OTTAWA — The new year brings no fresh start for Ottawa’s ill-fated light rail train system, after concrete debris was found on the tracks of an LRT station tunnel.

Renée Amilcar, Ottawa’s general manager of transit services, says in a memo to the mayor and city councillors that train service isn’t running at four of the 13 stations along the city’s main east-west line.

Amilcar says city infrastructure workers started a safety inspection of the tunnel after the debris was found.

Train service continues along the rest of the route and replacement buses are running along the closed part of the line.

The capital city’s LRT system is not even five years old and has been beset by repeated problems and constant service shutdowns.

Jammed doors, damaged wheels and icy weather that shorted out electrical wires have repeatedly affected service, and serious safety issues with the train’s track construction led to a month-long shutdown last summer.

A public inquiry in 2022 uncovered myriad problems stemming from political and business decisions to rush the system into service despite significant known issues with testing, particularly in Ottawa’s winter climate.

OC Transpo told commuters via social media Tuesday morning that this time, the stations were closed “out of an abundance of caution.”

No more information was provided on where the concrete debris came from or whether any serious problems have been uncovered.

Most of the major issues with the LRT to date have been related to the tracks and the train cars.

But the tunnels and stations have had their share of issues, too, including a sewage line leak in the system’s earliest days that filled two downtown stations with an unpleasant odour.

And last spring, the tunnel under the city’s downtown was closed briefly to repair water that was leaking through the walls.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 2, 2024.

The Canadian Press