Ottawa to add to O-Train fleet
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefOC Transpo, overseeing public transit in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, has approved about C$35 million for the purchase of six new trains to bolster O-Train service, including a reduction in headways from 15 minutes to eight minutes by 2014.
Bids will be solicited in the near future, OC Transpo said. Bombardier Transportation, which supplied the existing O-Train fleet Talent low-floor diesel light rail transit (DLRT) cars, is expected to bid.
OC Transpo says it will commit an additional C$12 million to add two sidings along the 8-kilometer (5-mile) route and to upgrade signaling. "We’re also going to look at some station upgrades because the system is 10 years old; it was a pilot program and so there’s a few things for customer convenience that we want to improve," said OC Transpo General Manager Alain Mercier.
