Happy first birthday O-Train lines 2 and 4: marking one year since launch

Line 2 opened two years behind schedule, but Ottawa residents say the train has provided reliable service for the past year. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

Tuesday marks a significant milestone for OC Transpo — it has been one year since the launch of lines 2 and 4, bringing light rail back through Carleton University and to Riverside South.

“It’s been incredible,” Carleton University student Avery Rumsey says. “I live about 30 minutes away without traffic, so having the train has made the commute so much easier.”

The extension launched Jan. 6, 2025. Line 2 includes 11 stations from Bayview to Riverside South, while Line 4 is the spur to the airport from South Keys station.

Troy Charter, the interim General Manager of OC Transpo says the first year was a success, though it wasn’t without hiccups.

“We made all the right decisions. And for the first-year, operation was right around 98 per cent service reliability, something our customers really deserve and something to expect,” he said.

“We’ve been really happy with the performance of the rail line, the trains and our staff and our maintainer as well. To the new infrastructure, switch heater issues, and working through freeze-thaw cycles. It’s been a real good team effort.”

In the first year the lines saw 4.7 million rides, averaging about 24,000 passengers a day.

“We’re very, very happy with the ridership; 24,000 people per day are taking the train on average,” Charter says. “We’ve seen great uptake on special events like Blues Fest and Canada Day.”

The service says the success is largely due to lessons learned from the botched launch of Line 1. The much-anticipated transit system was launched with fanfare and events on Sept. 14, 2019, but within weeks, issues with the system began cropping up, causing delays for riders and negatively affecting confidence in the city’s transit system.

“We were really heavily engaged, a lot more engaged with the maintainer, with the constructor, and had a lot of those frank discussions to make sure that everything was lined up and everything was ready to go,” Charter said.

Ali Ktif took the train from the airport after a trip to Winnipeg.

“It’s fast. It’s more reliable, and I like it!”

Glen Gower is the head of the city’s transit commission. He took one of the first trains on day one.

“The first thought that comes to mind is what a contrast from the launch of Line 1 back in 2019,” Gower said. “I think there were a lot of lessons learned. A really, really solid plan for the launch, really successful testing period. And we’ve had really solid, reliable service.”

Gower says this has been good for passenger confidence in the system. “I think it’s exceeded our expectations in terms of ridership over the past year.”

He also says there is lots of room for the system to grow.

“We’re seeing so much development anywhere where there’s a station along line 2,” Gower says.

“I know in our long term plan for the city, is to go to double tracking along the whole length of the route. That’s probably still 10 or 15 years away. But what that that would allow would be to run the train more often right now runs every 12 minutes, all week long, all day long. But with that double tracking, you could bring that time down significantly.”

The service says they will be taking lessons learned from this launch as the opening of the eastern extension of line 1 draws closer. But Charter says he can’t provide an exact date just yet.

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