OTTAWA, Ontario — Service on Ottawa’s light rail Confederation Line was reduced on Thursday, just four days after it resumed following a four-week shutdown, because of issues with a restraining rail on a curve between the Hurdman and uOttawa stations.
All trains were routed onto the eastbound track between those two stations when it was discovered wheels were rubbing against the restraining rail on the westbound track, the Ottawa Citizen reports. As a result of the single-tracking, trains were operating on 15-minute headways, instead of the 4-minute rush-hour intervals planned when service resumed on Monday.
Contact between wheels and the restraining rails is a concern because of ongoing axle-bearing issues with the system’s Alstom light rail vehicles. During the system shutdown that ended Monday, the restraining rails had been realigned by small margins that were supposed to prevent contact between the wheels and rails, easing strain on the bearings [see “Return of Ottawa light rail line pushed back …,” Trains News Wire, July 29, 2023].
Work to address the issue was planned overnight, with transit agency OC Transpo saying it expected normal operation to be restored by today (Friday, Aug. 18), the Citizen reports.
It looks like thursday’s LRT problems are behind Ottawa residents, for now.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
The next story about Ottawa’s light rail should be, “Ottawa Light Rail runs for one week without incident!”
What a mess. Which is worse? The U.S. or Canada? Why can so many other countries on this planet get it right and we can’t?
Neither this nor the earlier posting gives the radii of the curve(s) involved. It did not give the amount, if any, of superelevation or if there was already gauge widening for the curve(s).
As I recall they were going to change the track gauge by a couple of millimetres (Standard RR Gauge is 1435 mm). A couple of millimetres is not much of a change.
A slow order would not reduce the stresses and allow safe operation to resume?
Another blow of bad luck to the Ottawa light rail service! Fortunately, it’s a problem that can be solved overnight.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
I think overnight is optimistic, if the first shutdown took four weeks.