The City of Ottawa says more work needs to be done on the O-Train
Line 1 East Extension
after several unidentified “deficiencies” were found during the performance testing, commissioning and integration phase of the project.
Troy Charter, the city’s interim general manager of transit services, said in a memo addressed to city council on Thursday that staff had identified the deficiencies during the final stage of the process, which included on-site assessments and documentation reviews to ensure everything was in order before the city accepted the system from contractors.
Charter didn’t specify what the deficiencies were and how long the additional work was expected to take.
“During the final stages of this process, we identified deficiencies that need to be remedied before the city will provide an opinion that substantial completion has been achieved,” the memo read.
“OC Transpo and East-West Connectors (EWC) are working collaboratively to address these items as quickly as possible. Work will take place at Place d’Orléans and Jeanne d’Arc stations and at other points along the track. To safely complete this work, some activities will require
traffic impacts in lanes
of (Highway 174) adjacent to the tracks.”
OC Transpo shut down Line 1 service on Sept. 13-14 for
performance testing of the east extension
. The city ran 23 trains during the performance testing with “multiple test scenarios” to determine whether the system could meet required service levels, which staff called a critical milestone before the system could begin trial running.
The pre-trial running phase was expected to last five to 10 days, while a 21-day trial running evaluation period would follow the performance testing and “substantial completion” phase.
At the time, city staff told transit committee members they were optimistic the east extension would open for service by the end of the year. No specific opening date was given.
However, the discovery of significant deficiencies means the trail running phase has been delayed.
Tim Tierney, who represents the Beacon Hill-Cyrville ward where some of the future
O-Train stations are located
, says he wants to know more details about those deficiencies and how much it will cost to fix them.
He said Saturday that he never believed the east extension would be in operation so soon. Rather, he believes the project will be completed closer to February 2026 after taking into account winter and holiday-season construction delays.
“People are really excited in the east end. I truly believe people will use it, but let’s not lie to the public anymore if it’s going to take longer. People are planning their lives around this,” Tierney said.
“Just say it will be completed in February. If it comes earlier, that’s gravy. With the winter season, with Christmas … First of all, you’ve got to find people to run these trains. From a planning perspective, I think we just have to be honest with the public.”
Tierney said he understands that city administration wants to launch a smooth transit service for residents as soon as possible, but residents need to know if they must continue to take buses to Blair Station, currently Line 1’s most eastern point, for the foreseeable future.
“I think the days of not wanting to confirm an opening date are behind us now since the very successful testing of the line. At least that’s what we were told,” Tierney added.
“If it’s deficiencies, what level of deficiencies are we talking? Major or minor? That’s what we really need to know. If we’re talking of six months, I think the public will be fine if it means having a safe system. But be honest. If we’re talking years, that’s a completely different conversation.”
With files from Aedan Helmer.
