City to take control of LRT today 456 days late

UPDATE: You can find the details from Friday's announcement at the following link:

• Ottawa to ride LRT on Sept. 14

The City of Ottawa is expected to take possession of the Confederation Line today, 456 days and numerous missed deadlines after it was supposed to get the keys to the $2.1-billionLRT system.

At the 2:30 p.m. announcement, Mayor Jim Watson will also say when the public will get to enter one of the 13 new stations and ride the electrictrains. The grand opening is expected to happen in mid-September.

The original due date for the LRT handover was May 24, 2018. The completion of the LRT projecttriggers a payment of $202 million to Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the consortium that built the 12.5-kilometre Confederation Line.

But even after the city takes control of the line, there will be further planning and operational drills before the system opens to the public.

Running late

• May 24, 2018:RTGwas originally supposed to deliver the LRTsystem to the city on May 24, 2018, but in February 2018, the city announced the handover would be pushed back six monthsto November.
• Nov. 2, 2018: In September 2018, it became clear RTG would miss the new November deadline, too. OC Transpo boss John Manconi promised transit users would ride the rails sometime in the first few months of 2019.
• March 31, 2019: At the beginning of March, RTG announced it would miss thatthird deadline, even thoughthe consortium had recently vowed the line would be ready. RTG promised to hand over the system by the end of June 2019, a full yearafter it was originally scheduled to be finished.
• June 30, 2019: It soon became clearRTG wouldn't make the June handover, either,and there'd be no LRT byCanada Day as previously hoped. In July,a new deadline was set for August.
• Aug. 16, 2019:Inamemo to council that morning, Manconisaidthe 12-daytrial run was ongoing, and that RTG hadmade "significant progress." But the city still had to wait to get the keys.
• Aug.23, 2019:456 days after the first deadline, the city is finally expected to get the keys to the Confederation Line.