The company responsible for the Metro Line LRT’s problem-riddled signalling system is apologizing for a 3 1/2-hour shutdown last week.
“Thales apologizes to the riders of the Metro Line for the difficult commute on a very cold day,” the company said in a statement released Wednesday.
The line was down between 8:30 a.m. and noon Friday because of an “extremely rare network broadcast storm,” Thales said.
Thales blamed the malfunction on third-party equipment.
“This type of disruption is unacceptable to Thales and we are working diligently with ETS to determine the root cause of this occurrence,” the release said.
Thales said it is taking “proactive measures to mitigate against these types of events in the future.”
The disruption occurred two days before a system-wide scheduled shutdown on Sunday for signal testing.
The city has been testing the line for two months, after Thales said it fixed the long-standing problems with the software.
The Metro Line LRT stops at MacEwan University, Royal Alexandra Hospital and NAIT.
Thales claims the Metro Line has otherwise been reliable over the past 14 months, beyond the company’s “contract obligations of 99.9 per cent, measuring delays of greater than five minutes.”
The city has not said when it will announce the line is fixed to its satisfaction and Thales has fulfilled its contract.