Broken wire leads to LRT interruption
CBC News | Posted: February 12, 2022 9:51 PM | Last Updated: February 13, 2022
Confederation Line was shut down between uOttawa, Tremblay stations
The City of Ottawa says a broken wire led to one of its light rail trains losing power shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday.
The incident happened just outside Lees Station, according to a statement from Renée Amilcar, the city's general manager of transit services.
Passengers were helped off the train, Amilcar said, and safely arrived at a nearby station.
An initial investigation completed by Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) found a wire known as a parafil — meant to support the overhead catenary system that powers the LRT network — had broken.
Replacement buses were running between Tremblay and uOttawa stations until full train service resumed just after 4 p.m.
Seems unrelated to January incident
Meant to help power the trains, the overhead catenary system has been the source of several problems with the LRT network.
RTM's investigation is seeking to find out if this latest breakdown is related to those issues, although Amilcar said it was not related to a power failure earlier this year.
In that instance, wire problems attributed to cold January weather shut down a portion of the line. Five rail cars were damaged and the Transportation Safety Board was notified as a result.
That interruption came just days after there was a collision between two trains at Belfast Yard.
According to Environment Canada, Ottawa's temperature was around freezing when the train lost power Saturday morning.