The derailments were just the latest of challenges plaguing the then-new LRT system, which soon triggered a provincial public inquiry.

Amilcar quickly inherited the controversial and flawed LRT system, ongoing construction to expand the Trillium Line O-Train, and an all-time low in bus reliability and ridership.

She brought with her a wealth of experience, a commitment to data transparency and an impressive technical expertise in transit, says Glen Gower, city councillor for Stittsville and chair of the Ottawa transit committee.

“What she was known for was being a very strong technical expert and engineer who really understood transit, but with an expertise in busses. And if I look over her tenure, I think now she’s recognized as someone who knows trains as well,” he told Ottawa Compass, reflecting on Amilcar’s time at OC Transpo. “And I think it was her technical abilities as an engineer that really helped her put a stamp on the organization.

“I remember her saying that we have technical problems with the train, and that there’s a technical solution.”

As chair, Gower and his staff met with Amilcar’s team regularly for updates on the city’s public transit system. 

“We were still very much in the pandemic, our ridership was significantly down on trains and buse, we were still dealing with a lot of technical issues with the trains, and we were on the verge of embarking on the major transformation of the bus fleet to electrical,” said Gower. “So, any one of those things on its own would have been plenty for a new general manager to handle, and she had all three.

“She had quite the list of “to-do” when she came on, and all of them were pretty major projects and challenges.”

In the time since then, Amilcar has overseen the testing, completion and opening of the O-Train’s south extension, which brings service to Limebank Station and to the Ottawa Airport. With her at the helm, the LRT extensions continued, with the east extension to Trim Road nearing completion in the testing phase, and the west Line 3 extension to Moodie Drive and Line 1 to Algonquin Station continuing to progress in construction.

Amilcar was tasked with implementing the recommendations from the public inquiry report and was responsible for the continued transition to electric bus fleet. She also implemented the “New Ways to Bus” route changes this spring.

Through the process of opening the O-Train extension, Amilcar provided reports to committee and city council, held media availabilities and provided updates on the testing and opening phases.

“Her own personal values and approach to leadership was about transparency and communications with council, because we’re the group that governs the organization, but also with the public and the importance of that transparency in rebuilding that trust,” said Gower.

Gower stressed that Amilcar was also dedicated to clearly communicating the organization’s goals and explaining both the positive and negative realities of OC Transpo service.

For example, in summer 2023, a technical issue with the LRT led to service being suspended for about a month. During that time, Amilcar held daily press conferences to inform the media of any updates or new information, said Gower.

“She felt it was important to have staff be able to provide updates about how things were going and answer questions from the media and so that the public would understand what’s happening in the background,” he said. “It’s a huge inconvenience to OC Transpo customers, but I think she felt it was important that people know what’s happening and why it is that the service isn’t running and what to expect.

“I guess it’s like when you’re on an airplane and your plane is stuck on the tarmac; it’s a lot better to know what the timeline is and have regular check-ins from your pilot, than to just sit there without having any idea what’s going on.”

Amilcar officially left OC Transpo this month after announcing her departure in June at a meeting of the transit committee. 

“We should all be very proud of the progress we’ve made toward improving customer service, restoring public trust and building a stronger, more reliable transit system,” Amilcar told committee and staff. “I will say that OC Transpo is on the right path, guided by strong civic leaders and a dedicated workforce. I’m very sad to be leaving.”

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Transit Committee received the report from Transit Services general manager Renée Amilcar on June 12 as an update on the Stage 2 Light Rail Transit Project, which includes extensions east and west.

According to the report, the east extension is now undergoing software upgrades and operator training in addition to ongoing testing and final construction. The stations are also all complete.

The next step will be Substantial Completion, which is expected to be completed in Q2, and will be followed by trial running before the system begins service.

The west extension to Moodie Road is still undergoing construction of stations, guideway, track and infrastructure, the report said, resulting in a series of traffic detours that “continue to be necessary”. 

