Ottawa’s problem-plagued LRT suffered more trouble Sunday when a westbound train on the Confederation Line derailed west of Tremblay station.
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More LRT problems as train derails near Tremblay station
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“A couple of bumps, and it came to a stop,” one passenger told Coun. Jeff Leiper after the accident. Leiper posted the passenger’s comments and the passenger’s photo of the derailed train on Twitter.
It is the second time in six weeks that one of the city’s LRT trains has left the tracks.
At a late afternoon media briefing, the city’s director of transit operations, Troy Charters, said one set of five wheels derailed from a westbound train soon after leaving Tremblay station. The wheels were in the centre of the second car that made up the train.
“It does not appear to be connected to the Aug. 8 incident in that the wheels are still attached to the axle,” he said.
In an email to media Sunday evening, OC Transpo general manager John Manconi said “the vehicle involved in the incident had recently returned to service after undergoing repairs to an axle. At this time, we do not know if the same axle was involved in this incident.
“It appears that two axles on the second car of the train had derailed. There were approximately 12 customers on board. There were no injuries to customers or staff. The Transportation Safety Board (TSB), Transport Canada and the City’s Regulatory Monitor have been notified.”
As a precautionary measure, Charter said, service on the 12.5-kilometre Confederation Line has been suspended and buses deployed to serve passengers between Rideau and Blair stations.
Rideau Transit Maintenance CEO Mario Guerra said it could take up to a week to repair the damage and fully restore service. “There is quite a bit of damage to the infrastructure,” he said.
Replacement bus service will operate until the service is restored, Charters said, and it’s possible that partial LRT service will become available in the next few days.
Citizen transit commissioner Sarah Wright-Gilbert said the latest incident “definitely doesn’t inspire confidence in the reliability or safety of our LRT system.”
Mayor Jim Watson said Sunday that city staff are gathering information on the derailment and will provide “a full briefing” on what is known about the accident to the city’s transit commission Monday morning. That briefing, he said, will be available to the public on the city’s YouTube channel.
OC Transpo officials immediately de-energized the train after the noon-hour accident, and Ottawa Fire Services helped evacuate passengers. Fire crews remained on scene to ensure the train would not require stabilization.
Toby Allard, 14, was one of the first to arrive on the scene on his bicycle. He said about 20 passengers were taken off the train. “People were obviously panicked,” he said, “but no one was hurt.”
Allard and another frequent LRT passenger said they both noticed the train often “shudders” or vibrates as it rounds the turn west of Riverside Drive.
Ottawa police maintained control of the scene to ensure nothing was moved before accident investigators arrived.
Manconi said the next step after the derailment will be an assessment of the situation by the technical teams. “We are waiting for TSB investigators to provide clearance to undertake the inspection of the derailment.
“The train will be returned to Belfast Yard once it has been cleared to do so by investigators and safety certifiers.”
Manconi said in a later release that replacement buses will operate frequently between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations, but that travel times will be longer than regular train service. He said customers could plan their trips by using the online travel planner, which would be updated Sunday night, at octranspo.com .
Earlier this summer, councillors Catherine McKenney and Diane Deans asked that an emergency meeting of the city’s transit commission be called to discuss the Aug. 8 LRT derailment, attributed to a loose axle bearing, and other issues. Their request was rejected.
McKenney reacted to the latest accident Sunday on Twitter: “Another LRT derailment,” McKenney said. “Looks like we are getting that emergency meeting after all. Tomorrow’s Transit Commission must respond to this P3 (public-private partnership) failure. This is an embarrassment for Ottawa.”
Serving 13 stations, the $2.1 billion Confederation Line recently celebrated its second anniversary, but it has been lightly used for much of that time because of the pandemic.
After a fleet inspection by Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM), 10 train cars were sent for repairs to their axle assemblies.
There was another issue on Aug. 24 when early morning LRT service in part of the western stretch switched to replacement buses because a westbound train unexpectedly stopped between Pimisi and Bayview stations. Customers on the disabled train had to be transferred to another train. The backup buses ran for about an hour before regular train service resumed around 6:45 a.m. Defective trains also delayed LRT service at times on Aug. 20 and Aug. 26.
— With files from Jon Willing
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Calgary breaks all-time record in housing starts but increasing demand keeps inventory low – CBC.ca
Soaring housing demands in Calgary led to an all-time record for new residential builds last year, but inventory levels of completed and unsold units remained low due to demand outpacing supply.
According to the latest report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), total housing starts increased by 13 per cent in Calgary, reaching a total of 19,579 units with growth across all dwelling types in the city.
That compares to a decline of 0.5 per cent overall for housing starts in the six major Canadian cities surveyed by CMHC.
Calgary also had the highest housing starts by population.
“Part of the reason why we think that might have happened is that developers are responding to low vacancies in the rental market,” said Adebola Omosola, a housing economics specialist with CMHC.
“The population of Calgary is still growing, a record number of people moved here last year, and we still expect that to remain at least in the short term.”
Earlier this year, the Calgary Real Estate Board also predicted that demand, especially for rental apartments, wouldn’t let up any time soon.
Industry can cope with demand, expert says
According to numbers from the report, average construction times were higher in 2023 for all dwelling types except for apartments.
The agency’s report suggests the increase in the number of under-construction residential projects might mean builders are operating at or near full capacity.
However, there’s optimism the construction industry can match the increasing need.
Brian Hahn, CEO of BILD Calgary Region, said despite concerns around about construction costs, project timelines and labour shortages, the industry has kept up with the demand for new builds.
“I’ve heard that kind of conversation at the end of 2022 and I heard it in 2023,” Hahn said.
“Yet here we are early in 2024, and January and February were record numbers again.”
