O-Train Line 2/4 [Stage 2 | Greenboro to Limebank/Airport] | In Service

[OTSkyline]

Originally Posted by Spoonsy

will come as no surprise to anyone on this forum, but:


https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/trillium-line-launch-delayed-until-spring-2024-1.6582971

Wow that's super disappointing and frustrating. Delayed again by another 5-6 months??? For what? Most stations seem pretty complete, tracks are pretty complete, testing seems already underway in some areas...

This was supposed to be a fairly straight forward project, not revolutionary... and is now years behind schedule. And then we wonder why transit usage is so low and not recovering

[SL123]

I know the very long Hydro Ottawa strike had an impact on this but I dont know to what extent.

[ponyboycurtis]

Originally Posted by SL123

I know the very long Hydro Ottawa strike had an impact on this but I dont know to what extent.

Chatting with a foreman yesterday at South Keys he said they only got power hooked up to the station the other day. So while everything was installed I would guess they have some further testing and work to complete.

I asked about November completion date of the station and he just kind of shrugged. He did say the landscaping and walkway on the parkway side would not be completed until the spring. So that is all very unfortunate.

The stations look substantially complete. The platform looks to be nearly 100% done. It's only the fare gates and perhaps some aluminum paneling/finish work and such in the lower portion of the station.

[lrt's friend]

Based on my recent tour of the south three stations, none of them are ready for public access. The MUP which is to run from South Keys to ?? is far from ready but should not dictate the opening of the line. With construction season ending in November, it does not surprise me that the line will not open until spring. We will see if we can open before the 4th anniversary of the closure.

[lrt's friend]

Monthly costs up 60%. What does this mean?

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by SL123

I know the very long Hydro Ottawa strike had an impact on this but I dont know to what extent.

At this point, all stations are hooked up to permanent power sources. It may have delayed the commissioning of elevators and other systems at South Keys and Dow's Lake, but I don't know by how much.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Based on my recent tour of the south three stations, none of them are ready for public access. The MUP which is to run from South Keys to ?? is far from ready but should not dictate the opening of the line. With construction season ending in November, it does not surprise me that the line will not open until spring. We will see if we can open before the 4th anniversary of the closure.

Paving and landscaping is not the bottleneck.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

At this point, all stations are hooked up to permanent power sources. It may have delayed the commissioning of elevators and other systems at South Keys and Dow's Lake, but I don't know by how much.


Paving and landscaping is not the bottleneck.

Yes, I read that we are building another non-standard rail line that is very complicated. Not exactly reassuring.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SL123

I know the very long Hydro Ottawa strike had an impact on this but I dont know to what extent.

The strike was what, two months? Project is two years behind. Double the timeline.

The gap between East and South is closing fast. South was supposed to open after two years, now we're at four, and east was supposed to be five, and they are only six weeks behind.

That's what we get from giving the contract to a company that failed the technical score, and failed it again when we tried to give them a break. The same company that pulled the same thing last time with Confederation Line (May 2018, August 2018, no December 2018, for sure March 2019, no really, June 2019, ok, September 2019, but lower the testing standards).

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

That's what we get from giving the contract to a company that failed the technical score, and failed it again when we tried to give them a break.

There needs to be a criminal investigation. I think there's a decent possibility, somebody has a numbered account in Panama for letting this happen. Just ridiculous. They need a multi-decade ban from bidding on Ottawa public works projects for this.

[J.OT13]

• Video Link

[pattherat]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

• Video Link

Nice video!

I know there were spots where they didn’t want to twin for costs etc. (tunnel before Carleton for example)

But to have so many stretches of single track in other places is a travesty. Especially that new bridge at the diamond. My god what lack of foresight!

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by pattherat

Nice video!

I know there were spots where they didn’t want to twin for costs etc. (tunnel before Carleton for example)

But to have so many stretches of single track in other places is a travesty. Especially that new bridge at the diamond. My god what lack of foresight!

Very nice. The stations are crazy overkill for what is a capacity limited line due to single tracking.