The stations along the west extension, including Moodie, Pinecrest and Queensview on Line 3, are undergoing testing and interior finishes. The Line 1 stations, including Westboro, Iris, Algonquin, Lincoln Fields and Kichi Zìbì are nearing completion and “progressing well”, the memo said. Construction of the pedestrian bridge at Algonquin Station is also ongoing.

The contingency fund for stage 1 is $115 million, of which $102 million has been spent, and remaining funds are expected to address property requirements. 

The original contingency fund for stage 2 was $152 million but was increased by $25 million by City council in 2022 and another $110 million in 2023 due to “unforseen costs and improvements.”

According to the report, approximately $260 million of the stage 2 contingency fund has been committed to date.  

East/West Connectors (EWC) was awarded the contract to design, build and finance the Confederation Line, also known as Line 1, in 2019. The project will extend Line 1 from blair Station to Trim Station in the east and from Tunney’s Pasture to Moodie Station (Line 3) and Algonquin Station in the west.

It was also announced at the meeting that after nearly four years as general manager, Amilcar will be leaving OC Transpo to head Quebec’s transportation agency as president and CEO of Mobilité Infra Québec. 

At the committee meeting, chair Glen Gower commended Amilcar for overseeing the launch of Lines 2 and 4, redesigning the Ottawa bus network, and improving the public perception of public transit.

“We should all be very proud of the progress we’ve made toward improving customer service, restoring public trust and building a stronger, more reliable transit system,” Amilcar told committee and staff. “I will say that OC Transpo is on the right path, guided by strong civic leaders and a dedicated workforce. I’m very sad to be leaving.”

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In a report to the committee, OC Transpo said the O-Train Confederation Line, which runs east-to-west, is nearing completion of the final construction and testing phases in the east extension, which will extend the track to Trim Road. The extension project is adding a total of 24 stations, 44 kilometres of rail and 45 new trains to the existing network. 

The East extension will add five stations at Montréal Road, Jeanne d’Arc Boulevard, Convent Glen, Place d’Orléans and Trim Road. Currently, the extension in the East end is undergoing train testing and operator training, as well as completion of surrounding infrastructure, like the Trim Park and Ride lot and paving of Jeanne d’Arc Boulevard. 

Before opening for service, the track must reach substantial completion, followed by trial running before final safety approval.

In the West, the LRT has been expanded out to Moodie Drive with train testing anticipated to begin later in the spring on a small section of track. Rail installation is nearly complete and station construction is still underway and is on track to reach final stages in 2026. 

During the construction of both extensions, there have been periodic lane and ramp closures on surrounding roads, which Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh said has caused increased traffic and congestion and “major fallouts” in her ward.

She commended the LRT Stage 2 team for their support, but said she wanted to acknowledge the “consequential effects” of the ongoing work, which includes the reconstruction of Richmond Road and construction of seven LRT stations within Bay Ward. 

“It’s been very impactful to those businesses, and we’ve even had one that left the area because of it,” she told the committee and its participants. “I just want an acknowledgement that this has been problematic, and hopefully we’ll be seeing the end of it with a wonderfully new, reconstructed Richmond Road by the end of this year.”

In an interview with Ottawa Compass, Kavanagh said the construction has had a “tremendous” impact on her ward and that the excitement of the LRT extension “hasn’t quite set in.”

“This has been going on for five years, so it’s not something that just started,” she explained. 

The section of track in Bay ward is a “cut and cover tunnel” that required deep trenches dug “right in people’s backyards,” as Kavanagh explained. The tunnels have been completed now, but the construction is also aligning with the resurfacing of Richmond Road, which has resulted in more digging.

“Digging is very, very difficult for people to deal with because it means closed roads, noise, mess, and that had a huge impact,” she said. 

The proximity of the track will ultimately result in a more integrated transit system that can bring passengers into the heart of the neighbourhoods in the west end. But the process to get there isn’t comfortable. 

“I don’t think the excitement is palatable yet, but I think the [South extension] helped people to envision that there’s something new is coming. it’s just starting to sink in,” she explained. “But part two of it is that there’s more development around as well, so that construction will continue. 

