O-Train Line 1/3 [Stage 2 | West Extension | Tunney's to Baseline/Moodie] | U/C

[rocketphish]

'The west is finally in': $3.6B rail package includes LRT to Moodie Drive

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: February 17, 2017 | Last Updated: February 17, 2017 6:44 PM EST

The city’s refreshed Stage 2 transit plan calls for a rail extension to Moodie Drive, punching another suburb’s ticket to Ottawa’s LRT club.

“The west is finally in,” Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley said Friday after Mayor Jim Watson unveiled the new rail blueprint. “It’s great to feel we’re part of the LRT party.”

The city was going to make Bayshore Shopping Centre and Algonquin College the western end points for the LRT system in 2023. Staff crunched the numbers in the $3-billion Stage 2 rail estimate and realized they could keep on building tracks to Moodie Drive while maintaining the budget.

College Coun. Rick Chiarelli said LRT access at Moodie Drive and Highway 417 is a huge development for one of his communities.

“It’s tremendous news for Bells Corners because it is better commuting for residents and it’s something that will facilitate at lot of customers to the Bells Corners strip,” Chiarelli said.

Chiarelli praised the city for moving an LRT maintenance and storage facility away from a controversial location off Woodroffe Avenue in his ward. The facility will be built off Moodie Drive instead.

The city also likes the idea of stretching the tracks to Moodie Drive to help serve the new Department of National Defence headquarters at the old Nortel campus.

Adding the Moodie Drive LRT extension is worth about $70 million. Adjustments to the track alignment in other parts of the plan have reduced the overall Stage 2 costs, such as aligning more of the eastern stretch into the median of Highway 174, saving $12 million.



Chris Swail, the director of O-Train planning, said the city took a close look at the budget to further compress the costs so the Moodie Drive portion could be added to the blueprint. The city hopes to see even more savings when it starts the procurement program for the construction work.

“That extension benefits us from a customer service perspective, it benefits us from an operations perspective in terms of providing us good additional maintenance and storage and because we had a little bit of slack in our estimates, we’re going to push ahead and see if we can squeeze it into the overall scope with the $3 billion,” Swail said.

John Manconi, general manager of transportation services, said bringing rail service closer to Kanata will mean more reliable transit service for people travelling by bus in mixed traffic downtown.

“I think Kanata people are going to be very pleased with that because they live that commute every single day,” Manconi said.

Chris Swail, the director of O-Train planning, said the city took a close look at the budget to further compress the costs so the Moodie Drive portion could be added to the blueprint. The city hopes to see even more savings when it starts the procurement program for the construction work.

“That extension benefits us from a customer service perspective, it benefits us from an operations perspective in terms of providing us good additional maintenance and storage and because we had a little bit of slack in our estimates, we’re going to push ahead and see if we can squeeze it into the overall scope with the $3 billion,” Swail said.

John Manconi, general manager of transportation services, said bringing rail service closer to Kanata will mean more reliable transit service for people travelling by bus in mixed traffic downtown.

“I think Kanata people are going to be very pleased with that because they live that commute every single day,” Manconi said.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/3-6b-rail-package-includes-lrt-to-moodie-drive

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Wait... Moodie? What advantage would that provide over Bayshore? My initial reaction is that an extension past Bayshore would only really make sense if it made its way at least to Eagleson.

Making it a bit easier for DnD workers traveling to the Nortel campus?

They are also well underway with the BRT line infrastructure along that stretch. I wonder if any of that will have to be changed now? Or maybe they've been building it as an LRT line all along and not letting on? There are some pretty large structures being erected near Moodie right now.

[SkeggsEggs]

So now every person who wants to take the bus to Bayshore will have to make a pointless transfer? For one stop... I really fail to see the benefit of going one stop past Bayshore, there will soon be a busway between Moodie and Bayshore regardless. Either go to kanata all at once or not at all. I just don't see the benefit of doing this in state 2.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Wait... Moodie? What advantage would that provide over Bayshore? My initial reaction is that an extension past Bayshore would only really make sense if it made its way at least to Eagleson.

Crystal Beach, Abbott, DND campus. But most importantly, they are moving their proposed Woodroffe Storage and Maintenance facility to Moodie (West of it?)

My parents live in Crystal Beach so I, for one, am pretty hyped I'll be able to take LRT to them rather than drive sooner rather than later.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by SkeggsEggs

So now every person who wants to take the bus to Bayshore will have to make a pointless transfer? For one stop... I really fail to see the benefit of going one stop past Bayshore, there will soon be a busway between Moodie and Bayshore regardless. Either go to kanata all at once or not at all. I just don't see the benefit of doing this in state 2.

There is not much room for bus a terminal at Moodie. And that station is not being built like one. I'm not sure how all those rush hour buses from Kanata will fit there. Perhaps main transfer point will still be at Bayshore?

Anyone got any of the new plans handy?

[ortelius]

Stage 2 docs for Feb 24, 2017 Finance Committee:

http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=7137&doctype=agenda&itemid=360964

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

City's being lazy as per usual. If they got creative they could easily find a way to keep the Trillium open throughout the construction period; or at least, limit closures to weekends and evenings.

How do they manage in other countries?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I have always pushed for the airport to be included going back to the 2006 plan, but this spur doesn't make sense and as you say won't be used by anyone who needs to make 2 transfers.

I am all for an airport spur. It will bring Ottawa into the big leagues. But it has to be done right with no transfers to get downtown.

I am travelling to Scandinavia in May, starting in Copenhagen and ending in Oslo. Both cities have direct rail connections between their airport and downtown.

What we are building will be a joke and will actually repel visitors.

[lrt's friend]

And yet again, I am right. They announce a further extension towards Kanata.

In a way, a good idea to avoid the stupidity of building a busway and then shut it down for conversion to LRT.

I am starting to wonder if our south end councillors cannot talk. A wimper from Orleans, build an extension to far reaches of Cumberland. A wimper from Kanata, get working on it.

But the south end, nothing but the crappy single track Trillium Line that is shut down almost as much as it is in operation.

The question. What does everybody do when they shut down the Trillium Line the next time when more of the passengers are not seasonal student riders?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by passwordisnt123

What LRT's Friend said

Why the hell wouldn't we interline the Trilium Line going south after Southkeys so that 1/2 of it goes to the airport and 1/2 of it goes to Leitrum, Riverside South, etc.? An airport spur is just absurd and the fact that they wouldn't take this opportunity to double track at least all of it outside of the Dow's Lake tunnel is insanity.

Funny thing, they are repairing the Dow's Lake Tunnel. Now is the time to fix even that by expanding or twinning the tunnel.

But see, the experts and planners did not include this so we will continue to be constrained not just by the tunnel but also by the rock cut to the north. The end result is that service cannot significantly improved over today even if most of the rest is double tracked.

Furthermore, our stupid plans to place the terminal stations in the bush depends on almost everybody driving to the train. This automatically eliminates a lot of riders, who think "I am driving half way anyways so I might as well drive all the way" and does not allow for the concept of moving to single car households if a vehicle is sitting in a park n ride lot all day.

While we build the Confederation Line to top notch specs, the Trillium Line remains a patchwork quilt of modifications that will still be very limiting to rail traffic.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

What we are building will be a joke and will actually repel visitors.

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I have always pushed for the airport to be included going back to the 2006 plan, but this spur doesn't make sense and as you say won't be used by anyone who needs to make 2 transfers.

Wonder if people realize that for casual riders that don't time their rides with the schedule, transferring at South Keys will actually be faster in most cases. With single-tracked Trillium if you interline at South Keys you'd have to run trains to the Airport once every half hour or so.
With a spur, you can time airport spur train departure with the arrival of Trillium train (that runs every 10 minutes) and waste no time. So essentially saving 10-20 minutes on a ride.
Also Riverside South commuters won't have to skip every 3rd train in this case, saving their time as well.
I just hope they build the station with possible future interlining in mind once Trillium is double-tracked.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Wonder if people realize that for casual riders that don't time their rides with the schedule, transferring at South Keys will actually be faster in most cases. With single-tracked Trillium if you interline at South Keys you'd have to run trains to the Airport once every half hour or so.
With a spur, you can time airport spur train departure with the arrival of Trillium train (that runs every 10 minutes) and waste no time. So essentially saving 10-20 minutes on a ride.
Also Riverside South commuters won't have to skip every 3rd train in this case, saving their time as well.
I just hope they build the station with possible future interlining in mind once Trillium is double-tracked.

Where is it a best practice to take three trains to get from the airport to a city's central business district? One is the norm, two is somewhat common: New York, London and Paris (depending on what you count as the central business district). This is especially ridiculous given how close the airport is to downtown and how easy the cab ride is.

Could you imagine the Lonely Planet trying to explain this?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Wonder if people realize that for casual riders that don't time their rides with the schedule, transferring at South Keys will actually be faster in most cases. With single-tracked Trillium if you interline at South Keys you'd have to run trains to the Airport once every half hour or so.
With a spur, you can time airport spur train departure with the arrival of Trillium train (that runs every 10 minutes) and waste no time. So essentially saving 10-20 minutes on a ride.
Also Riverside South commuters won't have to skip every 3rd train in this case, saving their time as well.
I just hope they build the station with possible future interlining in mind once Trillium is double-tracked.

The schedule is irrelevant, it is the complexity of the trip. Some Ottawa residents may realize that all the transfers work, but visitors? Visitors who don't know Ottawa want a simple trip.

There was no plan to ever direct every second train to Bowesville and to the airport. The plan always was to have a shuttle so both branches ran at the same frequency. It looks like the shuttle train will only go to the airport with through trains to Bowesville, which is a wise choice of the bad choices available. The original plan moving the shuttle to different locations depending on the time of day would just be confusing, especially for visitors. I can see visitors ending up at the wrong destination.

The report alludes to this by bringing airport shuttle trains into South Keys on a separate track. The report also says that they are expecting the airport shuttle to run at a $4M loss per year. This also tells us the importance of keeping the airport train as a shuttle only. They were planning on using two car trains on the Trillium Line. By separating the airport shuttle (with a handful of passengers per run), they at least can run it with single car trains.

I see that they are planning pocket tracks at Lincoln Fields and Hurdman to allow for short turns and supplemental service. With all these plans for various contingencies, I am still saddened that they cannot protect a rail connection at Bayview. The Airport connection is only worth the money if we can someday offer direct service into downtown. Think REM, UPX, Canada Line, all providing or to provide direct to downtown service.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Where is it a best practice to take three trains to get from the airport to a city's central business district? One is the norm, two is somewhat common: New York, London and Paris (depending on what you count as the central business district). This is especially ridiculous given how close the airport is to downtown and how easy the cab ride is.

Could you imagine the Lonely Planet trying to explain this?

Sure, "Take a train from the airport and transfer where you need to"
Tons of airports have some sort of Airtrain link between terminals, so that's another train for you.
As a tourist, if I see a train at the airport I will always take it, and number of transfers is the last thing I worry about. Bus? Don't think so.

Anyway, single-track Trillium with 10-minute minimum time between trains is the only reason why they are forced to do it this way. It sucks, but that's the best option given the lack of desire to double-track Trillium.

BTW, interlining can also be incredibly confusing for people that are not used to it or don't understand English well. You take Green line train to get out of the airport but on your way back you take "wrong" green line train and it takes you all the way to Bowesville and you are 1 hour late for your plane.

[1overcosc]

Airport spur should be taken out and the money reallocated elsewhere.

Funny enough, that's what the city's planners themselves decided in 2013 when they wrote the TMP. Politics made them add in the airport spur.

The replacements of the Dows Lake Tunnel and Rideau River bridge better include provision for double tracking. Has there been any official confirmation of whether or not this is happening?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Airport spur should be taken out and the money reallocated elsewhere.

