Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[Dundas]

Am I the only one who noticed there's no makers on the floor telling you where to line up for the door so you can be the first one in to get a seat.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Dundas

Am I the only one who noticed there's no makers on the floor telling you where to line up for the door so you can be the first one in to get a seat.

If anything, the markers should say ‘yield to exiting passengers”

[mykl]

Got to ride a full loop last night between 9-10pm. Pretty happy with the system! Will have to get out during the day today (or on my commute tomorrow) to actually see the views out the window.

Was actually kind of disappointed by the "longest escalator" ... it didn't seem that long. The 2-storey escalator at Bayshore seems more impressive. It does seem quite steep though!

Also agree things seemed a bit grimy. Should have given it a nice pressure washing. Especially at St Laurent, where the old red walkway still exists, people had written words in the dirty windows.

I was impressed with how long the platforms are. The pictures definitely didn't do any justice. Looking forward to this being my new daily commute!

[ars]

Rode the train from Rideau to Blair and back. I have to say, any potential concerns I had going in (trains too narrow, will feel cheap compared to metro transit) were quickly allayed. Riding on the LRT felt like riding on a full blown metro system.

It feels great knowing that so many of the shopping centres/districts are now literally steps away from each other. The only thing that really sticks out like a sore thumb to me is the complete lack of rail access to Lansdowne. I would've loved to have taken the train from the Rideau Center all the way down to Lansdowne and I think the fact that there still is no plan to get the OTrain down there is a huge mistake.

[Corvulpes]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

If anything, the markers should say ‘yield to exiting passengers”

Yes please! Also, spread out evenly between all the doors so the doors aren't closing on people when everyone tries to get in the same 3 doors near the stairs. But now we're getting wordy.

[Badyouken]

Just give it time.

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

This morning ,Sunday, I rode the O-train from end to end. I took the 94 from Blackburn Hamlet to Blair. It is great. Later I stopped off at the Byward Market for coffee and pastry at one of my faves. More frequent trips to the Byward market is in my future because of Line 1 and two senior days.

Next I hopped on the train at noon and got off at uOttawa Station. I really like the plaza between the station and the science buildings. Great improvement .

I made the short walk over to Matt Anthony Field to watch the first half of a game for our national champion women's soccer team. It was 4-0 for us when I left.

I finally took the O-Train to the Game! I will again.

[lrt's friend]

You're a tourist. Not a commuter. You should ask all those getting off the GO Train at Union how much they have to walk. Walking 10-15 mins from a station in Toronto is just not unusual. Usually faster to walk than to get on a rammed streetcar at rush.

There is a big difference between commuters from Oakville and those living in Toronto inner city neighbourhoods. There are always limits on the distance people are willing or able to walk.

[SidetrackedSue]

Originally Posted by Dundas

Am I the only one who noticed there's no makers on the floor telling you where to line up for the door so you can be the first one in to get a seat.

I noted that too.

I remember the first time I saw this (probably Munich or Singapore) and was so blown away by the simplicity of it.

Of course, it only works if the trains stop in the same spot every time. That's why I think it was Munich or Singapore, not some freedom loving place like Sydney or Toronto. There, the drivers are too individualistic to be ruled by an exact stopping point!

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I've seen concerns about platform size at the underground stations and I agree with them. Those platforms are going to be crowded at rush hour or after big events (like Canada Day).

In crush situations, they can crowd-control starting in the mezzanine level, escalating to street iff need be.

[lrt's friend]

Different league completely. If we bought streetcars instead of LRT and ran them slowly on rail embedded on pavement they'd be just as quiet.

What we bought were essentially oversized streetcars. Maybe we should be running them on rail embedded in concrete when running through residential areas.

[lrt's friend]

While in Toronto, you should tell Torontonians that people in Ottawa are massively bothered by a single transfer. And that you think spending hundreds of millions (Interline) or billions (parallel tunnels) to eliminate the sole rail transfer in the city is a good idea. Do it at Yonge&Bloor at rush and get folks on the Yonge platform coming from Scarborough. Let us know the reaction.

