O-Train can 'easily' provide the service with a single-car train, OC Transpo boss says
CTV
The head of OC Transpo suggests the O-Train can "easily" offer service with single-car trains to meet ridership needs this summer, and had been looking at only providing single-car trains on weekends to deal with low ridership.
The head of OC Transpo suggests the O-Train can "easily" offer service with single-car trains to meet ridership needs this summer, adding OC Transpo has been looking at only providing single-car trains on weekends to deal with low ridership.
The O-Train is expected to resume service on Monday morning, which would be two weeks after the LRT system was shut down after a bearing issue was discovered on one train during a routine inspection.
When O-Train service does resume, it will be running with eight single-car trains serving all stations, with trains stopping at stations every seven to eight minutes.
During an interview on CTV News at Six with Chief Anchor Graham Richardson, Transit Services general manager Renee Amilcar said staff were already looking at running single-car service on weekends due to low ridership.
"We could easily give the service with one single train," Amilcar said, noting O-Train ridership is currently at 43 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
"This is something that we're working on for weekends because we know during the weekend we have less people onboard. So we were thinking about it, so that's why now we think it's a good decision to move forward with that (new inspection) regime."
OC Transpo and Rideau Transit Group announced Wednesday that all leading and trailing wheel hub assemblies and axles would be replaced on O-Train vehicles every 60,000 km as part of a new inspection and replacement regime.
