Broken wire temporarily disrupts east-end LRT service

People buy tickets at the Cyrville LRT station in 2020. Service on the Confederation Line has returned to normal after a wire supporting the overhead power system broke overnight near the east-end station. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC - image credit)
People buy tickets at the Cyrville LRT station in 2020. Service on the Confederation Line has returned to normal after a wire supporting the overhead power system broke overnight near the east-end station. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC - image credit)

Light rail service on the Confederation Line has returned to normal after a wire supporting the overhead power system snapped near Cyrville Station overnight.

The wire, called a parafil, broke just before midnight, transit services general manager Renée Amilcar told council in a Saturday memo.

Trains were temporarily limited to a single track between Tremblay and Blair stations, while replacement R1 buses were called into service.

Shortly after 9 a.m., OC Transpo said trains were running normally again.

Rideau Transit Maintenance staff have been deployed to the site of the breakage, Amilcar said, and the repair work was expected to be finished Saturday.

The broken wire occurred roughly two weeks after another mechanical failure involving the overhead cable network at Lees Station closed a stretch of the Confederation Line for about 18 hours.

Amilcar said in her memo the overnight incident was unrelated to the Lees Station issue.