It is not the transfer per se. It is the transfer in combination with poor bus frequency. The frustration of taking the Confederation Line one or two stops and then have to transfer to a bus that runs every half hour. We shouldn't be inflicting this kind of thing on inner neighbourhoods.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Prometheus188

And whether we like it or not, 70% of Ottawans live in suburbs, and 10% live in exurbs/rural areas. Only 20% live in the urban central area. We can't build transit that solely serves the central urban area.

Nor can we have a transit plan that is entirely about the suburbs, but that's pretty much what we have now. Nor should we be extending higher-order transit at great cost to the low-density, low-diversity, garbage-street-greed, remote outer suburbs, at the total expense of everyone and everything else. But that is exactly what we're doing. Some of us are getting a bit miffed about that.

And we've rule out, in order:

- LRT that directly serves much of the urban core outside the office downtown and U of O;
- surface LRT (i.e., streetcar) to serve the forgotten northeast corner of the urban core along Rideau-Montreal;
- more time and space devoted to bus transit and bus transit priority along traditional urban main streets such as Rideau-Montreal, Bank, Elgin, Bronson, and Main.

So, having ruled out any form of urban higher-order transit, any form of non-segregated rail transit, and any improvement to local bus service, what's left on the table to meet urban Ottawa transit needs?

Nothing. Literally nothing.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

And as you observe in Toronto, those neighborhoods don't have multi-billion dollar subways serving them. Just streetcars. On that I agree. Rideau-Montreal and Bank could be adequately served with streetcars.

Not operating in mixed traffic, no.

We are creating a transit world where it will be quicker and easier to access the downtown core by transit from 20 and 25 km away, than it is to do so from 5km. And no, the shorter distance does not obviate the requirement for better transit.

It's all academic, anyway: the plans from 2006 and 2013 have been scrapped, permanently. Road space has been re-allocated for non-transit use on urban main streets, space which won't come open again for policy or funding decisions until everyone reading this today is long dead. And the budgetary resources have been dedicated to pay for Phase I and II so there's no cash to do anything anyway, even imperfect, partial, and cheap fixes like signs or paint... not that the city, which has cheaped out on even the most basic of urban bus amenities, would ever think of spending a dime on us anyway.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

If anything, the markers should say ‘yield to exiting passengers”

It should have some emphatic swears in there because OH MY GOD OTTAWA PEOPLE STOP BEING SO OBLIVIOUS TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I would. The places that people in Ottawa think are "urban" are fairly suburban by the standard of most planners.

The neighbourhoods on either side of poorly-served Rideau have residential densities comparable to the area of the island of Montreal served by the metro. Vanier between the river and the cemetary is the next-highest residential density in the city, and Montreal Road has all kinds of opportunities for re-development that will never be triggered by the absolutely trash transit service that has existed now for a decade.

Anybody who sees the half of Montreal road east of St-Laurent and see an urban corridor probably hasn't left Ottawa.

I'd like to meet that person.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Dundas

Am I the only one who noticed there's no makers on the floor telling you where to line up for the door so you can be the first one in to get a seat.

They have these in Montreal don't they?

[TheMatth69]

One thing that we need to teach Ottawa people is to hold the right side of the elevators to keep a space for people walking on the left side. Sooo frustrating ...

[waterloowarrior]

Thanks for all the reports! Looking forward to rush hour tomorrow and seeing how things work with the bus transfers.

[bartlebooth]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

So, having ruled out any form of urban higher-order transit, any form of non-segregated rail transit, and any improvement to local bus service, what's left on the table to meet urban Ottawa transit needs?

Nothing. Literally nothing.

To be fair, I'm an urban resident and have used the train this weekend to meet friends for drinks, run errands, and go to my soccer game (out near St Laurent). I do not own a car (by choice) and my day to day so far has been vastly improved by the train. Especially given that my max wait time for a train so far has been 4 minutes, even last night at 1 am when I was heading home. I totally agree with you that better urban transit is needed (especially north south) but I think the system has value for people downtown, it does for me anyways.