Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by kmcamp

I'm definitely not batting 1000 , but I'd agree people think it's worse than it is. People have also forgotten what it was like to wait an eternity on as Albert/Slater as you saw your bus glacially approach in that long line

OC Transpo should periodically do a performance piece called The Transitway Experience, recreating a 2-km downtown bus jam, just to remind people.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by kmcamp

You can take the bus all the way in Ottawa, but it's obviously considered just a shuttle to get you to the train, not an actual way to make your journey

That depends entirely on your origin and destination.

I do most of my working, living, and playing within the old cities of Ottawa, Vanier, and Rockcliffe. The LRT is almost completely irrelevant to my transit use for those activities, because it literally doesn't serve any of them. A lot of urban transit journeys in this city - not suburban commutes - are bus only.

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

That depends entirely on your origin and destination.

I do most of my working, living, and playing within the old cities of Ottawa, Vanier, and Rockcliffe. The LRT is almost completely irrelevant to my transit use for those activities, because it literally doesn't serve any of them. A lot of urban transit journeys in this city - not suburban commutes - are bus only.

Only because the LRT is far, so you aren't "blessed" by it. In the new ways to bus, if you lived in Mechanicsville, and wanted to get to city hall, you could do it entirely by riding the 11.

However, that 11 will go straight up Holland to Tunney's Pasture to connect to Line 1, which is fair, but then will head back down to Wellington, go a few more blocks before going all the way up to Bayview, then again back down to Somerset. Then you'll go up bank all the way to Queen Street to connect to Parliament, and again back down to Slater to finish your trip. It makes the journey far slower than it needs to be.

I think a better routing would be leave the connection to Tunneys, skip Bayview, take Bank to Albert/Slater and run across the bridge, and then terminate at Rideau/Waller. You could transfer to buses and/or Line 1 on Rideau either at the end of the route or via the mall at Mackenzie king

[DTcrawler]

The extra jaunt they've added to route 11 in NWTB to serve Bayview station frustrates the hell out of me. I emailed Councillor Leiper about it when I first saw it, since it (kind of) falls into his ward, and he basically shrugged his shoulders. He claims he raised the issue with transit staff, but they told him they have a different vision with how people use the route / system as a whole. What that means, I have no clue. I don't see how anyone would rather have a longer journey down the Somerset/Wellington W/Richmond corridor just to connect with Line 1 when another connection already exists at the literal next station (Tunney's). Not to mention the connection to Parliament station downtown.

OCT needs to rethink how buses and O-Train journeys interact with each other (and whether some of these journeys need to interact at all) because right now they've got it all wrong. And NWTB proves they're doubling down on their idiocy.

[rocketphish]

Car crashes into gas line near Blair station, halting LRT there
Trains not running east of St-Laurent

CBC News
Posted: Jan 29, 2025 9:09 AM EST | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago



Ottawa's fire department says a driver left Highway 174 near the westbound Blair Road on-ramp and crashed into a gas line Wednesday morning.

OC Transpo has closed the Confederation Line in the area.

In a social media post, Ottawa Fire Services said they arrived on the scene of the single-vehicle crash just before 7 a.m. and there are no reported injuries.

OC Transpo is not running trains east of St-Laurent station, bringing in R1 buses instead between Blair and St-Laurent. It has its usual shuttle buses between Cyrville station and St-Laurent.

Trains are running as normal between St-Laurent and Tunney's Pasture stations.

There was also a switch problem at South Keys station on the recently reopened Trillium Line, closing its southbound platform. That station takes riders both to Limebank station at the end of Line 2 and down Line 4 to Uplands and Airport stations.

OC Transpo first posted about this problem around 8 a.m. and announced regular service had returned before 8:30 a.m.

CBC has reached out to OC Transpo for more information. It is not clear how the Trillium Line problem could affect its staged reopening to seven days a week, up from the current Sunday closures.

There was a switch problem on the Confederation Line Monday and another one reported last week.

