All the info on the city’s brand-new Trillium line, including its gradual opening process
When Ottawa’s north-south Trillium LRT Line, also known as Line 2, opens Monday, it will usher in long-awaited train service to Riverside South and the Ottawa International Airport — something that’s been bandied about since at least the late 1990s.
Here’s what to expect as the LRT system grows by 19 kilometres and 13 new and upgraded stations, more than two years behind its original schedule.
The bulk of the expanded service consists of Line 2, which runs from Bayview Station, a stop on the Confederation Line (Line 1), to Limebank Station in Ottawa’s south end. A ride along Line 2 takes 35 minutes or less. Trains will run every 12 minutes and can carry up to 600 passengers, with 300 in each of two cars.
Connected to South Keys station on Line 2 will be Line 4, a three-stop spur that will run west to the airport, with an in-between stop at Uplands Station near the EY Centre.
Line 2 will also see the return of LRT service to Carleton University. The campus had been served by the original O-Train line that opened in 2001 and then closed in May 2020.
OC Transpo’s travel planner that takes into account Lines 2 and 4 is here.
OC Transpo says there will be thousands of free Park & Ride spaces at Greenboro, Leitrim, and Bowesville stations to make the commute more appealing to Ottawa’s south-end residents. On Day One, there will 1,800 free Park & Ride spaces.
Transpo also says its Line 2 and Line 4 platforms are double the previous size for easier boarding.
Builder TransitNEXT completed a 14-day trial run of Line 2 in October, scoring a reliability rating of 99.5 per cent in a rolling average of on-time performance over the testing period.
Evening Update
Still, the phase-in for the new service will be gradual, beginning with weekday service and increasing over a number of weeks to daily service.
During the first phase of service, trains will run Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to midnight for a minimum of two weeks. If all goes well, the second phase will add Saturday service. After another two weeks at minimum, the line will open fully with trains seven days a week. Launching the new line in phases was a lesson learned from the troubled opening of the east-west Confederation Line in 2019.
Also, parallel bus service (the B2 route) will run along the new route until OC Transpo determines that it’s not needed. The 97 bus will continue to run along Line 4 to the airport, and the 99 bus will continue its route along Line 2, and it will connect to Limebank Station once seven-day LRT service begins.
Unlike the twin-tracked Confederation Line, the Trillium Line has long stretches of single track. If a train breaks down there, there is no way to bypass it.
Also, while the Confederation Line uses electric trains, the Trillium Line will have diesel trains.
Looking ahead, OC Transpo is to launch in April its New Ways to Bus program, which overhauls more than 100 bus routes in conjunction with the Trillium Line service.
The LRT’s east rail extension to Trim Road is expected to start operations in 2025. The west extension to Moodie Drive could be ready for passengers by 2027, City of Ottawa officials have said.
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