Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[rocketphish]

Nice shot of the ongoing work at Tremblay Station:



http://ottawacitizen.com

[eemy]

Will the old bridge structure be replaced with fill?

[Richard Eade]

I expect that the old structure will remain since they went to great lengths to maintain the abutment when building the new span.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

There are valid points in all of your posts, Uhuniau, but I personally find - and I don't think I'm the only one - that it's hard to not tune out when they're hidden behind a haze of bitterness. I think a more factual tone would be a lot more effective in getting your point across.

Fact: bus service within the core sucks.

Fact: the city's transit plan is focussed entirely on extending LRT and BRT to the suburbs.

Fact: there are no plans on the drawing board to bring additional mass transit to the core neighbourhoods.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

After Phase 2, 70% of the population will be within 5km. What does that translate to within reasonable walking distance of 800 m? 20%?

Indeed.

The "70% within 5 km" line is about as meaningful as "100% within 100 km".

On regular bus transit, it can take up to an hour for me to get to the closest future LRT station site. There are no plans to improve the bus transit situation, and no plans to bring LRT, BRT, or any other kind of RT anywhere closer to my neighbourhood. And with the planned downtown route splits and forced transfers, the LRT project, while nice, and needed, does NOTHING for me or my neighbours.

Well, nothing GOOD anyway. It will diminish our transit service overall.

Thanks, suburbs.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I would think there would be a lot less crowding on the platform because the platform will clear every 3 minutes (2 in the future) when a new train arrives

Assuming - wrongly - that every train will have the capacity sweep up whoever is waiting at a given station.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by bartlebooth

I think LRT will lead to a significantly more predictable travel experience and that matters a lot for current riders and for attracting new riders. Having people pay before they reach the platform, having all doors open when the train stops, having trains stop at every station (not having to flag it down to stop), being fully grade separated, not having the driver of the vehicle do so many things (mediate rider issues, drive, check tickets), etc... Things like this cause me frustration everyday and often add significantly more time to my commute making it hard to predict when I will be arriving somewhere. I live in a central, older part of the city and while this system will not perfectly align with all of my travel needs, I think this system will be a major improvement over what we have now.

yes, it will be a major improvement so long as the LRT is reasonably close to your origin or destination, as it will be for many... just not for many who are trying to move from one central neighbourhood to another.

And when the brilliant managers start splitting more local routes "because LRT!", service within downtown will further degrade.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Assuming - wrongly - that every train will have the capacity sweep up whoever is waiting at a given station.

It should outside of special events when the bus system fails spectacularly already. Moving crowds to the Canadian Tire Centre to the LRT is going to suck no matter what.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Assuming - wrongly - that every train will have the capacity sweep up whoever is waiting at a given station.

I think it is a valid assumption on a normal day in the short to medium term. It is true after special events platform capacity will exceed train capacity, but even then the LRT will get more people out of town faster than the current system of buses. In the long term, capacity can be increased by increasing frequency and using longer trains (initially they will be 80m long, but they can be lengthened to 120m with upgrades that have been pre-planed).

Initially the big problem will be in the west the bottle neck will be moved to Tunnies Pasture. While some people will get off at Pimisi and Bayview, most will continue to Tunnies and need to wait for a bus there. In the east it won't be so bad as most of the transfers will be divided between Hurdman, St-Laurent and Blair.

[Radster]

Uhuniau, your tone is getting quite annoying, post after post. We all heard your dissatisfaction, what's the point of repeating yourself like a broken record?

Ottawa is not NYC, Toronto, MTL, London or Paris. The geography of this city, low density, and large suburban sprawl all factor into transit planning. Sadly, as some have shown in their posts over the past few pages, most of the population that depends on public transit is outside of the core, so this is why the LRT is built more for them, while the downtown folks, in most part, will live with the status quo. There is just no need for RT downtown other than perhaps a Bank Street subway, and Carling tram. If you feel so strongly about the lack of RT downtown, then instead of repeating the same negative and snarky comments on here, put your energy elsewhere and start a movement, a petition, get involved in more ways than just behind a screen on skyscraperpage.

