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A memo sent to council and since posted online indicates the trials and tribulations of the Metro Line are not yet over, with a more determined target to now have the line running at full frequency by the end of 2017. That means the upgrades won't be ready for students of NAIT, MacEwan and the University of Alberta, who will be heading back to school in September.
The Metro Line had been scheduled to enter service in April 2014, but delays attributed to the signalling system built by Thales pushed the launch date back to September 2015. The trains weren't operating at full speed until February 2017.
The Metro and Capital Lines share trackage through downtown and the University of Alberta. Persistent software issues mean that officials can't run Metro trains — unable to get around the older trains on the Capital Line — at their intended frequency. As a result, every third train heading northeast to Clareview has been diverted to serve the Metro Line, also reducing frequency on that route. The forthcoming software is supposed to allow two-and-a-half minute service on the shared track, alternating between five-minute frequency Metro and Capital Line trains.
Officials previously set a target completion of "2017, without a specific date" to have the troubled Metro Line fully operational. The memo, seen by council in May, makes reference to ongoing work concerning "deficiency cleanup and software completion for automatic train operations," with the project expected to be completed this winter.
The City set up the Integrated Infrastructure Services department in 2016 in response to the uproar tied to the project's nagging delays. The new body is responsible for designing and delivering $4 billion worth of infrastructure over the next few years.
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