City says 12-days of trial running will begin this week.

The City of Ottawa announced the Confederation Line is substantially complete, which means testing will begin this week.

I’m pleased to report that RTG has achieved Substantial Completion on LRT and the 12 days of Trial Running will begin this week. #AlmostThere / RTG a maintenant terminé la construction du train léger, et les 12 jours consécutifs d’essai débuteront cette semaine. — Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) July 27, 2019

A memo to city council said that city staff and the independent certifier agree that the milestone has been met.

John Manconi, the city's general manager of transportation services wrote that " This applies to all fixed components, stations, rails, etc. and vehicles, and means that there is no restriction on the city's public use of the system."

The substantially complete milestone means the 12-day trial run of the system will begin this week.

Representatives from Rideau Transit Group, city staff and the independent certifier will assess the performance during the trial stage.

The trial run will test trains on a regular schedule to make sure it's ready for passengers. Some critical elements of the test include the safety of the system, travel times, rush-hour service and vehicle performance.

Trains will be roughly running on a normal schedule, but Manconi says since many systems will be tested, don't be alarmed if you don't see trains constantly running.

Something to note, if there is a major problem, the 12-day trial run must start over. If all goes off without a hitch, we could see a handover date of August 9.

After the 12 days of testing is complete, the city would take over the system for four weeks before the public can use it, meaning passengers could be riding the rails in September.