Outage causes commuter chaos
Shuttle buses struggle to cope after morning train shutdown in core
Frustrated Calgary commuters were left waiting in the rain Thursday morning for overstuffed shuttle buses, after damage to CTrain infrastructure downtown led to a service outage in the core.
The damage occurred before 7 a. m. and prevented trains from entering the core for more than two hours before service was gradually restored.
Russell Davies, acting director for Calgary Transit, said the power outage may have been caused by a pantograph that had “some kind of failure or fracture” as an inbound train made its way downtown from the city’s northeast.
Around 6: 30 a. m., the inbound train’s pantograph — a piece of equipment that connects to the overhead power lines — snagged wires at the City Hall Station, a crucial nexus point.
“Where that train actually had the issue, at City Hall, is where the red and blue lines both combine,” Davies said. “So it actually affected the vast majority of downtown as well as stations just adjacent to downtown as well.”
The pantograph was pulled off the roof of the car, which triggered “all sorts of power issues with the vehicle,” he said.
“Our overhead power system then, to protect itself, isolates that section as well as adjacent sections of the power system just to try and protect things from a safety perspective,” said Davies.
He said it’s too early to speculate if the broken pantograph was the sole culprit. He said mechanics will “crawl all over” the train and conduct a material analysis.
Repairs were complete and service had returned to normal at about 11 a. m., said Enmax spokeswoman Doris Kaufmann Woodcock.
It’s not clear how many commuters were affected by the delay, but Davies said about 325,000 people use the LRT over the course of a typical weekday.
“This is quite unusual for an event of this scale to happen,” he said. “Obviously we have the odd little break down of vehicles ... but very rare is it where we have to close the whole of downtown and adjacent stations.”
Janice Garvin and her husband were heading into downtown on the train that sustained damage. She said the train was passing the Drop- In Centre after leaving Bridgeland Station when she suddenly heard “a ferociously large bang.”
“Everybody on the train just jumped,” Garvin said. “It scared the dickens out of me.”
She thought the train had hit something, but she didn’t see anything amiss when she looked out the window, she said.
When the train pulled into City Hall Station, Garvin heard another loud bang and crash, at which point all the power on the train went out.
“My husband and I just looked at each other and went, ‘ Yeah, we’re getting off,’” she said, adding she walked the rest of the way to work just before the rain hit.
“I’m just glad I wasn’t on the train behind us because we could’ve been sitting there for awhile.”
While Calgary Transit dispatched shuttle buses to ferry CTrain users into downtown, capacity was an issue, as thousands of commuters were attempting to get into the core.
In a service update email to transit customers, Calgary Transit said it was “working to get shuttle buses out to get to your destination.
“Since it is rush hour and there are a lot of people trying travelling into the downtown, we anticipate that our shuttle buses will be quite full as they reach each station,” the update said.
“A three- car CTrain carries about 600 passengers, and one articulated bus ( the accordion style) carries up to 90 people, so you can imagine our challenges this morning.”
Dozens of people waited for shuttle buses at 9th Street and McPherson Road N. E. in Bridgeland, many of them huddling under umbrellas and clutching their cellphones. One of the commuters, Kendra Kyle, a nurse working in home care, wasn’t happy about the delay.
“Now that it’s raining, it really sucks,” said Kyle, who normally rides the train from Bridgeland to the Erlton Station southeast of downtown. “But what can you do? If there’s no power, there’s no power.”
Another commuter, Maxine Johnson, who works in insurance at a downtown office, said there was confusion about which bus to take.
“Hopefully, whatever bus I get on will take me downtown. I have to get off at City Hall and walk a few more blocks.”
But barista Kohl McTiernan wasn’t too bothered by the wait.
“It’s a bit of a speed bump,” McTiernan said. “If it ( the rain) gets a bit stronger, it’ll definitely ruin the day. But this happens — you can’t get too upset about it.”
Bebi Sweeney, who works at the courthouse, echoed McTiernan’s comments.
“It’s nothing you can avoid,” said Sweeney, as she waited for train service to resume at the Bridgeland LRT station. “I think they’re doing the best they can.”
This is quite unusual for an event of this scale to happen. Obviously we have the odd little break down of vehicles ... but very rare is it where we have to close the whole of downtown.