OC Transpo to buy fleece jackets for staff before LRT line launch

It seems you can’t launch a $2.1-billion LRT line without some commemorative swag to mark the largest capital expense in the City of Ottawa’s history.

The city is in the market for hundreds of special transit jackets to be part of staff uniforms for the opening of the Confederation Line.

Billed in tender documents as the “O -Train Launch Commemorative Fleece Jacket,” the swag will be handed out to transit staff dedicated to LRT operations. The city is asking for quotes on providing the zip-up jackets by late October, which is the month before the LRT line is scheduled to open.

The 400 three-season microfleece jackets, which must have removable sleeves, will be handed out to LRT operators, supervisors, superintendents and other staff working in the stations.

The sample drawings show a simple black jacket with either an O-Train or OC Transpo logo on the upper-left chest. The city wants 300 of the jackets to have the O -Train patch and the others will have the Transpo patch. The logo on both jackets will feature the big red O that Transpo hopes

will become synonymous with Ottawa transit.

The city wants most of the new jackets to be size large. It needs a dozen to be extra-extra-extra large.

Another version of O-Trainbranded jackets has been spotted in the city, sometimes being worn by elected officials.

The LRT office has also purchased branded merchandise, such as water bottles, foam toys and pens, to hand out at events.

The 12.5-kilometre LRT line will have 13 stations between Tunney ’s Pasture and Blair station. The city wants the Rideau Transit Group to finish building the system by Nov. 2 and it intends to start carrying passengers by the end of that month.

The full rail network — the Confederation Line, known as Line 1, and the existing Trillium Line, or Line 2 — is being branded as the O -Train.