The train problems come on a snowy morning that's seen OC Transpo ask riders to leave extra time for their trips and also school bus cancellations in the capital.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/blair-station-gas-leak-lrt-ottawa-1.7444520

[zzptichka]

Why didn't they close 174 then? They don't care about people in cars?

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

The extra jaunt they've added to route 11 in NWTB to serve Bayview station frustrates the hell out of me. I emailed Councillor Leiper about it when I first saw it, since it (kind of) falls into his ward, and he basically shrugged his shoulders. He claims he raised the issue with transit staff, but they told him they have a different vision with how people use the route / system as a whole. What that means, I have no clue. I don't see how anyone would rather have a longer journey down the Somerset/Wellington W/Richmond corridor just to connect with Line 1 when another connection already exists at the literal next station (Tunney's). Not to mention the connection to Parliament station downtown.

OCT needs to rethink how buses and O-Train journeys interact with each other (and whether some of these journeys need to interact at all) because right now they've got it all wrong. And NWTB proves they're doubling down on their idiocy.

The preamble actually is promising as it talks about walking further to busstops but faster service. From the routes I know this doesn't seem to have been something that was implemented. All the meandering routes with crazy extra detours seem to still be there. Hopefully when phase 2 opens they can take a bigger axe to these routes.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

The extra jaunt they've added to route 11 in NWTB to serve Bayview station frustrates the hell out of me. I emailed Councillor Leiper about it when I first saw it, since it (kind of) falls into his ward, and he basically shrugged his shoulders. He claims he raised the issue with transit staff, but they told him they have a different vision with how people use the route / system as a whole. What that means, I have no clue.

What it means is that transit staff don't use transit, other than as a novelty.

Line 2 really should have included a station at Somerset, and really should include a station at Somerset the next time Line 2 is overhauled.

OCT needs to rethink how buses and O-Train journeys interact with each other (and whether some of these journeys need to interact at all) because right now they've got it all wrong. And NWTB proves they're doubling down on their idiocy.

I can see the value in the connection at Bayview - it connects the trunk bus to both rail lines that way - but in that case, pole-axe the Tunney's jaunt.

Or, again, just build a goddamn train station under the Somerset viaduct, as should have been done in the first place.

[DogsWithJobs]

All the talks of single points of failure made me think of something I realized recently.
Transit coming from the east has a major issue since the introduction of the LRT. The only bus crossing for the Rideau river was at hurdman using the transitway. Since the LRT this connection no longer exists.

Already this causes some issue as there is no easy connection from bus on the east of the river to bus on the west. You have no choice but to ride the LRT a single stop from hurdman to Lees. Since buses don't use the 417, a bus would need to go north to the Cummings bridge and sit in traffic. Even once they reach the peak time dedicate lanes, those in my experience are still full of personal vehicles and getting down Rideau is a slog which bottlenecks at the single shared lane at the Rideau center.

Otherwise a bus heads south down the transitway with the earliest crossing at Main, but more likely Bank or Bronson.

I realized this as an issue when it was explained to me just how long it takes to get from somewhere relatively central like Overbrook to somewhere like the south end of little Italy where many people work.

There is simply no good east to west routing anymore. The transfers add in too much time for what is in reality a very short trip. All other routing forces you to go far north or far south of your actual destination, which is a compounding issue with traffic and frequent stops.
The shortest possible trip on Google maps tells you to just walk across the river, and if that isn't a testament to the system we have I don't know what is.

[lrt's friend]

There was supposed to be a connection from the Nicholas interchange to the hospital link, which was supposed to be part of the Alta Vista Parkway all the way to Conroy and Walkley. If this was built even as a Transitway. Can you imagine how much this would speed up transit in that direction and when Line 1 goes down, how much faster this would speed up R1 buses into downtown from Hurdman. It is amazing how inefficient R1 is. I remember during Line 1 construction, that it could take 30 minutes to travel from Hurdman to the Rideau Centre whereas when the Transitway was open, it was 5 minutes. We need better alternatives when Line 1 fails.

There are some obvious transit projects that can speed buses and reduce frustration when rail fails. This and the Baseline BRT

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Car crashes into gas line near Blair station, halting LRT there
Trains not running east of St-Laurent

CBC News
Posted: Jan 29, 2025 9:09 AM EST | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

…

The train problems come on a snowy morning that's seen OC Transpo ask riders to leave extra time for their trips and also school bus cancellations in the capital.

…

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/blair-station-gas-leak-lrt-ottawa-1.7444520

Clever way to equate snowfall to Line 1 issues, well done CBC

[J.OT13]

Highway broke the LRT.

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Line 2 really should have included a station at Somerset, and really should include a station at Somerset the next time Line 2 is overhauled.
....

I can see the value in the connection at Bayview - it connects the trunk bus to both rail lines that way - but in that case, pole-axe the Tunney's jaunt..

The value of Tunney's or Bayview is fine, but just pick one, not both. I supposed Bayview is the better longer term option, as Tunney's will eventually lose it's importance.


As for Somerset, why haven't they built a path through Hintoburg Pl. to the new entrance behind the arena? Instead, you're supposed to walk along the path on the east side of the track, and then walk all the way around the station to the entrance or take the stairs up to the Line 1 platform. It would be so much shorter the other way, and the desire path through the soccer field proves it. It would be about a 250m walk, vs a 600m one, and it's on a public street and the cities own land.

[rocketphish]

O-Train Line 1 back in service at Blair Station, but followup fixes remain
OC Transpo said Wednesday Line 1 service to Blair Station was back, but with a catch.

Staff Reporter, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 29, 2025 • Last updated 1 minute ago • 1 minute read

OC Transpo resumed two-way LRT service on Line 1 in the east end Wednesday afternoon after part of the line was shut down just after 7 a.m. because a single-car crash near Blair Station had caused a gas leak supplying switch heaters.

A memo from Renée Amilcar, Ottawa’s general manager of transit services, said OC Transpo had determined that service at Blair Station “can resume safely on both platforms while repairs to the gas line are undertaken. Switch heaters near Blair Station will not be functioning as they receive gas through the damaged line. OC Transpo will monitor the switches carefully until the gas line is fully repaired, and (Rideau Transit Maintenance) will have staff available to manually clear snow or debris from the switches if required.”

R1 replacement bus service was to provide final trips to ensure that all customers were accommodated, the memo added.

An investigation by RTM had determined equipment required to complete the repairs would have to be brought to the impacted area using nearby Highway 174, Amilcar said, necessitating a temporary lane closure of the Blair Road on-ramp to the westbound 174.

At about 7 a.m., Ottawa Fire Services reported that a single vehicle had driven off Highway 174 westbound at Blair Road, causing the gas leak from the switch heaters.

The fire chief in command had the LRT shut down and Enbridge Gas worked to contain the leak.

There were no reported injuries.

OC Transpo said LRT service between Tunney’s Pasture and St. Laurent was not affected.

Meanwhile, on the new Line 2, riders were briefly shunted to a single platform at South Keys Station on Wednesday because of a switch issue. That issue was later resolved.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/o-train-service-halted-at-blair-station-due-to-gas-leak

[Richard Eade]

I’m hoping that the Councilors publicly ask how it is possible that a wayward vehicle THAN IS STILL WITHIN THE FENCED OR174 CORRIDOR can take out the gas pipeline that leads to the LRT switch heaters. The car didn’t even tunnel into the embankment to get to the pipeline. That car is sitting on the surface of the slope with very little evident damage.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by kmcamp

The value of Tunney's or Bayview is fine, but just pick one, not both. I supposed Bayview is the better longer term option, as Tunney's will eventually lose it's importance.


