Trillium Line passes 14-day trial running

October 21, 2024 Canuck

The north-south Trillium Line LRT has officially passed its 14-day trial running period.

OC Transpo says the line finished the test with a 14-day rolling average on-time performance of 99.5 per cent, a full point ahead of its goal.

The test involved running Line 2 from Bayview Station to Limebank Station and Line 4 from South Keys Station to Airport Station as if each was accepting passengers. TransitNext, the line’s builder, was required to have an on-time average score of 98.5 per cent after 14 days. If the final score had been below that, additional trial running tests would have been required. On-time performance was defined as the train leaving within 30 seconds of its scheduled time.

Here is how the line performed on each day of testing:

Day 1: 98.3 per cent (Vehicle issue)
Day 2: 99.4 per cent (Vehicle issue)
Day 3: 100 per cent
Day 4: 100 per cent
Day 5: 99.4 per cent (Vehicle issue)
Day 6: 100 per cent
Day 7: 100 per cent
Day 8: 99.4 per cent (Vehicle issue)
Day 9: 100 per cent
Day 10: 98.6 per cent (Vehicle and track issues)
Day 11: 99.4 per cent (Vehicle issue)
Day 12: 100 per cent
Day 13: 99.4 per cent (Vehicle and track issues)
Day 14: 98.4 per cent (Signal issue)

In a memo to city council, Richard Holder, director of rail construction, noted that there was a revision to the score on Day 13, which took place Saturday.

“Please note that, following the review of vehicle logs relating to October 19 operations on Lines 2 and 4, there has been an increase to TransitNext’s on-time performance value from 97.4 to 99.4 per cent, which also increases the 14-day rolling average that day from 99.4 to 99.5 per cent. The vehicle log information was not available until the end of service on October 20. The data shows that the issue that caused some of the missed trips on October 19 was not vehicle related and therefore outside of TransitNext’s control,” he wrote.

Issues that arose on the line during testing included errors with on-board CCTV cameras, a switch not moving correctly requiring a train to stop on the line, error messages linked to speed sensors, and an issue with a braking system that caused brief delays at the start of service on the first day of testing.

Transit Services general manager Renée Amilcar said last week that she was pleased to see the issues that arose were resolved as quickly as possible.

“While it is important that issues do not occur, how we respond to them is equally important. Both TransitNext and OC Transpo remain focused on our collective goal on addressing issues now to ensure we can quickly respond to operational challenges in the future,” she said. “Every time we overcome an issue in trial running, it gets us one step closer to delivering a system that will meet our expectations on day one.”

The second phase of testing, a seven-day operational and maintenance scenario evaluation, will begin Monday afternoon. This phase involves testing the system for its response to various potential issues, including operational problems and service disruptions, to ensures that it can handle unexpected events efficiently. It has no pass or fail criteria and is, instead, a chance for OC Transpo to “play” with the system, Amilcar has said.

Following that seven-day testing period, an additional period of approximately three weeks has been identified by transit officials for final regulatory approvals before the system is open to the public. Officials have said the earliest possible opening date would be in mid-November if all of the testing goes well.

This is a breaking news story. More details to come…

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