Funny enough, that's what the city's planners themselves decided in 2013 when they wrote the TMP. Politics made them add in the airport spur.

The replacements of the Dows Lake Tunnel and Rideau River bridge better include provision for double tracking. Has there been any official confirmation of whether or not this is happening?

The airport spur was only a possible future addition in 2006 as well. Of course, with full double tracking that would have been a practical addition at some point.

I believe all they are doing is making repairs to the existing Dow's Lake tunnel, so no, it won't be double tracked.

It is a little less clear regarding the Rideau River bridge. They will be making repairs. I am not sure whether those repairs will allow for double tracking. The current bridge is not wide enough, so that would require major modifications if not replacement.

[lrt's friend]

Obviously DND employees living in the east end have more pull than RCMP workers relocating to Barrhaven.

[rocketphish]

We'll sabotage our rail plan with wider highways because we can't resist a deal

David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: February 17, 2017 | Last Updated: February 17, 2017 4:55 PM EST

Building rail is expensive but sabotaging it is cheap, so that’s Ottawa’s plan with our new $5.1-billion rail system. The trick to getting a bargain is doing both at the same time.

When Mayor Jim Watson and city staff showed off the latest news on the next stage of their light-rail plans Friday morning, the presentation included a revelation that the city intends to rebuild Highway 174 east of Montreal Road to turn dedicated bus lanes into car lanes. It’ll “bundle” the job with laying the tracks and building the stations that will extend light-rail service from Blair station to Trim Road by 2022.

“Can it undercut ridership? Yeah, it can,” said John Manconi, the city’s general manager of transit and transportation, after the presentation. “It can attract people who say, hey, it’s flowing better, so I’ll take my car.”

The city needs the provincial and federal governments to pay for the work but evidently Watson thinks he can talk them into it.

When the city last updated its transportation master plan in 2013, planners thought widening the 174 between Montreal Road and Jeanne d’Arc Boulevard should be done someday but not before 2031, which was as far out as their forecasts went.

The road, which the city owns, is already six lanes wide but two of those lanes are dedicated to buses. When the rail line opens, those won’t be needed. The road and culverts under the highway also need major work.

Overpasses over the 174 will have to be rebuilt to accommodate new stations and trains; the planners working on the rail project figure the new ones should be designed for the wider highway that’s on the to-do-someday list. As long as we’re doing all that, the logic goes, we can save on construction costs and disruptions by having the same crews just widen the highway, too.

“Operationally, from a car motorist (perspective), it’s going to be a bit strange having lanes that are unused and not leveraged. So we’re doing the balancing act on that. Can it affect ridership? No doubt about it. It’s something we’ve got to watch and something I’m concerned about,” Manconi said.

Once there’s something to watch, it’ll be too late.

Something similar will happen west of downtown. Last spring, Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli announced plans to widen the provincially owned Highway 417 between Maitland Avenue and the Highway 416 interchange but played coy about how much it might cost, saying it hadn’t gone to tender yet. Friday we found out why: that job will also be bundled with the rail-construction contract, too.

The study that recommended the 417 widening in the mid-2000s specifically assumed there’d never be real east-west rail service in Ottawa. We’re now spending billions on east-west rail service. A separate study on the 174 is more recent and acknowledges the city’s plan to run rail to Orléans but justifies the call for a wider highway based on the way things are now.

Between the two, we’ll pay more than $200 million to build more roads that will compete directly with the light-rail line, and millions more on maintaining them once they’re built.

The city knows how plug-stupid this is, far beyond Manconi’s concerns. It has warnings in writing.

When city council approved its transportation master plan in 2013, its consultants said the full length of the Queensway will be congested by 2031 even if we built every single thing on the city’s wish list. Not just the billions of dollars’ worth of work we figure we can afford, but everything. “Solving” congestion is not a thing we think we can do even with all the money in the world.

The consultants did the math and ran the models. They made up a colour-coded map. The Queensway is a big fat red line on it, all the way from Eagleson Road in the west to Trim Road in the east, with a few little spots of orange around exits.

