Here’s what OC Transpo is saying after the first few days of Lines 2 and 4 running

LRT passengers board the train at the Ottawa International Airport on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. The new O-Train Line 4 runs between South Keys station and the Ottawa Airport. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

Transit Services general manager Renée Amilcar says, by all accounts, the launch of O-Train Lines 2 and 4 has been successful.

Trains rolled into Bayview Station Monday morning to begin service on the north-south rail line with a spur to the airport. Over the last two and a half days, service has been running without any major issues.

“Throughout the week, service has continued to operate as planned,” Amilcar told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “We continue to monitor the system and are prepared to respond, should we encounter any issues.”

Since the line launched, there have been a few glitches, notably with passenger information displays showing incorrect information at times, but the line has not experienced any significant delays, something Amilcar attributed to extensive preparations.

“So far, frankly, we haven’t seen anything that we were not expected to see,” she said. “We had hundred of drills and we practiced a lot, but as I said on Monday, this is the real test now and we are very pleased with the results so far and will continue to monitor and work collaboratively with TNext.”

(n.b.: TNext, or TransitNext is the builder of the line.)

Troy Charter, director of transit service delivery and rail operations, said this week has seen light to moderate ridership and strong usage of the three Park & Ride lots along Line 2. The parallel bus service that is running alongside Line 2 and to the Ottawa airport has seen light ridership. Amilcar said a full detailing of ridership numbers will be issued Friday.

“We are very much encouraged by the positive performance over the last few days. We are cautious, but we’re optimistic and we remained focused on delivering a reliable service for our customers,” Charter said.

One issue that has popped up this week is incorrect station information being displayed on some of the passenger information displays on the trains. On Tuesday, Charter described the issue as “isolated” and said teams were able to quickly resolve it when it arose.

Amilcar also said they’re keeping a close eye on switches on Line 2, something that arose during the trial running testing phase last fall. Sections of line are single-track, which means regular switching is required to allow northbound and southbound trains to pass each other. There were a couple of times during the two-week period when switches did not react properly and needed to be manually reset. Amilcar said Wednesday they have staff on standby in case the issue comes up.

“We continuously make sure that technicians are ready to go and if we have an issue that we have to address, if we have to do a reset, the technician is right there at the right moment to do the reset,” she said.

Right now, service on Line 2 and Line 4 is only available five days a week. The phased-in soft launch requires at least two weeks of service before going from five days a week to six and another minimum of two weeks to move from six-day service to seven-day service. Amilcar said it is still too early to say whether Saturday service would start after the first two weeks, but also said she was encouraged by the early results.

“So far, we are doing well. Next week, we will be able to let you know if the minimum will be respected or we will need to have a couple more weeks,” Amilcar said. “We remain cautious because it’s still new. We launched only this week. We are pleased with the results, but we know that things will happen, and we have to make sure that we will be able to address issues very quickly to minimize the impact to customers, but so far, so good.”

Service on Line 2 and Line 4 begins at 6 a.m., an hour later than weekday service on Line 1, and it ends at midnight, which is one to two hours earlier than Line 1. Charter said the hours could be expanded in the future, but for now, the 6 a.m. to midnight schedule will remain in place.

“We have opportunities to increase the service by expanding the hours but right now, we’re focused on the launch and meeting the current service levels and the times, but that’s something that we can consider,” he said.

Charter also raised the possibility of expanding the Park & Ride lots if need be. On Monday, staff had to shovel out extra spaces at the Leitrim Park & Ride to accommodate the number of people using it.

“There are opportunities to expand the Leitrim and the Bowesville Park & Ride lots and that’s something we would welcome if that becomes a challenge down the road,” Charter said. “At this point, there’s still ample space for customers but we are encouraged by the early days by how well they’re being used.”

According to OC Transpo, the Leitrim Park & Ride has more than 300 free parking spaces, including nine accessible spaces and two EV charging stations. The Bowesville Park & Ride has 782 spaces, 19 accessible spaces, and four EV charging stations. There is also a Park & Ride at Greenboro that has 498 free spaces, 18 accessible spaces, two expecting mother spaces, and 21 gold star permit spaces. A gold membership costs $68.25 a month to guarantee a space seven days a week.

Lines 2 and 4 are part of a $4.66-billion expansion of light rail in Ottawa. The eastern extension of Line 1, which will extend the line from Blair Station to Trim, is expected to be completed this year, while the western extension, which goes from Tunney’s Pasture to Moodie Drive and to Algonquin College should be ready for passengers by 2027.

New Ways to Bus

It will still be several months before OC Transpo’s bus network is overhauled to connect with Line 2. Right now, OC Transpo is running parallel bus service along Line 2 and two OC Transpo routes continue to serve the Ottawa airport, parallel with Line 4.

Called “New Ways to Bus”, the major overhaul of the city’s bus network is scheduled to take effect in April. There will be changes to more than 100 bus routes in the city. Some will be lengthened, some will be shortened, some will be cancelled, and some will be new.

On Tuesday, Amilcar said there might still be some tweaks to the schedules before they are launched because of changes in traffic patterns.

“It’s important to know the traffic increased a lot last fall and we’ll continue to monitor that because everything that we have done so far was based on the year before, the traffic that we have the fall before. We know that it’s different now, so we will need to continue to monitor that and probably we’ll need to bring some changes, but at least we have a good base to start.”

Last fall, the federal government required public servants to work in the office at least three days per week, which was not the case the fall before. The growth of hybrid work during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among the public service, was cited as one of the reasons for a precipitous drop in ridership on both buses and the O-Train.

New Ways to Bus aims to address the changing traffic patterns brought about by the pandemic. Amilcar said customers should expect a more efficient system.

“You will see an integrated system that should be more efficient and more convenient as well and we hope that will help us on the reliability and the punctuality as well.”