And btw, I too live downtown, Hintonbourg, right by the 14, and near the future Gladstone station. I too share your views, but I remain hopeful and confident that with the LRT, will come improvements to downtown service (even if this has not been announced) For now bus transit is there, and is adequate, yes its not perfect, but it works and is doing an ok job at moving the population within the core. Aylmer had made some good points, regarding walking vs taking public transit or RT when looking to get from point A to B in the core, sometimes you're just better off walking. Or biking in the summer.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

On regular bus transit, it can take up to an hour for me to get to the closest future LRT station site.

Even the dumbest route inside the greenbelt (the 5) gets between the St. Laurent and Rideau Centre in 45 minutes (so no stop is more than about 25 minutes from an LRT station).

[eemy]

I think it's okay to be dissatisfied and express the dissatisfaction, though it does start to get a bit repetitive and it becomes easy to just glance over those posts since there is little other than complaining about the status quo. With that said, I would be curious what Uhuniau thinks would be a plausible proposal that does a better job of addressing the needs of central residents.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

It should outside of special events when the bus system fails spectacularly already. Moving crowds to the Canadian Tire Centre to the LRT is going to suck no matter what.

Oh, I can hardly wait. Somehow, if I have to figure out how to get to Bayshore station before getting a bus to CTC. Forget it.

Let's see what will happen if we did this at TD Place. The transit success at TD Place depends on delivering people directly to convenient locations across the city. The day they make everybody transfer to the Confederation Line will be the day this all collapses into failure.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I think it's okay to be dissatisfied and express the dissatisfaction, though it does start to get a bit repetitive and it becomes easy to just glance over those posts since there is little other than complaining about the status quo. With that said, I would be curious what Uhuniau thinks would be a plausible proposal that does a better job of addressing the needs of central residents.

1a. A firm and fast commitment to high-capacity buses on trunk central routes (1, 2, 4?, 7, 12). This is a sine qua non. And put transit enforcement

1b. STOP SPLITTING CROSS-CORE ROUTES. STAAAAAHP.

1c. Keep the central hub on Rideau Street above the Rideau subway station. Don't force transfers through the Rideau Centre. The transit system exists to serve the public, not the Rideau Centre owners.

2. Prioritizing expenditures on TPMs in the core, not on wide suburban arterials and wide suburban intersections. The problems are in the core and need to be solved in the core, esp. since the suburbs are getting LRT and the core is not.

3. Invest in some friggin' modern signals technology. This is supposedly the tech capital of the greater Ottawa area. Get the buses talking to the lights. Now.

4. Fix the major bottlenecks on bridges over the Rideaux (canal and river), even if that means disenfranchising motorists. The Rideau-Montreal crossing and the Beechwood-St. Patrick crossing are nasty in the morning commutes. Conflicting uses (hello, Chateau Laurier boarding zone) on Wellington-Rideau need to be eliminated in peak periods, too.

5. Fix other pinch points, especially the south/left turn from Wellington onto Bank, where buses can get stranded for multiple light cycles while eastbound Wellington traffic gets priority. Other trouble spots include the right turn of the 1 from Acacia onto Beechwood, and the left/north of the 7 onto Bank in Old Ottawa South.

6. Build some real, functional, and aesthetically NICE shelter at Lansdowne. What a wasted opportunity that was. Next summer I hope to get some nice photos of what that place looks like on game day when it's raining.

7. Longer-term, restore a study for real mass transit on the Rideau-Montreal corridor and protect mass-transit options for the CFB Rockcliffe project. Get the revenue tools in place to fund a mass-transit project on this corridor, and get policies in place to allow for urban development and redevelopment on the axis. It could be the next Hintonborough - but not without real transit in place.

8. Accountability. Complaints about transit service in the core go nowhere. Suggestions for improvement (from customers and operators alike) go nowhere. There needs to be follow-through and an accounting for where, when, and why problems are being complained about, and what, if anything, is being done about them.

9. Moar thoughts later.

[ortelius]

from the latest updates:
"In the running tunnel, excavation continues east past the National War Memorial, supported by shotcrete and rockbolt installation."

