Ottawa Rapid Transit Network developments

[Kitchissippi]

As per demand, this thread is reserved for discussions regarding the developments of the APPROVED Rapid Transit Network only, to make real progress easier to follow:



Not allowed in this thread:
- theoretical technologies (PRT, PAT, MagLev etc)
- alternate transit plans that contradict what's already approved (issues regarding options to the Western Parkway or future extensions are OK)
- General BRT vs. LRT debates

Those discussions should remain in the "The future of Ottawa's Transit" thread or their own threads.

Post away!

[Kitchissippi]

FROM OTTAWA.CA:

Notice of Public Open Houses

Moving Forward with Ottawa’s Transportation Future

Ottawa - We want to hear from you!  

The City of Ottawa is currently updating its Transportation Master Plan (TMP), a document that explains the need for future transit, roads, pathways and other transportation infrastructure, and provides guidance on where and when they will be built.

As the TMP update enters its final stages, the City is seeking input on different implementation scenarios for the transit network, as well as costs, benefits and associated risks. Residents can view the different scenarios and provide comments at the open houses or join the conversation on the OttawaTALKS online discussion forum from September 11 to 30 at ottawa.ca/tmp. Other ways of providing feedback include via e-mail to plan@ottawa.ca or by calling 3-1-1.

Open houses will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m., with table discussions at 7 p.m.  To register for a discussion group, visit ottawa.ca/tmp.

Thursday, September 11
Ottawa City Hall – Main Floor Rotunda Area
110 Laurier Avenue West (at Elgin Street)
Transit Routes: 5, 6 and 14

Monday, September 15
Jim Durrell Recreation Centre – Elwood Hall
1265 Walkley Road (near Bank Street)
Transit Routes: 1, 8, 82, 88, and 97

Tuesday, September 16
Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex – Orléans
1490 Youville Drive (near Highway 174)
Transit Routes: 31, 95, 101, 102, 127, and 131

Thursday, September 18
Glen Cairn Community Centre (Upper Hall)
186 Morrena Drive (near Castlefrank and Hazeldean)
Transit Routes: 63, 64, 96,118 and 161

Monday, September 22
Nepean Sportsplex – Salon A
1701 Woodroffe Avenue (near West Hunt Club)
Transit Routes: 70, 71, 73, 76, 77, 95, 157 and 188

[Cre47]

Ottawa Sun article - seems the east end is more preffered and Jan is fuming. Well Jan blame on the residents of Westboro for that, although if the Strandherd Bridge is built at the same time much of the construction is done, I could see an extension to Barrhaven without worrying about the Westboro NIMBYS.

Meanwhile, the streetcar option and the hopstial complex by-pass is also on the maps

Originally Posted by Derek Puddicombe

Street cars new wrinkle in transit plans

Councillors to hear 4 options today

By DEREK PUDDICOMBE, Sun Media

City commuters might be presented with a choice of light rail or street cars for their downtown transit system.

As part of four scenarios which city staff will present to councillors this morning, a street car line along Carling Ave. has been drawn into the long-range plans.

The Carling Ave. street car would would be built into the current roadway and stop at each traffic light. The option is being presented is in case the National Capital Commission does not give the city permission to run light rail along the Ottawa River Parkway.

The city operates OC Transpo buses along the parkway with permission from the NCC, but the federal body has been non-committal on whether it would allow LRT along the corridor. The parkway route is a vital link in the city's plan for light rail to the west end.

Councillors Clive Doucet and Christine Leadman contend the NCC won't green-light a rail system along the parkway, and suggest street cars as an alternative.


The pair have argued all along that taking light rail down the parkway will destroy its environmental integrity. They also admit the Carling Ave. route isn't a new idea.

But, as straight arterial route which links to Hwy. 417, the existing western Transitway, the downtown and Quebec via the existing O-Train line, they say it's the best way for the city to connect the downtown with the west end.

As reported in the Sun today, scenario three is shaping up to be the preferred option among councillors to begin construction of the city's $4 billion, 23-year transit plan. This option includes 30 km of light rail, including from Riverside South to the University of Ottawa, and the Blair Rd. transit station.

It also includes a bus bypass that must be built to maintain commuter service while a portion of the east-end transitway is converted to light rail.

The route also takes light rail to Tunney Pasture.

Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder is fuming that nowhere in the grand plan is any light rail for Barrhaven.

She said it would only take an extra few million dollars added to the $4 billion plan to service commuters with light rail. Barrhaven's population has almost tripled from 25,000 in 2000, and it could be home to 175,000 people by 2031 when the transit plan is to be completed.

