Still no opening date for Trillium Line as LRT enters final trial phase

Ottawa's Trillium Line has now completed the first two phases of trial running, but OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar declined on Thursday to commit to an opening date for the expanded north-south light rail line.

Line 2, as it's also known, will soon link Bayview station to Riverside South, with a spur line (Line 4) connecting South Keys station to the airport.

Amilcar said she will be in a better position to "be firm" on an opening date at a technical briefing planned for the week of Nov. 18, when she said the launch will be "almost imminent." She also confirmed the system is prepared to deal with bad weather if it coincides with the launch.

• 'Very strong start' to trial running on Trillium line, OC Transpo reports
• Trillium rail line passes crucial test and could be weeks from opening

Earlier this week, OC Transpo announced it had successfully completed three weeks of trial running, including a reliability testing phase and an emergency scenario phase, and was about to enter the "final readiness phase," which will take a minimum of three more weeks as OC Transpo obtains regulatory approvals and trains staff.

The Trillium Line, which has been expanded from its original five stops, was originally meant to open two years ago but has faced numerous delays. 

Reliability phase aced

The testing phase was obligatory and involved greater monitoring and reporting than previous trials.

• LRT testing has a troubled past. Here's how it'll work with the Trillium Line

The reliability testing phase ended Oct. 20. Trains left their terminus stations on schedule 99.5 per cent of the time, exceeding OC Transpo's goal of 98.5 per cent.

In a memo sent Thursday, Amilcar noted there had been some "vehicle, track, and signal issues" that OC Transpo and TransitNext are still investigating and fixing.

The trial then progressed to the emergency scenario phase, which involved seven days of testing to gauge how the system handles hypothetical emergencies such as flooding in the Dow's Lake tunnel or station closures due to fire alarms.

There was no pass-or-fail standard during this phase, OC Transpo said. According to Amilcar's memo, the tests helped with such problems as "optimizing the number of trains in service during disruptions." 

Over the three-week final readiness phase, staff will be trained and familiarized with the stations, run more emergency exercises and complete a "dress rehearsal" to test the system.

OC Transpo must still obtain regulatory approval from Transport Canada, plus a certificate of fitness from the Canadian Transportation Agency.