{"id":5471,"date":"2026-04-15T00:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/5471\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:19:19","slug":"axles-for-the-o-train-metrolinx-sending-parts-at-critical-time-ottawa-mayor-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/5471\/","title":{"rendered":"Axles for the O-Train: Metrolinx sending parts at ‘critical time,’ Ottawa mayor says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Help is on the way for OC Transpo\u2019s beleaguered LRT<\/a> service as provincial partners at Metrolinx are sending axles to Ottawa at a \u201ccritical time,\u201d according to a social-media post from Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to our provincial partners at Metrolinx for sending us axles for our LRT vehicles at this critical time,\u201d Sutcliffe posted on Bluesky on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese axles will help us restore full service on Line 1 faster. This demonstrates the value of having Metrolinx as a partner to improve transit for Ottawa residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor also touted the pending upload of Ottawa\u2019s LRT to the provincial government, which Sutcliffe has called a \u201cgame-changing\u201d deal that has yet to be finalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upload of Ottawa\u2019s LRT to the provincial government and Metrolinx will increase that collaboration and lead to a more reliable service,\u201d Sutcliffe said in the post. \u201cThe team at OC Transpo<\/a> is moving as quickly as possible to safely restore full service and expand LRT.\u201d<\/p>\n

OC Transpo\u2019s communications team confirmed the upload was still pending and said the mayor\u2019s post expressed how the deal would be \u201cbeneficial\u201d to the city once it was finalized.<\/p>\n

OC Transpo\u2019s east-west Line 1 service has been hampered by a \u201cspalling\u201d issue identified in January, forcing the transit authority to take all train cars that exceeded 100,000 kilometres out of service on Jan. 21.<\/p>\n

OC Transpo took 41 train cars out of service for inspection and replacement of the cartridge bearing assemblies in the axles. That left Line 1 with 18 available train cars, which has since increased to 23.<\/p>\n

The Rideau Transit Group<\/a> recently discovered a more severe stage of spalling called \u201cshelling,\u201d which caused a delay in restoring full service until the end of May.<\/p>\n

The much-anticipated east extension to Orl\u00e9ans was likewise delayed, with a time frame of two to five months before the next testing phase can begin.<\/p>\n

Transit committee chair Glen Gower said the new axles from Metrolinx were mentioned as part of an update to the committee on April 9, when transit authorities also announced the more severe shelling damage.<\/p>\n

Gower said he had no update on the LRT upload, but said Sutcliffe and city staff had held \u201congoing discussions\u201d with the province.<\/p>\n

The delivery of axles will help RTG and manufacturer Alstom \u201cbolster the supply of parts,\u201d Gower said, as more trains are gradually returned to service.<\/p>\n

OC Transpo requires 26 available trains, or 13 double-car trains, to restore full service, and it will require 46 available trains to perform trial running to the east extension.<\/p>\n

Line 1 has continued to operate with single-car trains every three to four minutes during peak periods.<\/p>\n

OC Transpo has installed several early detection methods to identify problems with the cartridge bearing assemblies, including acoustic monitoring by technicians onboard trains, \u201croll-by\u201d inspections in the trainyard and a \u201csmart bug\u201d monitoring system that detects abnormal vibrations.<\/p>\n

Spalling \u2014 the flaking of the metal surface of the cartridge bearing assembly \u2014 was discovered during an inspection related to a separate issue of \u201cfretting,\u201d which was identified as the cause of the first O-Train derailment in the summer of 2021.<\/p>\n

Shelling is a form of spalling with larger flakes and more depth of damage and is the \u201cmost severe\u201d damage inspectors have so far encountered with the Line 1 trains.<\/p>\n

Troy Charter, director of transit service delivery and rail operations, said in a statement that OC Transpo was working with partners to secure additional parts for the required replacement of the cartridge bearing assemblies in the affected Line 1 trains.<\/p>\n

The replacements will \u201callow Line 1 to operate safely and for the restoration of double-car train service,\u201d Charter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOC Transpo appreciates the support of Metrolinx, who have agreed to supply 11 axles to support the current replacement regime. Rideau Transit Group (RTG) is also pursuing additional supply chains to ensure adequate, ongoing supply of these parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to anticipate a return to regular Line 1 capacity by the end of May.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage<\/a>\u00a0and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>\u00a0so we can keep you informed.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Help is on the way for OC Transpo\u2019s beleaguered LRT service as provincial partners at Metrolinx are sending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3222,3226,3225,664,3224,3221,61,3223],"class_list":{"0":"post-5471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-full-service","9":"tag-glen-gower","10":"tag-lrt","11":"tag-mark-sutcliffe","12":"tag-metrolinx","13":"tag-oc-transpo","14":"tag-ottawa","15":"tag-provincial-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}