Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

That is unacceptable. Then the City wonders why they can't get ridership back to pre pandemic levels.

I wish people would stop saying this kind of thing as if it means anything.

Nobody at city hall is so dense that they're just sitting around wondering why ridership isn't going up. It really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone here that ridership growth/recovery hasn't been a leading driver of transit policy in well over a decade now. The problem isn't that nobody knows why ridership isn't recovering, it's that nobody is willing to do anything about it. (Plus, it's not like there are many people who are eager to accept that there's more to Ottawa's struggling ridership recovery than just the bad service).

The only thing this kind of statement accomplishes is making someone look smug about their attitudes towards city hall while not even coming close to touching on the real underlying issue. It's basically a waste of energy but with all of the negative and cynical sentiment. It's kind of tiring.

[Uhuniau]

Better late than never, Episode 53 I think:

https://twitter.com/OC_Transpo/statu...75110563532949

We are happy to announce that we are installing additional shelters at Hurdman and Tunney's Pasture stations to provide more shade and weather protection.

Starting today, you may see construction on the bus platforms.

Info: https://ow.ly/YmAo50Qr3bb

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Better late than never, Episode 53 I think:

https://twitter.com/OC_Transpo/statu...75110563532949

I was excited at first because I thought they were installing the promised overhangs to shelter people as they walk from to/from O-Train along the platform, but sounds like they’re just installing regular bus shelters as (another) temporary solution.

[rocketphish]

News flash — LRT did NOT break down in that winter storm

Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 16, 2024 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 3 minute read

It was going to be a slam-dunk of a column. The snows that came down like Dylan Thomas’s wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays this past weekend would surely overpower our enfeebled, weather-phobic light-rail system and knock the trains out, one after the other. Rum-laden St. Bernards would be dispatched to dig through avalanches and rescue trapped passengers from Blair to Bayview. Travellers would shake their fists at OC Transpo, and social media would spill over with vitriol.

But it didn’t happen.

Mother Nature even had hubris on her side. Recall the previous Tuesday, when Environment Canada predicted up to 20 cm of snow. Nowhere near that much fell, at least not in the city, but the following day, a memorandum from transit boss Renée Amilcar explained how OC Transpo, Rideau Transit Maintenance and the city’s Public Works Department had worked together to keep transit moving: running extra trains, de-icing overhead wires, maximizing carbon strips (whatever that means) and deploying staff to monitor switches and other infrastructure.

I’m sure everyone was anxious for her update; who among us, after all, went to bed the night before thinking that all would go smoothly and end well?

Yet Jon MacLean, who relies on the trains for three or four round trips each week, found a somewhat annoying subtext to the message. “Don’t congratulate yourself for doing what we expect you to do,” he said when I met him Friday at the St. Laurent station.

MacLean was one of a handful of LRT riders I spoke with that day in advance of the big weekend storm that we all just KNEW was going to send service off the rails. What, I wanted to understand, goes through riders’ minds regarding the LRT when the weather office issues winter storm warnings? How were they going to feel on Saturday when they couldn’t get to their pharmacy, to work, to pottery class, to see friends and family?

Instead, they DID get to those places. Oh, sure, there were some transit holdups and kinks, most — at least the ones that I saw and heard about — related to buses and road-clearing. Some articulated buses got stuck, as they are prone to, but there WAS a tonne of snow, and some allowances have to be made for that.

I watched one would-be bus passenger at a stop on Somerset Street West, unable to summit the mountain that a street plow had left between the sidewalk and her bus. That particular impasse was overcome, though, when the bus driver drove slowly for half a block until a break in the snowbank appeared, allowing the woman to get on; I only hope all drivers were as kind.

But back to the LRT: it worked better than anyone could have reasonably predicted, given its well-documented aversion to weather events. For those who, like myself, expected to come out of the weekend railing against the rail, OC’s success was, I’ll admit … bewildering. Until now, there was always something reliable about its unreliability. This time, the expected failures around which Ottawans regularly rally weren’t there.

Gone was the opportunity to use satisfyingly terrible headlines, such as “Snow Way Around It,” “LRT Takes a Powder,” “Riders Left to Chill” or “Snowcation at the Station.”

Instead, there was a strange sense of “What now?” and “What might this mean when the next storm comes?” Or, dare I even think it, “Have we arrived?” Has Ottawa’s LRT become the equivalent of a cloudy day when you’re uncertain about whether you should take an umbrella? MacLean tried to remain levelheaded about LRT and the weather. “Frustration isn’t going to change anything,” he said. “When the weather’s bad, I just set out half an hour earlier.”

That makes sense; even the optimist in me thinks it’s still far too early to applaud OC Transpo. These successes during a storm-and-a-half don’t provide nearly enough data to reach any reliable conclusion about the fixes being applied to LRT.

But they are encouraging. If you’ve spent much time at all on the trains, you know how dramatically they slow down on curves. Maybe, just maybe, things are actually turning a corner? Perhaps. But there’s still a lot of winter left. Don’t put those headlines away just yet.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...n-winter-storm

[DTcrawler]

There is some serious Mandela Effect going on in this city because surely this is not the first major snowstorm that Line 1 has survived without disruption. Sure, there have been plenty of storms that did cause issues, especially when freezing rain was involved, but articles like the one above and social media posts have me confused.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

There is some serious Mandela Effect going on in this city because surely this is not the first major snowstorm that Line 1 has survived without disruption. Sure, there have been plenty of storms that did cause issues, especially when freezing rain was involved, but articles like the one above and social media posts have me confused.

Indeed, the article is quite silly. It was just two years ago (to the day!) that the LRT handled a whole 48cm of snowfall without issue-- one of the single snowiest days in recent history. Contrast that to a mere 15cm of snow that fell last week...

Not only that, but there have been two other dates since then where more snow has fallen than the storm the article is describing.

Freezing rain was a concern, sure, but anyone still surprised that the LRT didn't have problems with snowfall just isn't paying attention and it's really "weird" not to mention that at all.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

Indeed, the article is quite silly. It was just two years ago (to the day!) that the LRT handled a whole 48cm of snowfall without issue-- one of the single snowiest days in recent history. Contrast that to a mere 15cm of snow that fell last week...

Not only that, but there have been two other dates since then where more snow has fallen than the storm the article is describing.

Freezing rain was a concern, sure, but anyone still surprised that the LRT didn't have problems with snowfall just isn't paying attention and it's really "weird" not to mention that at all.

Having said that, I would rather an article saying something good about the O-Train ignoring the positives and only reporting on the problems. Snow is where trains thrive and having it as a backbone to our system should help improve overall reliability when there is a major snow event. Freezing rain can be (and has been) a problem with catenary anywhere and we need to find ways to make it more resilient in ice storms.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Having said that, I would rather an article saying something good about the O-Train ignoring the positives and only reporting on the problems.

You're totally right, but the ironic thing is still that this article managed to miss many of the positives and is instead more of a "backhanded positive".
Still better than nothing, I guess.

e.g. this quote is just stupid:

That makes sense; even the optimist in me thinks it’s still far too early to applaud OC Transpo. These successes during a storm-and-a-half don’t provide nearly enough data to reach any reliable conclusion about the fixes being applied to LRT.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Having said that, I would rather an article saying something good about the O-Train ignoring the positives and only reporting on the problems. Snow is where trains thrive and having it as a backbone to our system should help improve overall reliability when there is a major snow event. Freezing rain can be (and has been) a problem with catenary anywhere and we need to find ways to make it more resilient in ice storms.

Agreed. Article isn't a glowing review, but anything even remotely positive is welcome.

[rocketphish]

Double glitches disrupt LRT service Wednesday
A pair of unrelated glitches briefly disrupted service on the Confederation Line Wednesday.

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 17, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 1 minute read

A pair of unrelated glitches briefly disrupted service on the Confederation Line twice on Wednesday.

The first happened just after midnight when the LRT had to switch to single-track service in the west end to allow a Rideau Transit Maintenance worker to safely service a switch on the eastbound track. Full service resumed at about 1:30 a.m.

More disruptive was the stoppage of an eastbound train at Pimisi station just after noon when a train operator received a fault notification.

“The operator attempted to rectify the issue with the train, however, further troubleshooting was required and a Rideau Transit Maintenance technician was dispatched to the scene,” Troy Charter, director of Transit Service Delivery & Rail Operations, said in an emailed response.

“During this time, train service operated along the entire line between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations, with trains operating on a single track between Tunney’s Pasture and Lyon stations.”

About a half hour later, the train was safely moved to Tunney’s Pasture station and full service resumed at 12:37 p.m., Charter said.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...vice-wednesday

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Having said that, I would rather an article saying something good about the O-Train ignoring the positives and only reporting on the problems. Snow is where trains thrive and having it as a backbone to our system should help improve overall reliability when there is a major snow event. Freezing rain can be (and has been) a problem with catenary anywhere and we need to find ways to make it more resilient in ice storms.

Agreed but the only issue is that the existence of articles like this one promote the false idea that this is the first major snow event that Line 1 has survived without disruption. I.e. if the next storm goes by and there's no celebratory article, are people going to assume there was a disruption?

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Double glitches disrupt LRT service Wednesday
A pair of unrelated glitches briefly disrupted service on the Confederation Line Wednesday.

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 17, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 1 minute read

A pair of unrelated glitches briefly disrupted service on the Confederation Line twice on Wednesday.

...

Is it common for local media in other cities to publish an entire article (or air a TV segment) over every minor disruption to service? I definitely don't remember that being the case when I lived in Toronto unless it was a major disruption (meaning a TTC shuttle bus apocalypse was about to ensue). In this case, service wasn't even suspended to any part of the line, let alone a full shutdown!

I don't mean to sound like an O-Train apologist but I feel the local media have played a big role in making a bad situation even worse re: the public perception of Line 1. The multi-day/week shutdowns are inexcusable and devastating enough for the line's image, but when articles like the one above are published and widely circulated, often with a caption along the lines of "here we go again!" it's not doing us any favours. The public is led to believe that occasional, minor delays are out of the ordinary even though a quick scan of the STM or TTC twitter feeds would quickly show the contrary.

It's unfortunate that Line 1 stumbled out of the gates because the local media have learned to capitalize on the outrage p*rn and have bagged themselves a click-generator for decades to come, no matter how much improvement is made to the line's reliability. The tone has been set.

Full service resumed at about 1:30 a.m

Service ends at 1:00am on weekdays...

[roger1818]

Exactly. Does the media report on every fender bender that occurs on the Queensway, causing traffic delays?

[Richard Eade]

If Ottawa had several mature rail lines running, and the public was well used to minor ‘glitches’, it wouldn’t be news – as you point out for Toronto and Montreal. However, when Ottawa’s, still relatively new, single line – a line that the entire transit ‘network’ was redesigned to focus passengers on to – has any problems, Yes, it is news-worthy. If for no other reason than to explain to riders who had been inconvenienced ‘what had happened.’

That said, I found the article informative because it mentioned a switch problem in the west end. Up until now, switch problems that we have heard of have been frozen switches in the east end. Those problems subsided when the switch heaters were changed to gas-fired ones.

Are the west-end switch-heaters still electric?

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

If Ottawa had several mature rail lines running, and the public was well used to minor ‘glitches’, it wouldn’t be news – as you point out for Toronto and Montreal. However, when Ottawa’s, still relatively new, single line – a line that the entire transit ‘network’ was redesigned to focus passengers on to – has any problems, Yes, it is news-worthy. If for no other reason than to explain to riders who had been inconvenienced ‘what had happened.’

That said, I found the article informative because it mentioned a switch problem in the west end. Up until now, switch problems that we have heard of have been frozen switches in the east end. Those problems subsided when the switch heaters were changed to gas-fired ones.

Are the west-end switch-heaters still electric?

I see your point but at this stage are Ottawans not just as used to minor glitches as Torontonians/Montrealers are? If anything, articles like the one above just reinforce the idea that we should not be used to minor glitches, which is selling a false hope. There will continue to be public outrage over every anomaly to service until glitches like yesterday’s are treated as routine and to be expected, which they are. Even in MTL the new REM has had regular issues but I only see articles reporting on “notable” issues (such as a two hour shutdown a week ago)

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

If Ottawa had several mature rail lines running, and the public was well used to minor ‘glitches’, it wouldn’t be news – as you point out for Toronto and Montreal. However, when Ottawa’s, still relatively new, single line – a line that the entire transit ‘network’ was redesigned to focus passengers on to – has any problems, Yes, it is news-worthy. If for no other reason than to explain to riders who had been inconvenienced ‘what had happened.’

That said, I found the article informative because it mentioned a switch problem in the west end. Up until now, switch problems that we have heard of have been frozen switches in the east end. Those problems subsided when the switch heaters were changed to gas-fired ones.

Are the west-end switch-heaters still electric?

This all comes down to lack of resiliency. This makes Confed Line failures almost catastrophic for the transit user. There are too few alternate transit routes that cross the city that are any good.

I have a feeling that a lot of failures do not get reported except as part of a radio traffic report. In that respect, people deserve to know. It is not any different from reports about an accident on the Queensway or anywhere else that is backing up traffic.