[Cre47]

Here's also from the Citizen

Originally Posted by Patrick Dare

Staff want to begin in east, south
Patrick Dare, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Thursday, September 11, 2008

The preferred construction plan for the new rapid transit system is to begin by building commuter rail from downtown to the east and south ends.

The city this morning is unveiling four options for the sequence of construction for the $4-billion transit plan.

The best option, according to staff, is to build commuter rail in the transitway corridor from Blair Station to Tunney's Pasture, including the tunnel under downtown, then south to the Riverside South Town Centre.

This project would include a major new element: building an additional bus transitway that would run from Blair Station along Innes Road and then into downtown. That corridor would carry the large volume of riders from the east while the current transitway is converted to commuter rail. It would continue to operate after the rail system is built, especially to accommodate riders going to and from the health sciences campus in Alta Vista.

The east-south project would include rail links to both the Via Rail station and The Ottawa Airport.

The plan is bound to be controversial because it follows the path of much of the former council's commuter-rail plan, which was killed by the new council earlier in this term.

Critics of the old north-south plan said it failed to address the most pressing demands for transit service, which are in the east and the west.

The east-south option is preferred because there are fewer obstacles to the construction. For instance, as part of the plan to go west, city staff have run into a wall with the National Capital Commission's reluctance to allow the commuter-rail line to run along the Ottawa River parkway. If city officials have to explore every possible alternative, that could take years and the federal government's Build Canada funding requires that projects be completed by 2015.

The city is counting on the federal government to pay for one-third of the cost of the project.

[Richard Eade]

Originally Posted by Cre47

Here's also from the Citizen
...
This project would include a major new element: building an additional bus transitway that would run from Blair Station along Innes Road and then into downtown. That corridor would carry the large volume of riders from the east while the current transitway is converted to commuter rail. It would continue to operate after the rail system is built, especially to accommodate riders going to and from the health sciences campus in Alta Vista.
...

So, the staging for this east link must be to build the busway from Hurdman to Innes (along the Browning corridor) first. The only way this would continue to move eastern riders to downtown is if the bridge over the Rideau and the Transitway was still intact from Hurdman to downtown.

UNLESS the bus could find another route from Hurdman into downtown; OR the bus would take Industrial/Riverside/417/Nicholas from Innes. Notice that the anouncement states the route as "from Blair Station along Innes Road and then into downtown". I know that the map shows a "Supplementary Transit - Bus" route through the Browning corridor, but it does not show any bus link into the downtown core. This alternative route would allow conversion of the Transitway from Blair through to UofO where the tunnel portal is. Of course, the bus could go from Hurdman up Riverside/417/Nicholas to downtown as well.

I'm curious how the major new element will keep providing an east end to downtown link "after the rail system is built". (I guess it is not to be included in the "rail system".)

If there really is to be no bus link from Hurdman to downtown, west end people will need to take the bus to downtown (assuming the train only goes to Tunney's Pasture, there will still be a western bus which goes downtown I hope), then the train to Hurdman, then a bus to the hospital site. Fun

The west tunnel portal to Tunney's Pasture conversion is easy since the buses can run along Scott/Wellington/Albert/Slater east of Tweedsmere.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Cre47

Ottawa Sun article - seems the east end is more preffered and Jan is fuming. Well Jan blame on the residents of Westboro for that, although if the Strandherd Bridge is built at the same time much of the construction is done, I could see an extension to Barrhaven without worrying about the Westboro NIMBYS.

You mean people who think they live in Westboro now that it has become the cool place to be. Westboro used to end at Rochester Field (and Island Park in the east). People who actually live in Westboro already have a hole in the ground and I would suspect want to see the Transitway converted. It was because of the people of Westboro wanting a transit station closer to them that Westboro Station is where it is and not at Island Park as originally planned. Ditto for the later addition at Dominion. The current objectors/NIMBYs are living in what used to be called McKellar Park and, further west, Woodroffe.

[waterloowarrior]

http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_co.../index_en.html

Rapid Transit Network 2031 - click pic to enlarge (pdf)



Developments since Primary Transit Network established in May 2008.

• LRT extended to Riverside South
• Browning Avenue Corridor included
• Supplementary Transit corridor identified
• Transit priority corridors included
• Park and Ride Facilities for Ottawa, iTRANS Consulting Inc

fyi $2 billion in new roads spending, about $4.7 billion on rapid transit network

from the Citizen

For Kanata North Councillor Marianne Wilkinson, the new plan is a revival of the old plan, championed by former mayor Bob Chiarelli, bringing commuter rail to thinly populated neighbourhoods in the south when all the riders are in the east and the west.