“You’ll have new buildings being put up because we’re intensifying around the stations. So, while it’s not related directly to the LRT, it’s related to the fact that there will be a station there,” Kavanagh continued. “So, they’re quite aware that that construction will be happening.”

It’s expected that East-West Connections (EWC), the company contracted to build and operate the Confederation Line extensions, will hand the West extension over to the City for trial running by the end of 2026. 

Both extensions have been designed, built and financed by EWC and owned by the City of Ottawa but will be maintained by Rideau Transit Group (RTG).

The progress on the East and West extension follows the opening of the O-Train south extension, which provides service to the Ottawa International Airport and Limebank Road.

In March 2019, City Council approved the Stage 2 Light Rail Transit Project, including a contingency fund of $152.5 million, reflecting approximately 3.3 per cent of the $4.6 billion project budget.

Then, on July 6, 2022, City Council approved the Stage 2 LRT Contingency Funding Report  for an adjustment to the budget with an increase of  $35 million for increased utility costs and $25 million for an increase to the general contingency budget. The overall contingency budget was increased to $177.6 million.  

Since then, the project budget has been amended to $4.9 billion. Of that, $2.29 billion is funded through provincial and federal grants.

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This latest step marks the completion of the phased opening plan, which began with weekday service on Jan. 6, increasing to include service on Saturdays on Jan. 25. The opening plan was developed based on public inquiry report recommendations, lessons learned, and third-party recommendations.

“Throughout this process, OC Transpo has been closely monitoring the performance of all system elements,” said Renée Amilcar, general manager of Transit Services in a memo.

With this latest step, the O-Train will run from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday to Friday, 6:30 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays, and 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Sundays.

OC Transpo will continue to monitor the system and phase out parallel bus service as train ridership increases.

At a recent check-in, Katrina Camposarcone-Stubbs, public information officer at the City of Ottawa Transit Services Department, told Ottawa Compass the phased opening approach allowed staff to “work out the bugs” in the system before opening for full service.

Since service expanded to six-day service, OC Transpo and TransitNext has evolved operations to address concerns, including by increasing staffing levels, growing familiarity for operators with severe winter conditions, quick response to disruptions from maintenance teams, full fleet availability and efficient maintenance, upgrades to switch infrastructure, which helps with winter operations, and improving customer information systems.

At the four-week mark, more than 300,000 trips had been taken on the O-Train, OC Transpo told the newly renamed Transit Committee this month. 

OC Transpo also reported a 69 per cent increase in usage of local Park and Rides and decreased use of parallel bus services as customers become more familiar and confident with the O-Train system.

On the campaign trail, Premier Doug Ford vowed to upload Ottawa’s LRT system to the province. It’s unclear if this would include the O-Train Lines 2 and 4, which are diesel-operated, rather than high-frequency like the Line 1 LRT. 

Ford was re-elected for another term on Feb. 26, and as the province awaits news of his cabinet appointments for this mandate, the City of Ottawa has maintained that Ford’s announcement was “part of the provincial election campaign”.

“The City of Ottawa has not entered into any formal negotiations with the Province,” said city manager Wendy Stephanson in a memo. “It would be premature to speculate on details at this time.”

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The train first launched for weekday service, then extended to offer six-day services on Jan. 25. At the four-week mark, more than 300,000 trips had been taken on the O-Train, OC Transpo told the newly renamed Transit Committee this month. 

OC Transpo also reported a 69 per cent increase in usage of local Park and Rides and decreased use of parallel bus services as customers become more familiar and confident with the O-Train system.

Looking back at the last few months, Katrina Camposarcone-Stubbs, public information officer at the City of Ottawa Transit Services Department, told Ottawa Compass that the train has seen a “promising turnout” but hasn’t been without “learning opportunities.”

“On January 6, we saw some really great turnout of riders on those first few days of service, and we continue to see an increase in ridership all along the first several weeks,” she said. “We’ve continued to see great results in terms of folks getting on the system and using it.”

