Ottawa’s light rail transit system was running on 11 trains on Monday morning, meeting current demand for peak service for the first time since the September derailment.
The city’s Confederation Line LRT has been gradually increasing its capacity levels since it was relaunched on November 12 with seven trains on the track.
Monday marked the first weekday commute in November when OC Transpo launched 11 of the 15 total trains, achieving the standard of five minutes between trains.
The Confederation Line was completely out of service for 54 days after the September 19 derailment. Transit officials conducted a full inspection of the trains and LRT system maintenance procedures, with the help of independent rail safety experts, Transportation Resource Associates.
Passenger numbers had increased gradually and reached about 45 percent of pre-pandemic levels before the shutdown in mid-September.
OC Transpo said it could be operating at full capacity in December, when transit users will be offered free rates throughout the month as a gesture for recent downtime.
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Since its relaunch, the system has had some technical issues when the trains were briefly withdrawn from service, but nothing requiring a complete shutdown of the line.
On Friday, OC Transpo said an intruder on the tracks disrupted service between St-Laurent and Blair stations, but trains were back on track at the eastern end within an hour.
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