It may make the train look bad, but information about delays is important to know.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Exactly. Does the media report on every fender bender that occurs on the Queensway, causing traffic delays?

The weather caused an outage on the REM last weekend, and I don't think I heard any flipout.

Ottawa LRT flipouts can be heard in Montreal.

[Richard Eade]

I’m not convinced that every little thing that goes wrong with the O-LRT is reported.

Recall that eltodesukane posted on Sunday, Jan. 14 (post 17355) that they had to wait 18 minutes for the train. (And that was after they arrived, so there is no telling how long between trains it actually was.) As lrt’s friend suggested, the train might have been restricted to a single track in the west end. (It is a long way for a single train to go to Tunney’s Pasture and back, if trains can’t pass. And, it sounds as if the same type of thing might have delayed the end of service on Wednesday morning; since it takes a lot longer for each train to finish the loop before it can go back to the MSF.)

Did I miss the news article about what delayed the train for eltodesukane on Sunday? Was it a problem with a switch in the west end? Maybe the same switch as Wednesday?

Sure, there are lots of problems with the TTC’s rail lines, but they are usually announced or minor in the delays they cause. The switch problem apparently lasted from around midnight to 01:30. That is an hour and a half of single-track service. Sure, OC Transpo says that it wasn’t a major issue because all stations were serviced. But was it on a 20+ minute frequency? There is a big difference between waiting an extra 7 minutes in a relatively warm TTC subway station, and waiting 20 minutes on the elevated Hurdman LRT platform, in the bone-chilling wind.

I did not find any news reports about a REM shut-down this past week-end due to weather.

The latest reported problem I found was from last Thursday (Jan. 11) morning, which prevented the rail line from opening until about 07:40 (instead of the usual 05:30). It turns out that electrical work that was being done overnight took longer than expected. However, shuttle buses were provided until about 08:15, providing about a half-hour of overlap in train/bus service. Commuters were frustrated because of the slower buses, but still, apparently, fairly well served.

Similar 07:30 openings are scheduled for each week-end day in January, so that Hydro-Quebec can do related power work. This may be what delayed the start on Thursday – which would not be a REM problem. If there is no power from Hydro-Quebec; REM can’t be blamed.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

This all comes down to lack of resiliency. This makes Confed Line failures almost catastrophic for the transit user. There are too few alternate transit routes that cross the city that are any good.

This is one of those things that is often repeated which I don't think holds up to even the slightest scrutiny.

When you look at a city like Toronto which has lots of "parallel" routes throughout its grid network... nobody is going out of their way to take a bus or streetcar when the Subway network has a hiccup. It'd be like taking the 14 (in Ottawa) as a way to bypass an LRT disruption at uOttawa.

For extended closures where significant resources are reallocated to R1? Of course, that's extremely disruptive and would naturally be reported on. But run of the mill train faults? medical/security incidents? The idea that this somehow uniquely impacts Ottawa more than it would any other city is completely unfounded and my theory would be that it's a holdover from the small-town attitude of dozens of converging buses on the transitway. It was nice while it lasted, but surprise! No large city operates like that.

Ottawa isn't unique in this regard. We should stop treating it that way.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

This is one of those things that is often repeated which I don't think holds up to even the slightest scrutiny.

When you look at a city like Toronto which has lots of "parallel" routes throughout its grid network... nobody is going out of their way to take a bus or streetcar when the Subway network has a hiccup. It'd be like taking the 14 (in Ottawa) as a way to bypass an LRT disruption at uOttawa.

For extended closures where significant resources are reallocated to R1? Of course, that's extremely disruptive and would naturally be reported on. But run of the mill train faults? medical/security incidents? The idea that this somehow uniquely impacts Ottawa more than it would any other city is completely unfounded and my theory would be that it's a holdover from the small-town attitude of dozens of converging buses on the transitway. It was nice while it lasted, but surprise! No large city operates like that.

Ottawa isn't unique in this regard. We should stop treating it that way.

Yep. How many cities the size of Ottawa have multiple parallel rapid transit lines? Especially in North America?

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

This all comes down to lack of resiliency. This makes Confed Line failures almost catastrophic for the transit user. There are too few alternate transit routes that cross the city that are any good.

I have a feeling that a lot of failures do not get reported except as part of a radio traffic report. In that respect, people deserve to know. It is not any different from reports about an accident on the Queensway or anywhere else that is backing up traffic.

It may make the train look bad, but information about delays is important to know.

This is straight up conspiracist nonsense.