The O-Train is using a phased opening approach and is waiting to launch seven-day service until the system “works out the bugs” that have come up. For example, there have been technical errors in the digital displays and signage at stations and on trains that the O-Train team has been working on.

“We’re going to find little bugs along the way, right? It’s really different from having a system where our team is training and operating and using every single day for months and months as when customers are on it,” she explained. “People are going on and off the train all day, the doors are opening, they’re closing, the information systems or the updates are catching these little bugs while people are using it and seeing how the system is operating

“It’s also not ideal to open a system in the winter, but it’s also a really good learning opportunity to say, ‘Okay, let’s see how it’s going to work in the worst weather possible. Instead of opening in the summer and then seeing how it works in the worst weather possible six months later,” she continued. 

With the phased approach, the teams have been able to spend Sundays, when the train isn’t operating, working to improve and update software to address the errors. 

The snowstorms last week also presented some challenges, Camposarcone-Stubbs said, but the team was prepared.

“It was really challenging for everyone in every mode of transportation around the city, whether you were taking the bus or the car. So we know it was hard for everyone, just with the extreme blowing winds and the snow that fell. So we did see some challenges on lines two and line four that involved blowing snow along the tracks that impacted the switches,” she explained. “Our teams were out there all evening and during the day clearing snow, but the winds were so strong that they would clear it, and it would just be packed with snow again. So that’s one of those things that we’re looking at. 

“It’s all about learning, ‘how can we optimize our operations to ensure this doesn’t happen?’,” she added.

The O-Train is also a more “robust” system than the LRT, she explained, because instead of being light-rail, the trains are heavier and diesel-operated and can navigate snow more easily.

“We were anticipating bad weather, and there could be unexpected aspects but our team does so many scenarios and emergency response preparations that for us, nothing is a surprise,” Camposarcone-Stubbs said. “We have a plan in place.”

At the committee meeting, Renée Amilcar, general manager of Transit Services, updated members about the O-Train project and phased opening.

“The road ahead for transit in Ottawa is exciting,” she said. “We have been very busy since 2022 and we have so much more in store for our transit system.”

Lines two and four will open for seven-day service once OC Transpo is confident that the technical issues have been addressed and the teams are well-equipped for the next phase.

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The gas leak was caused by a nearby collision that was outside of the rail system, OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar said in a memo to media.

Ottawa Fire Services and Enbridge Gas responded to the incident, Amilcar said, and line 1 rail service was closed between St. Laurent and Blair stations. Buses were brought in to serve this route instead.

To complete the repairs, a lane closure of the Blair Road on-ramp to Highway No. 417 will be required, and Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) is working with Ottawa traffic services to minimize the impacts to local traffic.

The gas leak has now been stopped, so service has resumed safely, Amilcar said.

Repairs are being undertaken, heaters near the station that rely on the damaged line will not be operating, and staff will be monitoring the situation. 

Blair station service is open on one platform and customers travelling to and from Blair station will need to transfer trains at St. Laurent. 

Updates will continue to be shared over social media, text messages and station announcements, the memo said. OC Transpo personnel are also present at stations to assist customers.

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Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Ottawa MPs David McGuinty and Jenna Sudds announced the investment of over $18 million in annual funding for the City of Ottawa on Monday.

Through the new Canada Public Transit Fund’s Basline Funding stream, OC Transpo will receive annual funding amounting to over $180 million over 10 years to upgrade, replace and modernize Ottawa’s public transit system. 

Beginning in 2026 and continuing until 2036, the funding will help increase affordability and housing supply, leading to better-connected and cohesive communities oriented around transit options, a memo from the City of Ottawa said.

“The funding announced today will help Ottawa in a number of important areas, including closing the systemic gap in our transit budget,” Sutcliffe said at the announcement. “The transit funding ensures we can maintain and improve service for our rapidly growing city. 

“We will continue to work with the federal government on a number of other shared priorities in the weeks ahead, as we continue to tackle financial pressures and strive to build a better city for all our residents.”

