A misaligned axle issue that’s keeping Ottawa’s light-rail transit system offline this week will be costly for Rideau Transit Maintenance, according to the head of OC Transpo.
Ottawa transit boss John Manconi sent a memo to city councillors Tuesday night outlining the financial impact of an axle derailment on one of the Confederation Line trains Sunday night.
The entire line is shut down and replaced by bus service this week as RTM, the maintenance arm of the consortium that built the original system, carries out inspections of every vehicle in the fleet and attempts to relocate the stalled vehicle to the LRT storage facility.
Manconi said in his memo that the LRT downtime will have no cost to the city. RTM will face “significant” deductions from its monthly payments to cover the downtime, the extent of which have yet to be finalized, he said.
Ottawa’s current transit problems extend to more than just the LRT vehicles.
Manconi said in his memo that OC Transpo launched an investigation after a double-decker bus travelled off the roadway on Carling Avenue near Herzberg Road on Monday.
As a result, the transit agency removed all 19 double-decker buses of the same model from service while it works with the manufacturer to figure out what went wrong.
Manconi said there is no impact to bus service as a result of the precaution.
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