"They've brought back the train that we turned down," said Ms. Wilkinson.

"But we're growing like crazy in Kanata and Stittsville."

lol

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_co.../index_en.html

Rapid Transit Network 2031 - click pic to enlarge (pdf)



Developments since Primary Transit Network established in May 2008.

• LRT extended to Riverside South
• Browning Avenue Corridor included
• Supplementary Transit corridor identified
• Transit priority corridors included
• Park and Ride Facilities for Ottawa, iTRANS Consulting Inc

fyi $2 billion in new roads spending, about $4.7 billion on rapid transit network

from the Citizen


lol

Meh.

Seems less ambitious than the original plan4...

[Richard Eade]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

...
Developments since Primary Transit Network established in May 2008.

• LRT extended to Riverside South
• Browning Avenue Corridor included
• Supplementary Transit corridor identified
• Transit priority corridors included
• Park and Ride Facilities for Ottawa, iTRANS Consulting Inc

...

Notice also that there is now a transfer station at Confederation that links the LRT, the BRT and the supplemental transit - bus along Heron. With a full transfer station there, why are they still running a BRT south from there?

Expect to hear a lot of complaints that the south line extends across the Greenbelt to the RS City Centre. The east passengers will have to take a bus to transfer at Blair. (However, if the new Browning link is maintained, they might be able to take the south line and bus directly downtown.) Oddly, Barrhaven and Kanata passengers should still be able to take their bus directly downtown until the rail is extended to Lincoln Fields and Baseline. (It is possible that they will be forced to transfer at TP or Bayview, but I doubt it.) Once the train is extended, they too will need to take a bus across the Greenbelt to transfer to the train. Barrhaven will have the advantage since they will also be able to bus to the RS TC to take the train.

So did anyone else notice that Staff have pulled the 'plan' back to what they originally wanted from the one City Council approved? The one Council approved is shown in the first post of this thread. The extensions across the Greenbelt are not included in this latest 'plan'.

[lrt's friend]

Transit Plan
City wants to begin transit line in east and south

Patrick Dare
The Ottawa Citizen


Thursday, September 11, 2008


OTTAWA - The City of Ottawa says it could take three years to sort out objections to commuter rail along the Ottawa River Parkway, so the city should consider going ahead with rail service east to Blair Station and south to Riverside South.

The city unveiled four construction scenarios for the ambitious new rapid transit plan, which is now expected to cost $4.7 billion over the next 25 years. Two of the plans run rail east and west, but they are problematic because of concerns from the National Capital Commission about a train corridor running along the Ottawa River. The city's managers say they want to work through the issue with the NCC and can't hurry that consultation process.

But the effect of the delay will be that the east-west service can't be built within the next decade, leaving the city to build its downtown tunnel and then east and south.

For Kanata North Councillor Marianne Wilkinson, the new plan is a revival of the old plan, championed by former mayor Bob Chiarelli, bringing commuter rail to thinly populated neighbourhoods in the south when all the riders are in the east and the west.

"They've brought back the train that we turned down," said Ms. Wilkinson. "But we're growing like crazy in Kanata and Stittsville."

The transit plan is $700 million more expensive than previously reported because the plan is fully costed and includes additional elements such as a streetcar along Carling Avenue, a new bus transitway in the east and creating a bus transitway on Baseline Road.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

.

[Kitchissippi]

Actually, there really hasn't been any real vocal objections (at least not yet) against using part of the Byron corridor from residents of Westboro or communities west of it. The NIMBYism is a largely assumed thing, especially because no serious proposal has been studied. I think the NCC is right to say that options should be explored because the best solution might actually be to use Richmond/Byron even if it would cost more in the long run. Let them pitch in or lobby the feds for the increased cost if they really don't want the Parkway to be touched.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Actually, there really hasn't been any real vocal objections (at least not yet) against using part of the Byron corridor from residents of Westboro or communities west of it. The NIMBYism is a largely assumed thing, especially because no serious proposal has been studied.

That's perfectly true; the objections so far - which is what I was referring to - have been against the Parkway route. The loudest voice against the Byron routing so far has been Alex Cullen, and, for some strange reason, city staff with their outrageous $750M claim.

I think the NCC is right to say that options should be explored because the best solution might actually be to use Richmond/Byron even if it would cost more in the long run. Let them pitch in or lobby the feds for the increased cost if they really don't want the Parkway to be touched.

