It was a frustrating morning for some local commuters after the Metro Line LRT was shut down for four hours due to a signalling issue.

The issue started at approximately 8:30 a.m. To make up for the lack of service, ETS ran buses between the Churchill and NAIT stations.

“I’m on this train every day, so it is a little bit frustrating when it doesn’t run,” Kris Smylie told CTV News.

City officials are frustrated, too.

“When there are problems this speaks to the unreliability of the system so far,” ETS Engineering and Maintenance Director Craig McKeown said.

Friday’s problem, which McKeown called “odd behaviour,” was not a first.

“You’d see gate arms coming up and down sporadically, so driver behaviour and pedestrian behaviour might have been impacted.”

In late 2017, crossing arms lifted at the wrong time near NAIT.

The city is currently evaluating Thales’ signalling system after giving the company a deadline to correct its issues. On Dec. 4, Thales said it had delivered.

The Capital and Metro lines will be shut down this upcoming Sunday for testing. Scheduled closures will continue until the end of March.

The city could put an end to its $55-million contract with Thales if issues continue.

“We have to work through this system first to figure out where we’re at and then those other decisions can be made,” Ward 2 Councillor Bev Esslinger said.

With files from CTV Edmonton’s Regan Hasegawa