? Not good for the industry and service dependability.
I’ll have to agree with you on that Roger, seen the same thing in the industrial world.
Without any proof, I blame the use of computerized design / drawing programs. They allow designers to get down to the lowest tolerance possible to allow for lighter and more economical designs. And of coarse the all mighty dollar causing things to be made as cheap as possible mixed in with more economically priced imports.
I can remember the old guys on their drawing boards working largely in fractions instead of todays one thousands of an inch when doing the actual manufacturing drawings.
We have also lost a lot of experience as the workforce ages and retires on mass.
Best of good luck to the Confederation Line for full return!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün