Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Are there any surviving pieces of the Rideau Bus Mall anywhere?

I guess you haven't been to Perth? You can visit the Crystal Palace if you pine for those days. The recycled pieces of the bus mall actually don't look too bad there. You might still see some of the residue from the stickers that identified some of the stores on Rideau.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I guess you haven't been to Perth? You can visit the Crystal Palace if you pine for those days. The recycled pieces of the bus mall actually don't look too bad there. You might still see some of the residue from the stickers that identified some of the stores on Rideau.

Yup:
http://www.perthontario.ca/crystal.html
http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#...id=23886560&order=date_desc&user=2417521

Maybe we could interest them in taking an elevated walkway too

[JCL]

Originally Posted by phil235

As I understand it, OC Transpo concentrates on a coverage objective - i.e. a route within 500m of 90% of houses, without focusing on frequency at all. In my view, the primary objective for OC Transpo should be improving frequencies on urban routes. Without higher frequencies, the bus becomes a much less attractive option for those with alternatives.

They've also cut frequency on some routes to justify putting "higher capacity" buses (artic or double deckers) in order to match service capacity standards (the term I've heard being used before).

[SF Thomas]

Originally Posted by MountainView

They should also expand Baseline Road to 6 lanes between Prince of Wales and Woodroffe (or at least Clyde). The 118 would be a great cross town route for many to take (as it is now-ish) if it had it's own bus lane. The Baseline-Heron corridor is a great alternative for me during rush hours as oppose to the 417. And the poor 118 is stuck in all that traffic! Talk about 'rapid' transit.

I often take the 111 and 118 and I've noticed a big improvement near the Heron Bridge and Canada Post area compared to previous years since they put in the bus lanes.

I agree if the city looks at another rapid crosstown corridor Baseline and Heron would probably be the best route. It is in the middle of the city and would be a significant service improvement for people not directly near the transitway or O Train.

If demand got high enough the city could feasibly run a rapid version of the 118 with fewer stops. It would only stop at a few major arterial roads or other high demand spots along the way instead of every few hundred meters (say Prince of Wales, Fisher, Merrivale, Woodroffe etc). If the city decided to do this they could also add passing lanes at a few stops in addition to the bus lanes along Baseline in case the rapid 118 got stuck behind the regular one. Even doing this only during peak transit periods could be a decent improvement.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by SF Thomas

I often take the 111 and 118 and I've noticed a big improvement near the Heron Bridge and Canada Post area compared to previous years since they put in the bus lanes.

I agree if the city looks at another rapid crosstown corridor Baseline and Heron would probably be the best route. It is in the middle of the city and would be a significant service improvement for people not directly near the transitway or O Train.

If demand got high enough the city could feasibly run a rapid version of the 118 with fewer stops. It would only stop at a few major arterial roads or other high demand spots along the way instead of every few hundred meters (say Prince of Wales, Fisher, Merrivale, Woodroffe etc). If the city decided to do this they could also add passing lanes at a few stops in addition to the bus lanes along Baseline in case the rapid 118 got stuck behind the regular one. Even doing this only during peak transit periods could be a decent improvement.

I am glad to hear that the Heron Road Bridge bus lanes have made a difference. It makes sense since bridges are typical points of congestion. I also think that expresses will be a good idea in the future, but we need to get service frequency better and get the Baseline-Heron BRT completed first, at least between Baseline Station and Billings Bridge. I do believe this is a missing link in our rapid transit network that needs some priority. We need an alternate fast transit route south of the Queensway because the Confederation Line is running so far north across the city.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by JCL

They've also cut frequency on some routes to justify putting "higher capacity" buses (artic or double deckers) in order to match service capacity standards (the term I've heard being used before).

Not exactly a substitute for frequent service.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by JCL

They've also cut frequency on some routes to justify putting "higher capacity" buses (artic or double deckers) in order to match service capacity standards (the term I've heard being used before).

They have actually cut frequency on a lot of routes.

The old BS comes out that you will only have to wait 2 or 3 minutes longer for your bus, as if this is some sort of benefit to us. The problem is that in some cases, they have done this more than one time to the same route.

And I have commented before that those higher capacity buses also take longer to cover their routes because they have to stop more frequently. This was particularly noticeable last night when 4 short-turned Route 8 buses came in a row using 40 foot buses before finally the regular Route 8 using an articulated bus came. They are supposed to alternate but the articulated buses are getting bogged down.

The problem is that OC Transpo has been invaded by too many accountants and computer analysts and not enough who are assessing customer service and satisfaction.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

The problem is that OC Transpo has been invaded by too many accountants and computer analysts and not enough who are assessing customer service and satisfaction.

Having once gone for an interview at OC Transpo, this doesn't surprise me in the least. All the questions they asked were geared towards an accounting-type mentality and none towards figuring out how the system worked for the people actually using it.

[J.OT13]

From southfacing on Flickr, we can see the Lebreton Flats portal on the lower right portion of the picture.

Originally Posted by TMA-1

The (edit: just in case a reader has bought there!) buying on the west side of this phase may not realize their view will be compromised by the next block of flats to come along. And so on, and so on...

{It's not raining down there but it was raining on me}



lebreton flats uncorrected 9054 by southfacing, on Flickr

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I guess you haven't been to Perth? You can visit the Crystal Palace if you pine for those days. The recycled pieces of the bus mall actually don't look too bad there. You might still see some of the residue from the stickers that identified some of the stores on Rideau.

Pine? um, no.

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

From southfacing on Flickr, we can see the Lebreton Flats portal on the lower right portion of the picture.

Nice catch. It's a great shot of it.

[rocketphish]

Work still halted at Queen Street water main site two weeks after bones found

By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN October 2, 2013 1:00 PM

OTTAWA — Work is still suspended at a Queen Street construction site where workers found human bones nearly two weeks ago and it’s not clear when it might resume.

Five other spots where crews are working on replacing an old water main under the road are still active, said city spokesman Michael FitzPatrick by email Tuesday morning. The Citizen first started asking how the city is handling the situation when the bones were discovered on Sept. 19; FitzPatrick’s statement is the first answer.

“The work continues on Queen St. in five other locations as the archaeological investigation continues. I don’t have a timeframe for that investigation, yet,” he wrote.

The Queen Street water main work is a preliminary stage in the city’s construction of a new light-rail tunnel under the road. It’s being done by the city’s contractor, Rideau Transit Group, replacing and moving a pipe that dates from the 19th century.

The bones were found under Queen just east of Metcalfe Street, in a spot identified on many maps as the site of Ottawa’s first civilian cemetery, opened when an 1828 malaria outbreak killed so many labourers working on the Rideau Canal that ferrying them to a more usual burying ground on the other side of the Ottawa River wasn’t feasible. The graves and their contents were moved east to a new site in Sandy Hill in the 1840s — most of them, at any rate.

When the workers in the Queen Street pit encountered the bones, they stopped work and climbed out. Police experts confirmed the remains are human, then turned the site over to the city. Finding human bones in a construction dig triggers a requirement that the work site be thoroughly investigated to make sure there aren’t other remains that will be disturbed, and that any archeological value the site has is fully documented.

[email protected]

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/...main+site+weeks+after/8987517/story.html

[Richard Eade]

There really isn’t much that can be done at this point. The cemetery was known, and was believed to have had its contents moved in 1840. The consultant doing the Environmental Assessment would have had no reason to expect that at least one grave had been missed during the move. I don’t think that there is any valid reason that the City can put the delay back on the consultant. It is just an unfortunate event.

I do have a question about the re-building of Queen Street: I assume that it is not going to take 5 years to replace the utilities under Queen Street. That means that the roadway (most of it anyway) will get re-built long before the LRT is running. So, is Queen Street going to be re-built to its final configuration with widened sidewalks and narrow vehicle space years before the traffic is reduced by the LRT? Or will it be reinstated as-is and then be re-re-built in 2017? Or will it simply be left in an unfinished, construction-site, state until the LRT is about to start running and then be put into its final configuration?

PS It sounds like the bodies were moved to the Sandy Hill Cemetery – which was itself closed and its ‘residents’ moved to Beechwood Cemetery in 1873. It seems that the sand along the river bank didn’t do a good job of keeping the caskets covered during the spring high water.

[J.OT13]

They've always found bodies every time they did work around Confederation Square. They found a few when building the NAC, they found a few when doing some work on Elgin in the 70s. I figure they're must have been a lot of unmarked graves dating back to the construction of the Rideau Canal so I'm not surprised we are still finding a few.

I'm not sure what the plan is for Queen in the interim between when it's done and when the subway line opens, but I wouldn't think that delays on the Queen infrastructure replacement would effect the Confederation Line because 1. as you mentioned, it won't take years to complete Queen and 2. the subway will be mined underground straight through without disturbing the surface of grave sites, that is unless they plan on building ventilation shafts in that general area.

[OttawaSteve]

There were a couple of workers at the Queen & Metcalfe site today. One was using an archaeological sifting screen.

[rocketphish]

uOttawa hoped two light-rail stations would carry its name: letter

By Neco Cockburn, OTTAWA CITIZEN October 3, 2013 10:09 PM

OTTAWA — The University of Ottawa initially suggested that two light-rail transit stations should carry its name before the city eventually settled on renaming one after the school.

The campus won’t be as visible to transit riders once trains begin rolling, the university stated in a letter to city officials, adding that station titles it proposed would “reinforce the city’s brand as a college/university town.”

In the end, only the name of the former “Campus” station was changed to reflect “uOttawa” when the city’s transit commission in August approved final titles for the 13 stations of the future Confederation Line.

The university had first recommended that the Campus station, which is at the university and adjacent to the Rideau Canal, be called “uOttawa — Canal” and that the Lees station, within the existing Transitway trench between the Lees Avenue and Highway 417 overpasses, be named “uOttawa — Lees.”

Both stations are significant to the university and serve the majority of its more than 40,000 students and staff, wrote Louis de Melo, the university’s vice-president, external relations, in a letter sent to city officials in mid-June. The letter, released under access-to-information legislation, was meant to provide comments to a working group and the city’s transit commission, de Melo stated.

“As you are aware, when the LRT is complete, the ‘Campus’ station will become the public transit gateway to our main University of Ottawa campus. As OC Transpo busses will no longer travel along the entire eastern boundary of our campus, the public visibility of the University of Ottawa to transit riders will be considerably reduced,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, the Lees station will continue to serve the university’s expanded Lees campus that contains its faculty of health sciences and new stadium, the letter stated.

“It is therefore very important that the final names for these two stations refer to the University of Ottawa,” it said.

Transit systems in other large cities that have several post-secondary institutions, such as Montreal and Boston, have stops that “readily” identify their universities and colleges, de Melo wrote.

The names proposed by the university, the letter stated, “are easily identifiable and recognize the academic, cultural and economic role the University of Ottawa plays within the City of Ottawa. They also reinforce the City’s brand as a College/University town and are consistent with current station names such as Lycée Claudel, as well as the Carleton stop on the O-Train line” at Carleton University.

(OC Transpo’s Lycée Claudel Transitway stop is near a French private school of that name.)

On Thursday, university spokesman Patrick Charette said that the university had made recommendations “like many others.

“We are happy that the City of Ottawa chose to recognize the importance of the University of Ottawa and its campus to the fabric of the city in designating the uOttawa station,” he wrote in an email.

Correspondence between university officials also indicates that they had discussed “University of Ottawa Campus Université d’Ottawa” as the proposed name, “however, in looking at other names in the OC Transpo system, they are very short and only in one language,” wrote Kathryn Moore, its director of government relations, in an internal email in early June.

The “uOttawa” name was short and works in both French and English, Moore wrote. She also met with and emailed city officials in July regarding station naming, according to the city’s lobbyist registry.

Transit stations must be distinct from other station names, and usually receive the name of a major cross street or the well-known title of a particular area or major destination, city staff wrote in a report to the transit commission in August. Names must be easily understood when written or spoken in English and French, the report states.

City staff noted in a presentation to transit commissioners that the university’s administration had endorsed the uOttawa name for the Campus station. The name was liked by 68 per cent of 1,301 respondents during a public consultation period in July. Another 18 per cent gave neutral responses.

No comments were made about the Lees station and no changes to it were proposed during the consultation period, the staff report stated.

The new rail system is under construction and is expected to open in 2018. City staff said it was important to decide station names early so that design work could start on signs and other parts of the system.

[email protected]

twitter.com/NecoCockburn
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/search/uOtt...uld+carry+name+letter/8994564/story.html

[JM1]

Ottawa a university town? Come on. It is a government town with a couple of mid-grade universities.

