Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[caveat.doctor]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

Here's a map I made back in the fall showing a network analysis of walking distances around LRT stations. It's obviously not perfect since I guess there were some errors in my network (most notably: Greenboro and uOttawa) but it was good enough for a decent mark in my course.

I also generated coverage data for every route in the city if anyone's interested in any route in particular...

This is great, thanks!

Would you happen to have a walking distance map to "frequent" (the orange, 15 min or less) routes? I think that would be a useful illustration of how much/little of the city has access to service that approaches that tipping point where you no longer need to live by a schedule (https://humantransit.org/2011/12/how-frequent-is-freedom.html). The current map tends to exaggerate access to transit, as all the routes are equally prominent (even the connexion routes), and the scale has been compressed to minimise the Greenbelt.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by trhgr

I recently found a density map of Ottawa on censusmapper.ca and I added the LRT phase 1 stations (red dots).
It gives an interesting perpective on how this system misses most of the densily populated areas in the central part of our city (especially south and east of the core).

And serving those dense areas would have meant a lot more tunnelling and effectively wasted the existing Transitway infrastructure. At several hundred million per km, this is not a cheap proposition. And after doing all that would not have relieved the Transitway's congestion. The rush hour bus parade on Albert and Slater would have remained.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by caveat.doctor

This is great, thanks!

Would you happen to have a walking distance map to "frequent" (the orange, 15 min or less) routes? I think that would be a useful illustration of how much/little of the city has access to service that approaches that tipping point where you no longer need to live by a schedule (https://humantransit.org/2011/12/how-frequent-is-freedom.html). The current map tends to exaggerate access to transit, as all the routes are equally prominent (even the connexion routes), and the scale has been compressed to minimise the Greenbelt.

Here's the entire Rapid Transit system

and all Frequent/Rapid/Connexion routes

and the Route 44.

I don't have one of just the Frequent routes at the moment. I can generate one if there's interest though. Edit: I thought I had misplaced the coverage data but I just found it. I'll make one soon.

Edit: Here's all of the data on an interactive map The frequent data may have been merged with local route data...

[trhgr]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

Here's a map I made back in the fall showing a network analysis of walking distances around LRT stations. It's obviously not perfect since I guess there were some errors in my network (most notably: Greenboro and uOttawa) but it was good enough for a decent mark in my course.

I also generated coverage data for every route in the city if anyone's interested in any route in particular...

Very interesting map.
I am not a planner, just a user.
I would like to be able to walk, for instance, to Lansdowne without having to walk 1km to Bank Street to take a bus when it's about half the distance to Lansdowne. Some will say "just walk", but I don't always want to.
I saw this picture on Reddit and it made me think of what things could've been.

[caveat.doctor]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

Here's the entire Rapid Transit system

and all Frequent/Rapid/Connexion routes

and the Route 44.

Very interesting! Of course it's intuitively obvious, but the Rapid and Connexion maps show how much these services cater to suburb-downtown commuting and less for transport within

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

I don't have one of just the Frequent routes at the moment. I can generate one if there's interest though. Edit: I thought I had misplaced the coverage data but I just found it. I'll make one soon.

Edit: Here's all of the data on an interactive map The frequent data may have been merged with local route data...

That would be great, thanks in advance! I think a map of what's walkable to "Frequent" routes would be one of the better indicators of how effective transit is as a transport option of choice across the city. Whereas the visualisation of Rapid and Connexion routes show places you can live and be walkable to an express route, they aren't necessarily frequent and, if you wanted to be car free, you'd still be forced to live around a schedule. Nor do these routes necessarily connect you to the places you'd routinely go within your own neighbourhood, like groceries, etc. You can get a sense of this for specific points using Transit Score (https://www.walkscore.com/transit-score-methodology.shtml), and how far you can get from a given point within a given timeframe by transit, but it doesn't let you visualise it for the whole city (at least, not for free).

[Corvulpes]

a

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by Corvulpes

Anyone curious can still see the OCS drooping and touching a pole just west of Hurdman. It's disconnected from the suspension wires.

Do you know what exactly happened? Seems very strange.

[CityTech]

Apparently it was some sort of drill.

[Corvulpes]

a

[J.OT13]

Rideau Station from Mathieu Fleury's Twitter.


https://twitter.com/MathieuFleury/status/1152625488206209024

Pimisi and Hurdman from David Bellerive's Twitter.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Corvulpes

Not a drill, just an infrastructure failure. The heat has not been good to the rails or the wires.

It has been hot but it isn’t uncommon for us to get a few days like this in July. It just goes to show how hard it is to design around the temperature extremes we get. Increasing the amount of shade on the ROW would help a lot (there is a reason why railways would plant trees beside their tracks).