“This highlights a problem that is often observed with freeway widening: as soon as new capacity is made available through widening (or some other modification), new roadway demand is induced from trip makers that would have otherwise taken a different mode, travelled at a different time, or not travelled at all,” the report from IBI group said. Build a road and people pile onto it, including by getting off buses and trains. Yes, that preference counts for something, but those roads are incredibly expensive.

This was the same work that decided what rail lines and road projects would give the city the best bang for taxpayers’ bucks. IBI’s consultants ranked dozens of projects and the 174 widening didn’t make the cut even though it was relatively cheap. Its only value is to drivers — it scored the minimum one point out of four in their scheme for its usefulness to anybody else. Widen the road, they said, and it’ll still be clogged.

But there are these lanes and voters like highways and we’ll have the construction crews out there anyway, so what else can we do?

[email protected]
twitter.com/davidreevely

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...r-highways-because-we-cant-resist-a-deal

[rocketphish]

Transfers better than no train at all to YOW, airport head says

Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: February 17, 2017 | Last Updated: February 17, 2017 5:45 PM EST

Changing trains twice to get to the airport from downtown is still better than having no rail connection at all, the head of Ottawa’s airport authority said Friday after the city formally unveiled its ambitious plan for expanding the light-rail transit network.

The plan includes a four-kilometre spur to the airport, but riders would have to change trains at South Keys station. Those heading downtown would have to make a second connection onto the Confederation line at Bayview station. The total trip would take about 40 minutes.

“It is what it is,” said Mark Laroche. “We still think it’s better than what we are able to offer now and that ridership will pick up.”

Including the airport link adds another $155 million to the city’s $3-billion project.

The provincial government has offered to split the cost of the airport extension with the federal government, which has yet to make any formal funding commitment toward the project.

Laroche said he understands the city has to work within a budget and is not frustrated by the plan to make passengers transfer trains.

“Everyone always likes the Cadillac solution but we can’t always afford it and I understand that,” he said.

It comes down to ridership.

When the Confederation line is extended west from Tunney’s Pasture, the track will split at Lincoln Fields and westbound trains will alternate between Baseline and Moodie stations. That’s because demand to and from both destinations is relatively equal. But the same can’t be said for the airport, particularly at rush hour, said Chris Swail, director of O-Train planning.

Ridership demand to and from Bowesville station, the future terminus of the extended Trillium line, is about ten times the ridership demand to the airport, he said.

“Maybe that will grow and that would be great and we would love that, but for right now we’re planning to prioritize where we have the most capacity and where we want to move the most people the most efficiently,” he said.

To compensate, Swail said the city will try to time transfers effectively so riders aren’t left waiting too long to catch the next train. Best-case scenario: People coming from the airport would hopefully arrive at South Keys station, walk across the platform and board a train to Bayview station.

But, Swail added, the work will be done in such a way to ensure direct airport-to-Bayview service would be an option down the road if ridership warrants it.

The goal for the airport link is to offer the same frequency of service as the main Trillium line, which is a train every 12 minutes, Swail said.

The airport authority has committed to paying for its new LRT station, which would be incorporated into the north end of the terminal building near the U.S. check-in counters, Laroche said.

“People will be able to walk from the terminal without going outside at all and just get on the train,” he said.

Drawing up designs would happen once all federal and provincial funding for the project has been confirmed, Laroche said.

[email protected]
twitter.com/mpearson78

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...no-train-at-all-to-yow-airport-head-says

[lrt's friend]

It is interesting that these comments are being made by the head of the airport authority while taxpayers are paying the $155M capital cost and a projected $4M per year operating loss. Wouldn't this money have been better spent on double tracking the line between Bayview and South Keys? Then, we would be in a better position to service the airport properly later. Haven't we got our priorities backwards? I have said for years, that extension of the Trillium Line will actually prevent proper double tracking in the future once reality sets in about another protracted shutdown required to complete double tracking.