OC and STO service disruptions

[Waiting for 30 Minutes]

36 minutes ago, tomb said:

Can't catch a train either.

Nice.

[Shaun]

I don't understand why they continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. Also why haven't they procured a diesel truck that can tow trains out? Backup generator? 

Why was none of this imagined when they built the thing in the first place? It's not like power outage and freezing rain is a new phenomenon. 

[Waiting for 30 Minutes]

On 4/6/2023 at 6:48 PM, Shaun said:

I don't understand why they continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. Also why haven't they procured a diesel truck that can tow trains out? Backup generator? 

Why was none of this imagined when they built the thing in the first place? It's not like power outage and freezing rain is a new phenomenon. 

The basic answer for all your questions is politics.

The project was limited to the $2.1 billion budget. You may know the figure was a campaign promise by former mayor Watson who based it off preliminary estimates from staff (completely ignoring the three years elapsed between estimate and promise and the +/- $500 million in the estimate). Basically, the project was doomed by politics from the start.

Following that, the poor state of the relationship between the city and RTG meant both sides stuck to their guns in the maintenance contract. Rather than working out solutions, both sides chose to hardline it by requiring every change follow the contract requirements, which state required what amounts to a renegotiation.

The relationship between the city and RTG is slowly improving, in the spirit of the inquiry findings, but we went so far down the hole that it's going to take a lot of time to chip away at persistent issues.

[Loud-Invero]

https://twitter.com/OC_Transpo/status/1674514849823375366?t=i4-BGU26YSMdEqMigZTAfg&s=19

Jeez, did Jim Watson plan this for OC? TL;DR; Defacto no service to Pimisi (it seems at all except for mobility impaired users? Their wording is hella confusing) all day. To continue Jim Watson's Legacy, all day they expect you to walk over a kilometer to your actual destination/to access transit services and no additional services will be provided to accommodate the inflow at Bayview or Lyon. Route 16 and 85 will already be on a Sunday schedule so they might as well be good for nothing.

Between 8-10 PM, trains will bypass Pimisi entirely. After the fireworks, service will resume at Pimisi EASTBOUND ONLY. N-Routes will run early and plenty of them heading west after the fireworks.

[OCCheetos]

2 hours ago, Loud-Invero said:

Jeez, did Jim Watson plan this for OC?

I don't think Jim Watson had a huge amount of say in moving Canada Day celebrations off of Parliament Hill due to construction.

2 hours ago, Loud-Invero said:

Between 8-10 PM, trains will bypass Pimisi entirely. After the fireworks, service will resume at Pimisi EASTBOUND ONLY. N-Routes will run early and plenty of them heading west after the fireworks.

Welcome to crowd management, an important part of holding large events like this.

[bsnider001]

18 hours ago, Loud-Invero said:

Route 16 and 85 will already be on a Sunday schedule so they might as well be good for nothing.

Route 85 is definitely not on a Sunday schedule on July 1... https://www.octranspo.com/en/plan-your-trip/schedules-maps/?sched-lang=en&date=20230701&rte=85

[JCL]

O-Train, LRT Line 1 is down: https://www.octranspo.com/en/alerts/#alert-143755

Quote

Routes: 1 O-Train

Date effective: July 17, 2023

ONGOING, Line 1: Out of an abundance of caution, R1 bus service implemented between Tunney's Pasture and Blair due to a technical issue. No train service on Line 1. All stations are closed. Updates to follow.

CTV article: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/all-lrt-service-suspended-due-to-bearing-issue-1.6483260

[JCL]

1 hour ago, JCL said:

O-Train, LRT Line 1 is down: https://www.octranspo.com/en/alerts/#alert-143755

CTV article: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/all-lrt-service-suspended-due-to-bearing-issue-1.6483260

The General Manager of OC Transpo sent out an e-mail to City Councillors (which was copied to the media, which former Ottawa Citizen Columnist Ken Gray has posted): https://bulldogottawa.com/entire-lrt-system-closed-due-to-safety-problem/

Quote

Sent on behalf of Renée Amilcar, General Manager, Transit Services Department

Good afternoon, Mayor and Members of Council,  

This email is to notify you that, in an abundance of caution, Transit Services is immediately launching R1 service across Line 1, after a routine inspection revealed an issue with a bearing.

More information will be provided soon.

Many thanks,

Renée Amilcar

General Manager, Transit Services Department

City of Ottawa

The shutdown occurred around 4:45pm, in the middle of the PM rush hour. 

[Centralsmt]

Time to close the LRT indefinitely to finally rectify all the issues.

Scrap the R1

Until the system is back up and running after rigorous testing run direct high frequency express (min 10 min freq all day) services Downtown from the suburbs.

Orleans - Tunneys

Barrhaven - Hurdman

Kanata/Stittsville - Hurdman

Airport - Parliament Stn

OC Management can work out the most direct route with minimal stops.

Finally a full Independent public enquiry into the LRT farce must be called as a matter of urgency.

I live Downtown so I don’t actually use LRT and it doesn’t really affect me, but the system has been a complete failure and the general public has absolutely no confidence in it, or in OC Management. 

 

 

 

[MCIBUS]

So does it say how long(est) on when it re-open? I'm guessing at least not by Tuesday? I'm guessing R1 will be running Tuesday?

[Centralsmt]

34 minutes ago, MCIBUS said:

So does it say how long(est) on when it re-open? I'm guessing at least not by Tuesday? I'm guessing R1 will be running Tuesday?

OC say “until further notice” which would suggest it will be out of commission for some time.

 

[JCL]

1 hour ago, MCIBUS said:

So does it say how long(est) on when it re-open? I'm guessing at least not by Tuesday? I'm guessing R1 will be running Tuesday?

R1s will be operating tomorrow. 

CTV Graham Richardson just received a copy of the latest letter sent to City Council. 

 

[ZümmyZüm]

14 hours ago, Centralsmt said:

Time to close the LRT indefinitely to finally rectify all the issues.

Scrap the R1

Until the system is back up and running after rigorous testing run direct high frequency express (min 10 min freq all day) services Downtown from the suburbs.

Orleans - Tunneys

Barrhaven - Hurdman

Kanata/Stittsville - Hurdman

Airport - Parliament Stn

OC Management can work out the most direct route with minimal stops.

Finally a full Independent public enquiry into the LRT farce must be called as a matter of urgency.

I live Downtown so I don’t actually use LRT and it doesn’t really affect me, but the system has been a complete failure and the general public has absolutely no confidence in it, or in OC Management. 

 

 

 

As much as I agree and would love it, they don’t have the buses. 150 hybrids scrapped in 2020, 75 double deckers pulled last month and Inveros are on a inspection based decision.. we barely have enough to meet service 

[Centralsmt]

1 hour ago, ZümmyZüm said:

As much as I agree and would love it, they don’t have the buses. 150 hybrids scrapped in 2020, 75 double deckers pulled last month and Inveros are on a inspection based decision.. we barely have enough to meet service 

Then quite simply they have to find them from somewhere, if that means reinstating withdrawn vehicles or hiring in vehicles from somewhere so be it.

Theres far too many excuses being branded about with no solutions, time to be pro-active instead of constant damage limitation.

[CanadianBrick1]

17 hours ago, Centralsmt said:

Time to close the LRT indefinitely to finally rectify all the issues.

Scrap the R1

Until the system is back up and running after rigorous testing run direct high frequency express (min 10 min freq all day) services Downtown from the suburbs.

Orleans - Tunneys

Barrhaven - Hurdman

Kanata/Stittsville - Hurdman

Airport - Parliament Stn

OC Management can work out the most direct route with minimal stops.

Finally a full Independent public enquiry into the LRT farce must be called as a matter of urgency.

I live Downtown so I don’t actually use LRT and it doesn’t really affect me, but the system has been a complete failure and the general public has absolutely no confidence in it, or in OC Management. 

 

 

 

That is a really good idea, but it's too logical for it to be something put in place, so they probably wouldn't ever do that and it sucks. They wanna make their public perception better because of all the LRT issues and they yet again prove they don't care.

And I find it laughable that they wanna remove more buses from service for the opening of Stage 2, instead of keeping at least some of them and improving existing service. Because if the bus still comes every half hour during the day, who would want to ride the train when you could drive to your destination in the amount of time it takes to wait for the bus.

[JCL]

2 hours ago, Centralsmt said:

Then quite simply they have to find them from somewhere, if that means reinstating withdrawn vehicles or hiring in vehicles from somewhere so be it.

Theres far too many excuses being branded about with no solutions, time to be pro-active instead of constant damage limitation.

I agree with you that the buses retired should be reinstated. 

I don't know how quickly they can reinstate the retired double decker buses at this point. Those retired buses are stored in Manotick in a City Yard, awaiting for the scrapper to pickup. The 75 double deckers are likely among the 117 buses were identified for retirement as part of the 2023 Budget process (which was approved by City Council). 

 

[Centralsmt]

25 minutes ago, JCL said:

I agree with you that the buses retired should be reinstated. 

I don't know how quickly they can reinstate the retired double decker buses at this point. Those retired buses are stored in Manotick in a City Yard, awaiting for the scrapper to pickup. The 75 double deckers are likely among the 117 buses were identified for retirement as part of the 2023 Budget process (which was approved by City Council). 

 

It’s irrelevant that they are “likely” identified for replacement, they are now required so they have to be reinstated, so what if the city council approved the Budget, it can be reversed, after all the city council work for us the tax payers, and that’s all tax payers not just their favoured groups of tax payers, they are there to serve us and to provide the best service possible. Too many in City Hall forget that.

[JCL]

1 hour ago, Centralsmt said:

It’s irrelevant that they are “likely” identified for replacement, they are now required so they have to be reinstated, so what if the city council approved the Budget, it can be reversed, after all the city council work for us the tax payers, and that’s all tax payers not just their favoured groups of tax payers, they are there to serve us and to provide the best service possible. Too many in City Hall forget that.

I would like to see the City Budget that was approved a few months ago be reversed in order get those retired buses back in service to deal with the very issue we are seeing today. I don't see any Councillors or Transit Commissioners demanding for an Emergency Meeting to re-open the budget, and to increase the funding to add those retired buses back to the daily bus count. The current make-up of City Council (elected in October 2022) doesn't seem too interested in making decision that favours transit users (except for a few Councillors). 

And to repeat myself in my previous post, I don't know how quickly OC can bring back those retired double decker buses back into service, right now (if hypothetically they are able to do so). They gradually retired the buses beginning in January 2023. To reactivate the retired buses, they'd have to inspect the bus, and do all the other necessary work before they are roadworthy again.

[ZümmyZüm]

49 minutes ago, JCL said:

 

And to repeat myself in my previous post, I don't know how quickly OC can bring back those retired double decker buses back into service, right now (if hypothetically they are able to do so). They gradually retired the buses beginning in January 2023. To reactivate the retired buses, they'd have to inspect the bus, and do all the other necessary work before they are roadworthy again.

Unfortunately almost every 8000 was cannibalized for spare parts to keep the other 8000s going and then they were stripped for whatever parts that could be used on the 8100s. This discussion was done back in 2020 for the Orion VII as well but it was deemed too costly to bring them back, a repeated theme with the city 

[JCL]

Former Ottawa Citizen Ken Gray received a copy of Renee Amilcar's e-mail to City Council regarding the number of buses required for R1

Link: https://bulldogottawa.com/12-to-28-buses-replace-light-rail-line/

Quote

Good morning Mayor and Members of Council, 

I am writing to provide a brief update on service levels customers can expect today.

R1 service began this morning at 5:00am with 12 buses providing service approximately every 15 minutes. During peak periods this will be increased to 28 buses providing service approximately every 5 minutes. 

Line 1 stations remain closed, and our staff are currently at major transit stations providing support to customers during their trip. Our team continues to meet regularly to review any feedback and implement any additional mitigation measures were possible. 

Social media updates continue to be shared and customers are encouraged to check OCTranspo.com for the latest information regarding their trip. 

I will continue to share updates as further information becomes available.

Thank you, 

Renée Amilcar
General Manager, Transit Services Department
City of Ottawa

 

[JCL]

Councillor Jeff Leiper has posted Renee Amilcar's e-mail to City Council

Link: http://kitchissippiward.ca/content/lrt-shutdown-july-19-update

Quote

This memo is to provide an update to Mayor and Members of Council on the current service levels and ongoing investigation.

R1 Service

Currently, OC Transpo is providing the following service levels to our customers:

• R1 bus service continues to run between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations
• We will be increasing the number of buses for the afternoon peak service. 32 buses will be in operation this afternoon, instead of 28
• Starting tomorrow, 36 buses, instead of 28, will run during peak periods
• This change is being made to increase reliability and mitigate traffic issues that impact bus service
• Service continues to run well, and our Transit Operations Control Centre is working with Traffic Services, to make adjustments to R1 service to further increase reliability and reduce wait times for customers
• Staff continue to be at stations supporting customers during their trips

We encourage customers to visit OCTranspo.com for the latest information about their trips.

Ongoing investigation
Work is progressing on all key areas for the ongoing investigation:

Inspections

Completed work:

• Rail geometry assessments were completed
• The axle hub assemblies of 9 light rail vehicles have been checked and none have been discovered that are out of tolerance
• The underbodies of 35 light rail vehicles have been inspected and no evidence of excess grease has been found
• The axle hub assembly from the light rail vehicle where an issue was discovered has been sent to the manufacturer for detailed investigation

Planned work:

• Analysis of the results of the rail geometry assessments to identify any non- conformances
• Remaining light rail vehicles will be checked for wear and tear of the axle hub assembly

Instrumented Bogie Tests:

Completed work:

The test train completed several runs in different train and track configurations, to simulate real world conditions

Planned work:

• Additional test train runs in various configurations
• Test train will be coupled with a light rail vehicle fitted with Smart Bugs to gather additional data
• Results from previous tests to be analyzed

Return to Service Plan:

RTG is currently developing a plan

I will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.

Thank you,

Original signed by, Renée Amilcar

 

[JCL]

Changes to be made to R1 starting at 3pm today

EDIT (at 2:41pm)

R1s will be using Albert and Slater starting tomorrow instead of Queen Street (July 21, 2023), as per the tweet from Councillor Sean Devine

 

[GTAmissions1]

R1 will be shifted to Albert/Slater streets effective tomorrow effective 5 AM per this tweet attached. 

To try and better address the challenges faced on Queen Street. 

 

25 minutes ago, JCL said:

Changes to be made to R1 starting at 3pm today

 

There was a plan somewhere (can't find it now) that R1 Westbound from Hurdman to Blair would bypass Lees and for those that required the station had to transfer at UOttawa which is King Edward/Somerset Street East and take any R1 Eastbound to backtrack. Back in 2019/2020. 

Trying to loop around to service Lees westbound would require more running time trying to service every single stop. Where as now, they separated two segments to minimize the frustration and hopefully move forward for future closures both unplanned and planned.

R1: Tunney's/Blair (entire route)

R1 shuttle: Rideau/Lees via King Edwards

R1 shuttle: Cyrville/St. Laurent 

Final comments:

You would think that R1 Express Downtown/Blair via Highway 417 would be implemented and seeing the comments plus seeing it done in the past. Bypassing most stops and being more direct. At the same time, having a logistical challenge having to manage resources especially when service from other routes would need to be cancelled to support the R1 replacement service. 

[Mark Walton]

On 7/17/2023 at 5:33 PM, JCL said:

O-Train, LRT Line 1 is down: https://www.octranspo.com/en/alerts/#alert-143755

CTV article: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/all-lrt-service-suspended-due-to-bearing-issue-1.6483260

Seems strange to me that this (latest of many) shutdowns happened the day after Bluesfest finished. During the festival the line ran creditably, getting me to/from several of my volunteer shifts (as a Gates supervisor) there. Imagine if this had happed during the festival!

[TransitGeek]

I honestly think R1 should bypass the entirety of uOttawa, heading straight to Hurdman from Rideau, and vice versa, with a shuttle replacing that corridor around uOttawa (like the Lees shuttle, but extended to Hurdman), as well as bypassing Tremblay, with a shuttle between Hurdman and Ottawa Station. These shuttles could probably survive running around every 15 minutes I reckon, at the expense of maybe waiting 1 or 2 minutes longer for a regular R1. Just my take