They also posted the look ahead for 2016. Did anyone see any difference in the schedule? The last stations are still supposed to be finished in October 2017.

[JM1]

Uhuniau,

You have been getting a rough ride from others. I for one support a lot of your views and think that most of what you say makes sense. True, it sometimes comes across as a little bitter, but that does not make it untrue.

Ignore the haters and keep making your points. But I would encourage you take them to City Hall as well as to the skyscraper forums.

Keep up the good work!

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

1a. A firm and fast commitment to high-capacity buses on trunk central routes (1, 2, 4?, 7, 12). This is a sine qua non. And put transit enforcement

1b. STOP SPLITTING CROSS-CORE ROUTES. STAAAAAHP.

1c. Keep the central hub on Rideau Street above the Rideau subway station. Don't force transfers through the Rideau Centre. The transit system exists to serve the public, not the Rideau Centre owners.

2. Prioritizing expenditures on TPMs in the core, not on wide suburban arterials and wide suburban intersections. The problems are in the core and need to be solved in the core, esp. since the suburbs are getting LRT and the core is not.

3. Invest in some friggin' modern signals technology. This is supposedly the tech capital of the greater Ottawa area. Get the buses talking to the lights. Now.

4. Fix the major bottlenecks on bridges over the Rideaux (canal and river), even if that means disenfranchising motorists. The Rideau-Montreal crossing and the Beechwood-St. Patrick crossing are nasty in the morning commutes. Conflicting uses (hello, Chateau Laurier boarding zone) on Wellington-Rideau need to be eliminated in peak periods, too.

5. Fix other pinch points, especially the south/left turn from Wellington onto Bank, where buses can get stranded for multiple light cycles while eastbound Wellington traffic gets priority. Other trouble spots include the right turn of the 1 from Acacia onto Beechwood, and the left/north of the 7 onto Bank in Old Ottawa South.

6. Build some real, functional, and aesthetically NICE shelter at Lansdowne. What a wasted opportunity that was. Next summer I hope to get some nice photos of what that place looks like on game day when it's raining.

7. Longer-term, restore a study for real mass transit on the Rideau-Montreal corridor and protect mass-transit options for the CFB Rockcliffe project. Get the revenue tools in place to fund a mass-transit project on this corridor, and get policies in place to allow for urban development and redevelopment on the axis. It could be the next Hintonborough - but not without real transit in place.

8. Accountability. Complaints about transit service in the core go nowhere. Suggestions for improvement (from customers and operators alike) go nowhere. There needs to be follow-through and an accounting for where, when, and why problems are being complained about, and what, if anything, is being done about them.

9. Moar thoughts later.

[Buggys]

What does splitting routes mean?

Totally agree about #8. The OCTranspo Customer Service # is virtually always busy.

[Vanier]

Originally Posted by Radster

Uhuniau, your tone is getting quite annoying, post after post. We all heard your dissatisfaction, what's the point of repeating yourself like a broken record?

Perhaps because his opinion isn't given due consideration? I for one share his/her concerns regarding transit in city neighbourhoods...especially Vanier.

The buses don't meet the needs/demands of the neighbourhood. This area is very transit dependent. The number 12 route shares many similarities with urban bus routes in New Delhi: it is over subscribed to the point where a jungle mentality sets in, where I've regularly seen fist fights.

I understand his frustration. You see all this grandeur being provided to the outer suburbs (who don't use transit) and no future enhancements for those areas where transit really matters.

[Capital Shaun]

Originally Posted by Buggys

What does splitting routes mean?

When a crosstown route is split in two segments. Example the 2 was split into the 2 & 12 forcing a transfer for some users.

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by Vanier

Perhaps because his opinion isn't given due consideration? I for one share his/her concerns regarding transit in city neighbourhoods...especially Vanier.

I don't think that his message is the problem - I agree with almost everything on his list, but I've found myself tuning out regardless because the bitterness gets in the way of the arguments.

I totally agree that Uhuniau should continue to post and provide valuable input. But a better tone would be so much more readable for the other forumers and it would allow him/her to get his point across so much more effectively.