Opening Day of OCTranspo's Confederation Line

Mayor Jim Watson, Provincial Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney, and one of the winners of the train naming contest get ready to turn the power on to the Confederation Line at the opening ceremonies.

Today was the first day of operation of OCTranspo's Confederation Line, and this morning's inaugural ceremonies and ride were pulled off without a hitch. The event was fun and flawless, and it appeared a good time was had by all.

Watson & Mulroney unveil the commemorative plaque

A little background. Ottawa hasn't had a electric railway to provide its citizens with urban transportation since it closed down its streetcar system in May 1959. Up until then it had an urban street railway - first  horse powered and then electric - that had been in continuous operation since the summer of 1870. In 2001 a diesel powered light rail system, the Trillium Line, was introduced by OCTranspo, and today it forms the north-south branch of the O-Train system, with the fully electric Confederation Line providing east-west transportation. The Trillium and Confederation Lines come together at the Bayview station. Neither of these lines run in the street, but on their own dedicated track. 

Getting ready to board for the inaugural ride

The event got started around 10:15 with speeches, recognition, and congratulations to all governmental organizations, aboriginal peoples, contractors, builders, construction workers, and city staff who made the Confederation Line a reality. This is a project that broke ground in 2013 and finished all up system testing just a few weeks ago. It's been the largest project undertaken so far in the city's history, and it's had its share of problems, one of which was being well over a year late.

After the ceremonies it was on to the main event: the inaugural ride from Tunney's Pasture station, where this event was taking place, out to Blair station at the east end, and back again. It was standing room only in the train, and there was maybe around 300 people packing the vehicle - likely a good simulation of rush hour traffic :-)

As I mentioned earlier, the ride down the 12.5 km line and back again was flawless. The train stopped at each station, but didn't open its doors, and after a brief stop was on its way again. By chance I was jammed in a car not too far from Mayor Jim Watson. For a while John Manconi, the general manager of city transportation services, who is basically the head cheese project manager on this project, was standing near the mayor and looking a bit tense. I assume it was because last week he had to explain why a train on the Confederation Line got stuck in a tunnel for several hours one night which, among other things, involved an odd semantic discussion on whether the train was actually stopped as opposed to stuck. However, he didn't need to worry today. The only thing that seemed a little odd to me in an otherwise perfect trip was the train seemed to have a little trouble climbing an uphill grade. I was standing sandwiched between suits and a French language camera crew, so I have no data to substantiate my feeling other than the sense of a little hesitation in the train.

John Manconi, on far left, is all similes at the end of trip media scrum

If you're a regular reader of 30 Squares you know the main topic here is model building. And a version of model building that leans towards aesthetics and story telling - the romance of the rails. However, the purpose of the O-Train isn't that, but the more pragmatic goal of providing safe, reliable, and useful service to everyone in Ottawa. It's an engineered system that has to perform over the days, months, and years ahead. 

The Confederation Line opened to all riders at 2pm today, is open for regular Sunday hours tomorrow, and sees its first day of busy commuters and rush hour service on Monday. It's what's ahead that will tell the Confederation Line's story, but today was a great beginning. 

Postscript: Dave told me I had to make sure I got whatever swag was being given out at this event. Dave, that's it over there :-) Down in the lower left is my certificate that I rode the inaugural ride in case any proof is needed in the future :-)