Service on Ottawa's light rail transit (LRT) system was briefly disrupted on Feb. 7 after a water leak at the Rideau Station.
At roughly 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, a fire alarm was triggered at the Rideau Station and OC Transpo said in a Twitter thread that there was a significant water leak near the westbound platform.
Rideau Station was closed to allow Ottawa Fire Services (OFS) to conduct an investigation as to what happened.
There was R1 service between the Tunney's Pasture and Hurdman stations while the Rideau Station was closed.
➡️Around 3pm a fire alarm was activated at Rideau station and we found a significant water leak near the westbound platform.
— OC Transpo (@OC_Transpo) February 8, 2023
➡️ Rideau Station closed to allow @OttFire to conduct an investigation.
➡️ Our team was at the station to assist customers and announcements were made.
Service was restored just before 4 p.m.
➡️ Right now, we believe that the cause of the water leak was a burst sprinkler system pipe.
— OC Transpo (@OC_Transpo) February 8, 2023
In a memo released to Ottawa city council on Feb. 8, OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar said the cause of the brief disruption is due to temperature fluctuations that caused condensation to build up inside the station's dry sprinkler system that froze, causing the pipe to burst.
She added that Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) is reviewing its proactive maintenance procedures, specifically the intervals at which the system is drained of excess water to prevent similar incidents from occurring.