As for Somerset, why haven't they built a path through Hintoburg Pl. to the new entrance behind the arena? Instead, you're supposed to walk along the path on the east side of the track, and then walk all the way around the station to the entrance or take the stairs up to the Line 1 platform. It would be so much shorter the other way, and the desire path through the soccer field proves it. It would be about a 250m walk, vs a 600m one, and it's on a public street and the cities own land.

Yup, I've done that walk through the field adjacent to Tom Brown Arena many times in order to reach Hintonburg from Bayview station and vice versa. And judging by the desire line that exists there, I'm far from the only one.

It's just a product of what happens when planners, who judge these distances off their computers screens, make the decisions for us. It's all part of the broader problem where they fail to understand that people who use transit are time-conscious too. An extra 100m walk here and there, an extra km or two detour on the bus route, an extra 30 sec dwell time on the O-Train, it all adds up.

Edit: I just realized, what's funny is that the connection you proposed between Hintonburg Pl and the new southern entrance to the station was pretty much already "built" as a result of needing vehicle access from there during construction (see the Google maps image I linked in reference to the desire line above). All they had to do was some grading and throw down some asphalt and we would've had a much faster walk between Bayview station and Hintonburg.

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Yup, I've done that walk through the field adjacent to Tom Brown Arena many times in order to reach Hintonburg from Bayview station and vice versa. And judging by the desire line that exists there, I'm far from the only one.

It's just a product of what happens when planners, who judge these distances off their computers screens, make the decisions for us. It's all part of the broader problem where they fail to understand that people who use transit are time-conscious too. An extra 100m walk here and there, an extra km or two detour on the bus route, an extra 30 sec dwell time on the O-Train, it all adds up.

Edit: I just realized, what's funny is that the connection you proposed between Hintonburg Pl and the new southern entrance to the station was pretty much already "built" as a result of needing vehicle access from there during construction (see the Google maps image I linked in reference to the desire line above). All they had to do was some grading and throw down some asphalt and we would've had a much faster walk between Bayview station and Hintonburg.

Maybe we can hope with final landscaping that path will get built. But given the way this city plan things, that's probably a "future project by others" whenever another condo tower gets plopped on where those townhomes are

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by kmcamp

Maybe we can hope with final landscaping that path will get built. But given the way this city plan things, that's probably a "future project by others" whenever another condo tower gets plopped on where those townhomes are

Final landscaping? Why is the plan to have an empty field of any sort next to the nexus of our rapid transit system. There needs to be high density housing or employment node there.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

It's just a product of what happens when planners, who judge these distances off their computers screens, make the decisions for us. It's all part of the broader problem where they fail to understand that people who use transit are time-conscious too. An extra 100m walk here and there, an extra km or two detour on the bus route, an extra 30 sec dwell time on the O-Train, it all adds up.

And they know it adds up, which is why they've been "better bus stop"ping bus stops out of existence, and far-siding bus stops even when it takes away connectivity for actual human passengers, to save 5 and 12 and 26 seconds here and there, and yet, AND YET - they also won't stop using 40-foot buses on inappropriate routes, despite the fact that using 40-foot buses inappropriately leads to 5 and 12 and 26-second additions to dwell times, and more, on high-volume urban routes.

The only transit users whose time matters are the suburban commuters. That's why E1 still exists.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

I’m hoping that the Councilors publicly ask how it is possible that a wayward vehicle THAN IS STILL WITHIN THE FENCED OR174 CORRIDOR can take out the gas pipeline that leads to the LRT switch heaters. The car didn’t even tunnel into the embankment to get to the pipeline. That car is sitting on the surface of the slope with very little evident damage.

Though the feed is buried, it surfaces on a post there for valves and other equipment which is what the vehicle struck. If the post was in the guideway, there would be no way for the utility to access it should they need to and maintenance would be complicated. The vehicle travelled quite a distance off the roadway to hit that post, and then struck the guideway fence - we can't protect against wayward vehicles everywhere but they have a ring of concrete blocks there now.