On Jan. 6, the O-Train lines two and four opened for service after years of construction.
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.
