Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

That's precisely what it is though; commuter rail built to metro standards, like BART in San Francisco (but with light rail instead of heavy rail). The primary use of this train is to get suburbanites downtown. The urban subway aspect is just a happy coincidence.

In other news, Queen Street west bound now has a turning lane to Lyon north bound, i.e. Lyon is now a two-way street for two blocks instead of just one. This was probably done to accommodate the post-rail STO routes.

Ottawa does not have a large enough core and an expansive enough suburb/exurb to really consider the LRT as being ore than an LRT. Look at Toronto and Montreal to see what I mean.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

In other news, Queen Street west bound now has a turning lane to Lyon north bound, i.e. Lyon is now a two-way street for two blocks instead of just one. This was probably done to accommodate the post-rail STO routes.

Is it bus only or for cars as well?

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Ottawa does not have a large enough core and an expansive enough suburb/exurb to really consider the LRT as being ore than an LRT. Look at Toronto and Montreal to see what I mean.

People are free to consider whatever they want as they wish. You have no control over how they view things, think and feel. LRT is a type of technology, not a name, and tram, subway (aka metro) or skytrain are modes of operation, which is what people usually relate to when they view urban rail transportation. Wether Ottawa's size doesn't compare to Montreal's or Toronto's current sizes is irrelevant. People will more than likely call it the metro or the O-train, or perhaps simply the train. Just like people call the train on the Trillium line the 'o-train', and not 'heavy rail'.

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

People are free to consider whatever they want as they wish. You have no control over how they view things, think and feel. LRT is a type of technology, not a name, and tram, subway or subway are modes of operation, which is what people usually relate to when they view urban rail transportation. Wether Ottawa's size doesn't compare to Montreal's or Toronto's current sizes is irrelevant. People will more than likely call it the metro or the O-train, or perhaps simply the train. Just like people call the train on the Trillium line the 'o-train', and not 'heavy rail'.

They'll likely call it the otrain regardless, much like people call it the sky train and not a "light metro", "metro", or "advanced light rapid transit". Such terminology only matters to us transit nerds, and it's hard to decide on the right term with something like the confederation line which is straddling categories.

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Is it bus only or for cars as well?

For cars too it looks like. It makes the northbound lanes useful now, since before they were only accessible from a parking garage exit and after hours deliveries on spark street

[phil235]

Originally Posted by kmcamp

For cars too it looks like. It makes the northbound lanes useful now, since before they were only accessible from a parking garage exit and after hours deliveries on spark street

Unfortunately they don't seem to have done anything for bikes. Cyclists going southbound on Lyon have to ride in mixed traffic until the bike lane starts two blocks south. Makes little sense to me. Maybe (hopefully) there is more to be done?

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by phil235

Unfortunately they don't seem to have done anything for bikes. Cyclists going southbound on Lyon have to ride in mixed traffic until the bike lane starts two blocks south. Makes little sense to me. Maybe (hopefully) there is more to be done?

Could someone post a picture of the changes to Lyon between Queen and Sparks? I am interested but don't go downtown very often.

I wonder if they will use Lyon northbound from Queen for the new route 10 or will it be reserved for STO buses?

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by phil235

Unfortunately they don't seem to have done anything for bikes. Cyclists going southbound on Lyon have to ride in mixed traffic until the bike lane starts two blocks south. Makes little sense to me. Maybe (hopefully) there is more to be done?

Bike Ottawa posted on Twitter this morning that there will be an alternative bike route provided.

My suspicion is that they will provide a southbound bike lane on Bay from Wellington to at least Queen.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

Bike Ottawa posted on Twitter this morning that there will be an alternative bike route provided.

My suspicion is that they will provide a southbound bike lane on Bay from Wellington to at least Queen.

I really hope that they do something. Bay is an option, but Queen isn't far enough. It also doesn't really do much for people coming from downtown and looking to go south in the Lyon bikelane (i.e. me). They would have to go west to Bay, south to Laurier, make a left, then back to Lyon. It's pretty clear to me that no one is going to do that.

Kind of sad, as there was plenty of space for a bike lane on Lyon.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Could someone post a picture of the changes to Lyon between Queen and Sparks? I am interested but don't go downtown very often.

I've been there many times but have never noticed: is there actually a traffic light to turn left (westbound) onto Wellington from Lyon going north?

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Many of the seats go over the bogies and wheel wells so they are not optional, even if you removed them there would be mounds. In fact most of the flat areas are dedicated to open space with foldable seats.

Yup. If you look at the side view of the train, I would guess about 2/5 of the train is wheel wells (thus requiring forward/backward facing seats), 1/4 of the train is doors (no seats permitted), leaving about 1/3 of the train for sideways facing seats.



If you look at the old Montreal metro cars (which don't have wheel wells), they have a bit more room to stand, but not a lot more.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I've been there many times but have never noticed: is there actually a traffic light to turn left (westbound) onto Wellington from Lyon going north?

No light. You can only go east.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by phil235

No light. You can only go east.

True, but there is a light for southbound traffic from the parking lot. It wouldn't be that hard to add a light to the northbound lane, moving the stop line on Wellington westbound further east.

Street View link

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by roger1818

True, but there is a light for southbound traffic from the parking lot. It wouldn't be that hard to add a light to the northbound lane, moving the stop line on Wellington westbound further east.

Street View link

So I guess that intersection is in for a bit of a re-do in anticipation of the big changes next year.

[zzptichka]

So a bus slip lane right across from the Lyon station entrance. "Pedestrian improvement" huh.



http://catherinemckenney.ca/en/category/updates-en/

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

So a bus slip lane right across from the Lyon station entrance. "Pedestrian improvement" huh.



http://catherinemckenney.ca/en/category/updates-en/

The City designers are really getting confused about their triangles... I'm pretty sure you don't need the triangles for leaving a raised intersection.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by roger1818

If you look at the old Montreal metro cars (which don't have wheel wells), they have a bit more room to stand, but not a lot more.

Having the open space below the seats makes it easier to do the sideways shuffle past the bottleneck, though. The Métro also has doors at the extreme ends. I would avoid sitting at the head or tail of the Citadis Spirit if I had to get out mid-journey of a crowded train.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

So a bus slip lane right across from the Lyon station entrance. "Pedestrian improvement" huh.



http://catherinemckenney.ca/en/category/updates-en/

The web site you linked to says that there will be a stop sign for buses turning right here, so I'm not sure that this is a big problem.

I'm happy the city is getting called out over their poor public engagement and lack of transparency with their plans, but I'm finding it hard to get too riled up about what is actually being built. The addition of a southbound bike lane to Bay St sounds like a good plan to me.

The STO buses have to go somewhere, and concentrating them here in order to free up space for other bike facilities on Wellington, Albert and Slater makes eminent sense.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

The STO buses have to go somewhere, and concentrating them here in order to free up space for other bike facilities on Wellington, Albert and Slater makes eminent sense.

I remember all those times the ottbike people said that transit space wasn't being sacrificed to make room for bikes.

I still do not see what the imperative is to remove buses from Wellington.

[OtrainUser]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

I remember all those times the ottbike people said that transit space wasn't being sacrificed to make room for bikes.

I still do not see what the imperative is to remove buses from Wellington.

I think it has to do with events that happen downtown like Canada Day. They rather just keep the buses out of that spot rather having to go through re-routing every single time and I understand that.

The Mayor of Gatineau did say putting STO buses on Albert and Slater bring people closer to their destination anyway so they wont have to walk as far as they do currently.