The 2025 City of Ottawa Budget involves substantial investments in public transit but requires an increase in transit fares and includes a $36 million gap in funding that the municipality hoped would be filled by upper levels of government. 

OC Transpo will receive $180,231,660 over ten years, conditional on the City of Ottawa submitting a capital plan and the subsequent signing of a funding agreement. 

Ottawa-Vanier MP Mona Fortier said that while public transit should “make life easier,” “we all know Ottawa’s transit system needs improvement.”

“Buses need to show up on time, and we need a reliable train system,” she said at the announcement. “That’s why the federal government is stepping up and working with the City of Ottawa to invest in real improvements—because you deserve a transit system that actually works when you need it.”

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Starting Jan. 25, the O-Train south from Bayview station to Limebank and Airport stations will be open on Saturdays after nearly a month of weekday-only service.

Transition bus service will continue to run alongside lines 2 and 4, including for a period of time after seven-day service begins, to help passengers adjust to the new services.

This is the second phase of the O-Train opening to the public and will last a minimum of two weeks. In a memo, OC Transpo general manager Renee Amilcar said service has been operating “as planned” and has been “closely monitored.”

The memo also said any “minor delays” to the train have been responded to quickly by both OC Transpo and the TransitNext, which maintains the system. In particular, Amilcar said a train on line 4 encountered technical issues on Jan. 13, and the system was briefly paused. 

RELATED: Slowly but surely: OC Transpo says reliable, transparent O-Train operations key to rebuilding trust with the public

“OC Transpo and TransitNext responded efficiently and restored service on one track, until the impacted train was replaced and full service resumed,” she said. “All aspects are being reviewed to capture lessons learned and make adjustments where possible.”

During this phase, operator training to “improve the stability of customer information systems” will continue.

“While these remain early days, the operational performance and customer interest in trying the new lines 2 and 4 continue to be encouraging,” the memo added. 

The changes come as the cost of the seniors’ monthly OC Transpo pass is set to increase to $58.25 on Feb. 1.

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The O-Train welcomed passengers for the morning commute for the first time in about five years. 

The south extension, also known as the Trillium Line, has opened for public use as part of a phased opening approach and provided rail service from Bayview to Limebank stations, and South Keys to Airport Stations on Monday.

At a virtual media availability Tuesday, Amilcar said it is “too soon to tell” if the train is on track for the phased opening, but that “we’re very happy with what we see.”

“We know we will have some issues, so we will continue to monitor,” she said in response to a question from Ottawa Compass. “We will keep you posted.”

The O-Train is already being tested with winter weather conditions, launching with sub-zero temperatures this week. Ice and snow have been detrimental to operations of the Confederation Line LRT in the past, but Amilcar and Troy Charter, director of Transit Service Delivery and Rail Operations, said they’re implementing “lessons learned” for the Trillium Line.

“Winter does pose some additional challenges, whether for trains or buses… But we have robust plans in place,” said Charter. “A lot of efforts have been taken to improve resiliency on the Confederation Line… We’ve applied those lessons learned on lines 2 and 4.

Amilcar said OC Transpo will continue to share the O-Train’s progress with customers, and that open communication and “transparency” is the best hope to rebuilding trust with the public.

“I hope you have seen a lot of new ways to do things. We share a lot of information, we are an open book frankly, and we want to do that because we want customers to be engaged with us and to know what we’re doing,” said Amilcar. “We want to be very frank, and the reliability for sure will bring people back.

“But it was more than reliability… I’ve worked in Montreal, and this was the first time I’ve shared information like this, but I felt we must do it because of the past experiences,” she continued. “So far, hopefully, people are starting to see that we want to do things differently to make sure trust will come back, and I’m certain it’s only by delivering a good service that that will happen.

“We have set excellent targets… We could have set moderate targets, but we need the best, so we have a plan, and we will continue to share it.”

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OC Transpo said it had to put in place a “minor temporary speed restriction” on a short section of the track between Tremblay and Hurdman stations because of recent ballast maintenance.

The transit provider said riders may experience “an increase in travel time of less than one minute” because of the restriction.

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