Hahn added he believes the current pace of construction will continue for at least the next six months and that the industry is looking at initiatives to attract more people to the trades.
Increase in row house and apartment construction
Construction growth was largely driven by new apartment projects, making up almost half of the housing starts in Calgary in 2023.
The federal housing agency says 9,034 apartment units were started that year, an increase of 17 per cent from the previous year. Of those, about 54 per cent were purpose-built rentals.
Apartments made up around two-thirds of all units under construction, CMHC said, with the total number of units under construction reaching 23,473.
Growth, however, was seen across all dwelling types. Row homes increased by 34 per cent from the previous year while groundbreaking on single-detached homes grew by two per cent.
“Notwithstanding challenges, our members and the industry counterparts that support them managed to produce a record amount of starts and completions,” Hahn said.
“I have little doubt that the industry will do their very best to keep pace at those levels.”
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Ottawa real estate: House starts down, apartments up in 2023 – CTV News Ottawa
Rental housing dominated construction in Ottawa last year, according to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
Residential construction declined significantly in 2023, with housing starts dropping to 9,245 units, a 19.5 per cent decline from the record high observed in 2022. But while single-detached and row housing starts fell compared to 2022, new construction for rental units and condominiums rose.
“There’s been a shift toward rental construction over the past two years. Rental housing starts made up nearly one third of total starts in 2023, close to double the average of the previous five years,” the report stated.
Apartment starts reached their highest level since the 1970s.
“The trend toward rental and condominium apartment construction follows increased demand in these market segments due to population growth, households looking for affordable options, and some seniors downsizing to smaller units,” the CMHC said.
Demand from international migration and students, the high cost of home ownership, and people moving to Ottawa from other parts of Ontario were the main drivers for rental housing starts in 2023. The CMHC says rental and condominium apartment starts made up 63 per cent of total starts in 2023, compared to the average of 37 per cent for the period 2018-2022.
There was a modest increase in rental housing starts in 2023 over the record-high seen the year prior and a jump in new condominiums. The report shows 5,846 new apartments were built in Ottawa last year, up 2.1 per cent compared to 2022.
Big demand for condos
The CMHC said condo starts reached a new high in 2023, increasing 3 per cent from 2022 numbers.
“As of the end of 2023, there were only 13 completed and unsold condominium units, highlighting continued demand for new units,” the CMHC said.
Condominum starts increased in areas such as Chinatown, Hintonburg, Vanier and Alta Vista, as well as some suburban areas like Kanata, Stittsville, and western Orléans. Condo apartment construction declined in denser parts of the city like downtown, Lowertown and Centretown, the report says.
Taller buildings are also becoming more common, as the cranes dotting the skyline can attest. The CMHC notes that buildings with more than 20 storeys accounted for nearly 10 per cent of apartment structure starts in 2022 and 2023, compared to an average of 2 per cent over the 2017-2021 period. The number of units per building also rose 7 per cent compared to 2022.
Single-detached home construction down significantly
The number of new single-detached homes built in Ottawa last year was the lowest level seen in the city since the mid 1990s, CMHC said.
“The Ottawa area experienced a slowdown in residential construction in 2023, driven by a significant decline in single-detached and row housing starts,” the CMHC said.
Single-detached housing starts were down 45 per cent compared to 2022. Row house starts dropped by 38 per cent compared to 2022, marking a third year of declines in a row.
“Demand for single-detached and row houses also declined in 2023. Higher mortgage rates and home prices have led to a shift in demand toward more affordable rental and condominium units,” the report said.
There were 1,535 single-detached housing starts in Ottawa last year, 208 new semi-detached homes and 1,678 new row houses.
The majority of single-detached and row housing starts were built in suburban communities such as Barrhaven, Stittsville, Kanata, Orléans and rural parts of the city.
“Increased construction costs resulting from higher financing rates and inflation that occurred in 2022 and 2023 contributed to the decline in construction in the region,” the CMHC said.
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Trump’s media company ticker leads to fleeting windfall for some investors
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Possible confusion over the new stock symbol for former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social (DJT-Q) saw some investor brokerage balances briefly jump by hundreds of thousands of dollars on Tuesday, the first day Trump’s “DJT” ticker traded.
Several people complained on social media about briefly seeing the value of their DJT stock holdings on Charles Schwab platforms inflated to figures more in line with what they would be worth if the shares traded at the level of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.
Some users said they faced a similar issue in pre-market hours on Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade trading platform.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group opened Tuesday at $70.90, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average started the session at 15,937.73 points.
For one trader, the Schwab brokerage balance jumped by more than $1 million due to the error, according to a screen grab shared on social media platform X. Reuters was unable to contact the trader or independently verify the brokerage balance.
“It sure was nice seeing millions in the account, even if it wasn’t real,” another person, going by the username @DanielBenjamin8, who faced the issue in his E*Trade account, posted on X.
Two X users and one on Reddit surmised that the inflated balances were due to the ticker symbol for the company being nearly identical to the index.
A spokeswoman for Charles Schwab said that certain users on some of Schwab’s trading platforms saw their brokerage balances briefly inflated due to a technical issue.
The issue has been resolved and investors are able to trade equities and options on Schwab platforms, she said. Schwab declined to describe the exact cause of the issue.
E*Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.
Trump Media & Technology Group and S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintains the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index, did not immediately comment on the issue.
While social media users said the issue appeared to have been resolved, many rued not being able to cash out their supposed gains from the error.
“I better go tell my boss that I’m actually not retiring,” the trader whose account balance had briefly jump by more than $1 million, wrote on X.
Trump Media & Technology Group shares surged more than 36% on Tuesday in their debut on the Nasdaq that comes more than two years since its merger with a blank-check firm was announced.
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