Broken wire leads to LRT interruption

The City of Ottawa says a broken wire led to one of its light rail trains losing power shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday.

The incident happened just outside Lees Station, according to astatement from Rene Amilcar, the city's general manager of transit services.

Passengerswere helped off the train, Amilcar said, and safely arrived at a nearby station.

An initial investigation completed by Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) found a wire known as a parafil meant to support the overhead catenary system that powers the LRTnetwork had broken.

Replacement buses were runningbetween Tremblay and uOttawa stations until full train service resumed just after 4 p.m.

Seems unrelated to January incident

Meant to help power the trains, the overhead catenary systemhas been the source of several problems with the LRT network.

RTM's investigation is seeking to find out if this latest breakdown is related to thoseissues, although Amilcar said it was not related to a power failure earlier this year.

In that instance, wire problems attributed to cold January weather shut down a portion of the line. Five rail cars were damaged and the Transportation Safety Board was notified as a result.

That interruption came just days after there was a collision between two trains at Belfast Yard.

According to Environment Canada, Ottawa's temperature was around freezing when the train lost power Saturday morning.