Transit riders may have noticed some new signage at O-Train stations in recent days pointing passengers east to Trim Station, which hasn’t yet opened as part of the much-delayed Line 1 east extension to Orléans.
Keen-eyed observers may have also noticed the occasional train heading east from Blair Station, which is currently the easternmost stop on Line 1.
Those trains, officials said, are running without passengers as part of OC Transpo ‘s “final preparations” for the east extension.
“This includes operating trains in the east extension for operator training, familiarization and practice activities and other work on the guideway,” said Richard Holder, director of the rail construction program.
OC Transpo officials had initially delayed the east extension to June , but at a transit committee meeting in April associate general manager Troy Charter said that timeline was “no longer a possibility.”
OC Transpo said extensive “spalling” and “shelling” damage to the cartridge-bearing assemblies on the Line 1 train cars’ wheel hubs meant that all trains exceeding 100,000 kilometres would be pulled from service.
Those cars have been gradually fitted with new cartridge-bearing assemblies. Each train car was also to be fitted with a “smart bug” system to monitor conditions in real time.
Charter said at the time that OC Transpo would require 46 trains in service to begin the trial running phase. A 21-day trial running is required before the east extension can be certified and before it can open to passengers.
Officials said in April that the testing phase could begin in “two to five months.”
OC Transpo did not have an updated timeline as of this week.
“Installation of the condition monitoring system is still underway and is expected to continue for several more weeks,” Holder said in a July 23 statement.
“We will provide council and the media with an update on the timing and status of formal trial running as soon as that information is available.”