Originally Posted by rocketphish

uOttawa hoped two light-rail stations would carry its name: letter

By Neco Cockburn, OTTAWA CITIZEN October 3, 2013 10:09 PM

OTTAWA — The University of Ottawa initially suggested that two light-rail transit stations should carry its name before the city eventually settled on renaming one after the school.

The campus won’t be as visible to transit riders once trains begin rolling, the university stated in a letter to city officials, adding that station titles it proposed would “reinforce the city’s brand as a college/university town.”

In the end, only the name of the former “Campus” station was changed to reflect “uOttawa” when the city’s transit commission in August approved final titles for the 13 stations of the future Confederation Line.

The university had first recommended that the Campus station, which is at the university and adjacent to the Rideau Canal, be called “uOttawa — Canal” and that the Lees station, within the existing Transitway trench between the Lees Avenue and Highway 417 overpasses, be named “uOttawa — Lees.”

Both stations are significant to the university and serve the majority of its more than 40,000 students and staff, wrote Louis de Melo, the university’s vice-president, external relations, in a letter sent to city officials in mid-June. The letter, released under access-to-information legislation, was meant to provide comments to a working group and the city’s transit commission, de Melo stated.

“As you are aware, when the LRT is complete, the ‘Campus’ station will become the public transit gateway to our main University of Ottawa campus. As OC Transpo busses will no longer travel along the entire eastern boundary of our campus, the public visibility of the University of Ottawa to transit riders will be considerably reduced,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, the Lees station will continue to serve the university’s expanded Lees campus that contains its faculty of health sciences and new stadium, the letter stated.

“It is therefore very important that the final names for these two stations refer to the University of Ottawa,” it said.

Transit systems in other large cities that have several post-secondary institutions, such as Montreal and Boston, have stops that “readily” identify their universities and colleges, de Melo wrote.

The names proposed by the university, the letter stated, “are easily identifiable and recognize the academic, cultural and economic role the University of Ottawa plays within the City of Ottawa. They also reinforce the City’s brand as a College/University town and are consistent with current station names such as Lycée Claudel, as well as the Carleton stop on the O-Train line” at Carleton University.

(OC Transpo’s Lycée Claudel Transitway stop is near a French private school of that name.)

On Thursday, university spokesman Patrick Charette said that the university had made recommendations “like many others.

“We are happy that the City of Ottawa chose to recognize the importance of the University of Ottawa and its campus to the fabric of the city in designating the uOttawa station,” he wrote in an email.

Correspondence between university officials also indicates that they had discussed “University of Ottawa Campus Université d’Ottawa” as the proposed name, “however, in looking at other names in the OC Transpo system, they are very short and only in one language,” wrote Kathryn Moore, its director of government relations, in an internal email in early June.

The “uOttawa” name was short and works in both French and English, Moore wrote. She also met with and emailed city officials in July regarding station naming, according to the city’s lobbyist registry.

Transit stations must be distinct from other station names, and usually receive the name of a major cross street or the well-known title of a particular area or major destination, city staff wrote in a report to the transit commission in August. Names must be easily understood when written or spoken in English and French, the report states.

City staff noted in a presentation to transit commissioners that the university’s administration had endorsed the uOttawa name for the Campus station. The name was liked by 68 per cent of 1,301 respondents during a public consultation period in July. Another 18 per cent gave neutral responses.

No comments were made about the Lees station and no changes to it were proposed during the consultation period, the staff report stated.

The new rail system is under construction and is expected to open in 2018. City staff said it was important to decide station names early so that design work could start on signs and other parts of the system.

[email protected]

twitter.com/NecoCockburn
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/search/uOtt...uld+carry+name+letter/8994564/story.html

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by JM1

Ottawa a university town? Come on. It is a government town with a couple of mid-grade universities.

Total enrollment in the two main skools is almost 70,000, so "university town" isn't far off the mark. That's a large proportion of the 18-65 age bracket.

[J.OT13]

I'm glad they opted against calling them both uOttawa. It would have been confusing for some. "He said uOttawa!?", "ya uOttawa", "Shit! Which uOttawa!?"

[Capital Shaun]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

uOttawa hoped two light-rail stations would carry its name: letter

Glad the city didn't go with that idea. That's basically free advertising x2.