Tunnel misses mark: business leaders
Planned route will hurt Rideau Centre, future ridership, critics say
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Tunnel+misses+mark+business+leaders/1547243/story.html
BY PATRICK DARE, THE OTTAWA CITIZENAPRIL 29, 2009 11:01 PM
Ottawa • Downtown Ottawa business people wanted a subway for commuter rail, but now that the project is chugging ahead some are questioning the route of the train.
The proposed alignment for Ottawa’s downtown tunnel made public Wednesday — and cheered by several city councillors — could miss a substantial number of potential riders in the downtown business district and could hurt the Rideau Centre, business leaders said Wednesday.
The city’s downtown train subway should run farther south than city planners have plotted, said Hume Rogers, of the Downtown Coalition. He said the city’s proposed route, gradually turning north beginning at Kent Street, takes the commuter rail line too far north downtown too early. Rogers says the Downtown Coalition property owners believe a better route is to continue under Albert Street for another three blocks, then turn north at Metcalfe Street.
Rogers said the problem with veering northward at Kent Street is that it will reduce the rail line’s future potential ridership because there will be new development on streets like Slater and Laurier Avenue, rather than farther north on Queen and Sparks. Rogers said that by staying farther south, the city would be able to include buildings such as the Bell Canada tower within reasonable walking distance of the subway. City officials, however, say that their proposed gradual turn beginning at Kent Street is a better route because it’s best to avoid the creation of sharp turns, not only because of a nicer ride, but reduced wheel squealing and wear. As well, the city’s proposed route includes large stations with multiple access points.
The planners aren’t sure that stations with such good access would be possible in a route farther south.
The twin-tunnel route proposed Wednesday would run 3.2 kilometres and have stations at LeBreton, Downtown West, Downtown East, Rideau and the University of Ottawa. The Rideau Station would have three entry ports to increase convenience for riders: one near the National Arts Centre, one near the Government Conference Centre and one farther east near Rideau Street.
The Rideau Centre is concerned that it could be harmed by the proposed alignment of the subway because it would put an end to the heavy public transit traffic that goes into the centre from the Mackenzie King Bridge.
Rideau Centre general manager Cindy Van Buskirk said the centre was built 26 years ago to be integrated into the transit system, open 20 hours a day to accommodate riders and was highly successful at reviving a failing neighbourhood.
She said that if the transit corridor were no longer on or under the Mackenzie King Bridge, the centre would lose a lot of traffic.
The councillor for the area, Georges Bédard, said business at the Rideau Centre dried up during the winter transit strike and would be similarly threatened if transit riders no longer go through the place.
“This approach will basically kill the Rideau Centre,” Bédard said.
Both Bédard and Van Buskirk said that one solution — if the subway takes all of the heavy regional transit traffic off Mackenzie King Bridge — is for all of the local transit traffic that currently runs on Rideau Street to be shifted over to the bridge.
City manager Kent Kirkpatrick, attending a briefing on the transit project, said the city will develop alternatives to assist the Rideau Centre.
Van Buskirk stressed that Viking Rideau Corporation, which owns the Rideau Centre, still strongly supports the city’s commuter rail project.
Rogers, of the Downtown Coalition, said downtown business people feel the city’s subway plan is still good, “light years” ahead of the city’s former surface rail plan. The old plan was opposed by downtown property owners and killed by the new city council elected in 2006.
City councillors on Wednesday unveiled drawings of the proposed downtown train subway beside the National Arts Centre, at one of the potential subway entrances.
Councillor Alex Cullen, head of the transit committee, predicted that cost of the downtown tunnel project will not exceed $600 million. The total commuter rail project, from Tunney’s Pasture through downtown to Blair Station, will run 12.5 kilometres and include major stations for riders to transfer onto buses.
Total cost of this first portion of the rail line is estimated at $1.4 billion, though the city will need detailed estimates confirmed in an environmental assessment study. That study, to be done within six months, is to be started in July.
A spectator at the event, Bernie Geiger, questioned the wisdom of the city’s rail plans, saying it will cost too much money for the service delivered and won’t be extended to Baseline Station soon enough to be of use to western commuters. Geiger said the city should instead be looking at building surface rail and go underground only when there is the large population to support a subway.
But Cullen spoke confidently that the city’s new transit plan will work and win funding from the federal and provincial governments.
“We need it desperately. Our downtown is choked,” said Cullen. “This is going to be built. This is a train that’s not going to be stopped.”
Councillor Peter Hume said the city is increasingly confident of funding from the federal and provincial governments. He said the province is more challenging because the city wants funding from it and wants the province to run the procurement for construction.
But Hume said that monthly meetings with provincial officials are advancing the project.
“Our plan will prevail,” said Hume. “We’re making steady and positive progress.”
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Prev
Linear Mode
