OTTAWA, Ontario — Ottawa’s transit service manager now says she is “very confident” that the light rail Confederation Line will resume operation on Aug. 14, after initially hedging on that estimate.
The Ottawa Citizen reports Renée Amilcar said Thursday that she holds that view “based on the work done by RTG [system operator Rideau Transit Group], Alstom, and OC Transpo, that we have a solid plan to restore rail service.”
Trial runs will begin soon, Amilcar said. Work is currently in progress to adjust restraining rails on curves at 16 locations on the 7.8-mile, 13-station Confederation Line to ensure wheels on the light rail vehicles do not touch those rails, part of the effort to reduce stress on a problematic wheel hub assembly.
The Confederation Line has been shut down since July 17, when routine maintenance discovered problems with an axle bearing on one of the system’s 45 Alstom light rail vehicles [see “No timeline set for reopening …,” Trains News Wire, July 19, 2023].
I understand the “restraining rails” in the article are what we called guard rails. They are used on sharp curves and turnouts to restrain the back of the opposite wheel and keep the wheel flange from climbing a rail and derailing. If all goes well, the low wheel does not touch the guard and the high flange does not touch the high rail. If all does not go well, you want the guard to keep the high flange away from the high rail.
It sounds like we have a gauge problem somewhere. They are moving the guard rails “a millimetre or two” meaning they are changing the check gauge (although not by much: track gauge is 1435 mm). If a wheel suddenly moves laterally, so do the axle and the bearings. If the truck is not interested in a sudden lateral move, the bearing takes the shock.
Transit agency is RTG? Weren’t they Amtrak’s French-built SNCF Turbos?
Let’s hope to be “confident” that this will happen.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün