Redesigned axles for O-Train Line 1 still years away, officials suggest

Officials appear before the City of Ottawa's transit committee on Thursday, May 14, 2026. From closest to farthest: Noah Heulitt, Alstom VP of North American services; Grant Bailie, RTG CEO; Troy Charter, assistant GM, Transit Services; Rick Leary, GM, Transit Services; Sabrina Pasian, chief safety officer, Transit Services. (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa)

A redesigned axle hub for the Alstom trains on O-Train Line 1 could still be years away, officials told the City of Ottawa’s transit committee, but progress on the redesign is being made.

The project was first announced in the summer of 2023, following a 28-day shutdown of Line 1 because of a wheel hub issue that was discovered. Renée Amilcar, the general manager of Transit Services at the time, touted it as a “permanent fix” to the issue that was also linked to a derailment at Tunney’s Pasture Station in 2021.

Speaking at Thursday’s committee meeting, Noah Heulitt, Alstom’s vice president of services for North America, and Rideau Transit Group (RTG) CEO Grant Bailie said progress on the redesign was moving from the design phase to the prototype phase.

“The redesign package, the drawings themselves, have been shared, and we’re reviewing that, and then the next step would be moving to the prototype procurement and delivery and testing,” Bailie said.

But he said a comprehensive timeline for when the redesigned components could be fitted onto the trains hasn’t been established.

“It is a process that is going to take some time, if not a couple of years to unfold,” he said.

Line 1, in the meantime, continues to see reduced service because of the spalling issue that was discovered in January, though some double-car trains were launched on Thursday and new general manager Rick Leary expects full service to be restored by mid-June.

The City of Ottawa implemented a mileage limit on trains, requiring any trains with cartridge bearings assemblies with 100,000-kilometre of mileage or more be removed from service to have those assemblies replaced.

Heulitt says Alstom has sufficient capacity to manage supply of replacements.

“Once we identified a clear path forward with RTG and the city, additional materials have been ordered to secure the supply chain, so that we have sufficient materials on hand,” Heulitt said. “We also appreciate the efforts of the city to work with other partners to secure other materials… so those pieces of equipment are sitting in our inventory and are available for use, should we need them.”

In April, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe announced the city had sourced some axles from the provincial agency Metrolinx to help speed up the return of full Line 1 service.

Heulitt said he believes they have approximately 300 units but admitted that was an estimate.

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