Who paid for the bridge to nowhere at the start in Bayview station. That is a nice piece of land. Is it the Claridge now stalled project?

There is a nice scrub park just to the north of the station next to Tom Brown Arena. Would be great to sell it for $30 million and give it to Ottawa Housing. But of course we can't do that. Have to keep every patch of greenspace. The Arena is nearing it's end of life too. Ah well I guess it's not a housing crisis.

[J.OT13]

I feel like they could have optimized the double tracking. The south extension seems to have more than needed, while the north has the bare minimum. Then yeah, you have those overbuilt stations in fields, then you have Dow's Lake.

Bowesville should have been shelved when the line was confirmed to be extended to Riverside South.

The Line should be overall better than it was (we'll see if the speeds hold up), but was it worth $600+ million and a four year shut-down? More shutdowns to come, no doubt, due to the lack of future proofing? I'd say no.

[lrt's friend]

The issue with the Trillium Line, that with exception of Carleton University, and South Keys (both served by Phase 1), the train doesn't take you where you want to go for the most part. I exclude the airport because it is unlikely to be a good traffic generator. It has poor connectivity to everywhere else that it is supposed to serve. That last mile issue will become very apparent upon re-opening.

[OTownandDown]

OMG that video really highlights how this is a nice relaxing train through the southern fields and forests. Not a house to be seen, not a condo in sight. Wild.

If these southern stations don't become an immediate focal point for walkable, 15 minute communities of minimum 10,000 people in high/medium density housing within 10 years, this whole spending shitshow is criminal.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

The issue with the Trillium Line, that with exception of Carleton University, and South Keys (both served by Phase 1), the train doesn't take you where you want to go for the most part. I exclude the airport because it is unlikely to be a good traffic generator. It has poor connectivity to everywhere else that it is supposed to serve. That last mile issue will become very apparent upon re-opening.

Once you add the new hospital and (hopefully) the arena, you will have quite a few big trip generators. Still phase 1 though.

[DTcrawler]

I think everything from South Keys station and northward (incl. the airport line) will serve have major draws in the area (though some of those draws, like South Keys shopping centre, are heavily car-oriented).

Line 2:
- Bayview: major transfer station and potentially future Sens arena
- Gladstone: Little Italy & Hintonburg neighbourhoods, and future Gladstone affordable housing
- Dow's Lake: dense housing on Champagne Ave, future TOH Civic campus
- Carleton: Carleton U
- Mooney's Bay: lol
- Walkley: dense housing on Anand Pvt.
- Greenboro: P&R and sorta South Keys shopping
- South Keys: shopping (the Walmart is handy for Carleton students) and transfer to EY centre / airport

Line 4:
- Uplands: EY centre
- Airport: YOW airport

Everything further south is essentially GO-style commuter rail for Findlay Creek / Riverside South

[Acajack]

Beautiful video but holy 🞵🞵🞵🞵 does the southernmost segment of the line (close to half the length of the entire line) look lonely.

[OTSkyline]

Seems like most (if not all) of the stations and tracks are complete - they're focusing on parking lots & landscaping now. I hope they've started testing by now while the finishing touches are being made.

Funny the amount of single tracks existing on the line and tiny stations (like Little Italy) while expansive stations and double tracking are the norm for the stations in the middle of nowhere.

The parking lot (or park-n-ride) they are building at Bowesville seems HUGE! I wonder if it was actually worth extending the line beyond the airport/south keys or if the city is way overestimating the ridership south of this line and the commuters they are expecting to use the park-n-ride and take transit downtown. Especially now with WFH and people barely going in 2x per week.

[J.OT13]

Some say we might as well have built those double tracked segments and stations in the far south because it was a blank slate. Easy to do. Counter point, we could have invested that money into double tracking Walkley instead to, you know, improve service, and double tracking Dow's Lake, because you know, actual ridership.

I'm pretty confident those Park and Rides will be perpetually empty like Chapel Hill in Orleans.

Blows my mind every time I see the density and traffic in Vanier driving towards the Cummings Bridge and thinking the empty fields got rapid transit, but dense Rideau Street East and Vanier never will.