Perfectly in agreement. The NCC are responsible for the otherwise 'best' option - the former CPR corridor - being filled with housing so they ought to pay for their own lack of foresight by anteing up the funds to run it in the Byron corridor. As I've written before, it's not like the NCC didn't know that rapid transit would be running this way because they signed the agreement to allow the Parkway to be used "temporarily".

And since the Byron corridor is shorter and straighter and goes closer to more housing and businesses, its long run cost ought to be lower and its long-run revenues/benefits higher.

[Richard Eade]

Originally Posted by Dado

That's perfectly true; the objections so far - which is what I was referring to - have been against the Parkway route. The loudest voice against the Byron routing so far has been Alex Cullen, and, for some strange reason, city staff with their outrageous $750M claim.
...

The way I see it:
Cullen and staff keep pushing the Parkway option and making very high estimates for the Byron route.

Once the studies are in, the Parkway will be the cheapest option since it will be the most impossible for the NCC to accept. (Surface rail with overhead wires and fences.) The NCC will say "NO!" but will then be responsible (in the City's eyes) to cover the cost of the next cheapest route - Byron. This appears to be a pretty typical game that the City is playing. It wants to have the Byron corridor without looking like a bad guy for putting a train through a residential neighbourhood, and it wants to look as if it was forced into a higher priced option by the NCC. (The NCC may or may not pay the cost difference. I think that that will depend on public opinion at the time.)

[Suzie]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Actually, there really hasn't been any real vocal objections (at least not yet) against using part of the Byron corridor from residents of Westboro or communities west of it. The NIMBYism is a largely assumed thing, especially because no serious proposal has been studied. I think the NCC is right to say that options should be explored because the best solution might actually be to use Richmond/Byron even if it would cost more in the long run. Let them pitch in or lobby the feds for the increased cost if they really don't want the Parkway to be touched.

I agree that the Richmond/Byron alignment deserves serious consideration, and its costs and benefits should be fully assessed. But is there or will there be grassroots and political support for this option? I have not seen Carlingwood and Ambleside residents pushing for it even though they would be the main beneficiaries. Do you expect Cullen to eventually reverse himself and support it?

[Rathgrith]

Kitchissippi, I like how you cock-blocked Franky on this thread.
Someone needed to do it. However, I still want to know what the each termunis of the tunnel will be near the University of Ottawa. Its needs to be just after the 417 as it heads toward Campus station.

[m0nkyman]

The Byron ROW makes the most sense in terms of available space and routing, as well as station placement. I'm not especially enamored of putting the LRT along the river myself.

Part of me suspects that the parkway option was put forward to make the Byron route the preferred alternative.

[Kitchissippi]

The Ambleside residents have been begging for a Transitway stop at Old Orchard for the longest time. I think they would be elated if the stop was along Richmond instead.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

The Ambleside residents have been begging for a Transitway stop at Old Orchard for the longest time. I think they would be elated if the stop was along Richmond instead.

Cute... "Old Orchard". I hope that's not some tongue-in-cheek reference to the New Orchard nursing home. At any rate, last I heard it was the residents on Ambleside who were opposed to a Transitway stop there and it was the workers at New Orchard who wanted it.

A stop on Richmond would be much better from a CPTED perspective as well, especially if it was at grade.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Dado

Cute... "Old Orchard". I hope that's not some tongue-in-cheek reference to the New Orchard nursing home. At any rate, last I heard it was the residents on Ambleside who were opposed to a Transitway stop there and it was the workers at New Orchard who wanted it.

My bad, the road is New Orchard not Old Orchard. It has not been feasible to put a stop there because the area is often flooded in the spring. They usually close the pedestrian underpass when that happens, and that's where the stop was proposed.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_co.../index_en.html

Rapid Transit Network 2031 - click pic to enlarge (pdf)



Developments since Primary Transit Network established in May 2008.

• LRT extended to Riverside South
• Browning Avenue Corridor included
• Supplementary Transit corridor identified
• Transit priority corridors included
• Park and Ride Facilities for Ottawa, iTRANS Consulting Inc

I still don't understand how the Innes corridor between Industrial and Blair could become a full blown Transitway type BRT as shown in the diagram. At best, the only thing that could be implemented there is transit priority lanes because of the room availalble.

Also, what is the difference between "Supplementary Transit - Bus" and "Transit Priority"? Aren't they essentially the same?

There are weird errors in that diagram -- Conroy Rd is labeled as Alta Vista, and the Blackburn ByPass is labeled Cumberland, and Industrial is in the wrong place.