[Dengler Avenue]

And trees can block strong winds on windy days too.

If one of the trees is caught on fire though, especially on a hot day like this...

[CityTech]

I guess a September launch is advantageous.. rarely any extreme weather that time of year.

[PHrenetic]

Originally Posted by roger1818

It has been hot but it isn’t uncommon for us to get a few days like this in July. It just goes to show how hard it is to design around the temperature extremes we get. Increasing the amount of shade on the ROW would help a lot (there is a reason why railways would plant trees beside their tracks).

Good Day.

The issue of rail (and by extension, OCS) reaction to both high and low temperature has been pointed out before, and still obviously remains a concern..... this occurrence of OCS, and just previous was mentioned rail warpage, raises just how they designed for the extremes - which were part of the contract conditions. They (presumeably) got it right at the Hurdman over the Rideau bridge, where they have rail slip joints at all 4 rails at both ends (unless this was where the warpage was ?) and so, did they :
a) not design enough give in the rails through the curves , or,
b) not place enough slip joints,
throughout the alignment to accommodate for rail expansion / contraction.

Now I know that even heavy mainlines have difficulties in this type of weather, but my point remains - that this is a more limited area (Ottawa proper) with more well-defined parameters of temperature and weather to be accommodated, by a far more localized and frequent operations and maintenance surveillance.

To me, it shows another cheap-out, and edge-cutting construction cost .vs. ongoing maintenance performance-penalty cost trade-off.

As for the OCS...... I would sincerely hope that it is a one-off slip-up in the installation quality, a bug to be rectified, and move on. The rail is more serious and concerning.

IMO.

[PHrenetic]

Originally Posted by CityTech

I guess a September launch is advantageous.. rarely any extreme weather that time of year.

Good Day.

Ummmn, yeah..... means they think they can get away with slipping between the extremes ?

I hope not.

[Corvulpes]

a

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by PHrenetic

Good Day.

Ummmn, yeah..... means they think they can get away with slipping between the extremes ?

I hope not.

If there's a heat related deficiency with the wires, they can apply the fix gradually in the overnight maintenance periods over this fall and next spring instead of having to get it all done now.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by PHrenetic

Good Day.

The issue of rail (and by extension, OCS) reaction to both high and low temperature has been pointed out before, and still obviously remains a concern..... this occurrence of OCS, and just previous was mentioned rail warpage, raises just how they designed for the extremes - which were part of the contract conditions. They (presumeably) got it right at the Hurdman over the Rideau bridge, where they have rail slip joints at all 4 rails at both ends (unless this was where the warpage was ?) and so, did they :
a) not design enough give in the rails through the curves , or,
b) not place enough slip joints,
throughout the alignment to accommodate for rail expansion / contraction.

Now I know that even heavy mainlines have difficulties in this type of weather, but my point remains - that this is a more limited area (Ottawa proper) with more well-defined parameters of temperature and weather to be accommodated, by a far more localized and frequent operations and maintenance surveillance.

To me, it shows another cheap-out, and edge-cutting construction cost .vs. ongoing maintenance performance-penalty cost trade-off.

As for the OCS...... I would sincerely hope that it is a one-off slip-up in the installation quality, a bug to be rectified, and move on. The rail is more serious and concerning.

IMO.

Even the most competent contractor wouldn't be able to change the material properties of steel.

GO is now laying new rail at a higher temperature to help tackle heat related problems, but that comes at the cost of the rails being less durable in the cold. Not much of a problem in the GTA, but we're still fixated on winter reliability here in Ottawa (and rightfully so).

Sun kinks were discussed on this forum with regards to the Trillium Line and @Catenary noted that the ties on the Trillium Line are anchored at every few ties and we never really hear about issues on the Trillium Line even though its rails are welded in the exact same way as on the Confederation Line (including the bridge in the middle which isn't welded). I have no idea how or if the rails on the Confederation Line are anchored (I would assume so) but maybe the significantly higher frequency/size of trains on the Confederation Line are causing more problems compared to the Trillium Line. Not much they can do about it if that's the case.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by CityTech

If there's a heat related deficiency with the wires, they can apply the fix gradually in the overnight maintenance periods over this fall and next spring instead of having to get it all done now.

How is it that we have 2 LRTs being built, this one and Ion, and one of them seems to have been built better?

[CityTech]

Designing around summer heat is actually a bigger priority than winter cold, IMO. Summer heat peaks in late afternoon when PM rush hour is starting so any delays are very disruptive. Winter cold peaks in the middle of the night when service is shut down anyway.