Quote:
Portman: Ottawa's LRT reflects a total lack of transit vision
Jamie Protman
Ottawa Citizen Op-Ed
August 9, 2019
Back when I was living in Calgary, I was able to step out of my downtown apartment, board a train just minutes from the front door, and ride to work — for free.
From the beginning, and it’s still true today, Calgary’s light rail system has maintained a ride-free zone in its downtown corridor — an idea that would no doubt horrify Ottawa’s unimaginative city guardians, apart perhaps from freshman Coun. Shawn Menard, who has mused publicly about free bus travel along Bank Street.
But let’s face it: Innovation, common sense and credibility are little in evidence when it comes to our lumbering entry into the world of light rail. It’s become an embarrassment even before those malfunctioning trains get the chance to transport real passengers through an unnecessary downtown tunnel with problems of water leakage.
And in the meantime, conventional bus service has deteriorated so badly that regular users are enduring the torments of the damned, with the city essentially telling them to like it or lump it.
All this testifies to a wider problem: public distrust of City Hall. And now that LRT is happening (well, maybe), the public mood is closer to exasperation than celebration.
In truth, what is there to celebrate anyway? A city official’s recent comment in The Citizen typifies the Alice-In-Wonderland reasoning behind Ottawa’s notoriously belated embrace of rapid transit. Stephen Willis, the city’s general manager of planning, infrastructure and economic development, claimed that it’s all happening now because our population has finally reached a critical mass of one million. Is he serious?
Calgary had a population of approximately 600,000 when its trains started running. Within a decade, it had expanded its LRT network sufficiently to meet the public transit needs of the 1988 winter Olympics. All this happened with a fraction of the angst that has accompanied the launching of light rail in Ottawa. Calgarians felt they were part of the story; they did not have the sense of being shut out.
In addition to approving a free zone downtown, Calgary also rejected pressure to build an expensive underground tunnel through the city centre. The tracks were laid above ground, along 7th Avenue, a major downtown thoroughfare. It was a prudent economic decision at the time; furthermore, the city was also robustly asserting the primacy of public transit in the downtown core.
In contrast to places such as Calgary and Vancouver, Ottawa and the national capital region repeatedly reveal a failure of vision. Ours is also a city in which too much is attempted by stealth, and the secrecy surrounding Ottawa’s monstrously expensive LRT project is in a class by itself.
There’s no shortage of questions we can legitimately ask. Under what circumstances was the decision made to build a tunnel in the first place? What sort of discussion went on in those hush-hush negotiations that killed off plans for a Confederation Square station in favour of one at the Rideau Centre? Who dreamed up a future westward extension that snubs residents of Kanata and Stittsville by idiotically terminating at Moodie Drive? Who on Earth cooked up the notion of a future airport connection that would require two changes to get downtown, a journey that can sometimes be made in 15 minutes by cab? What forces led our city guardians to push through a decision to ignore unanswered questions and proceed with Stage 2 LRT — this at a time when alarm bells are still sounding over the rocky journey to completion of Stage 1?
Of course, maybe maybe good things will happen once the trains actually get rolling — even though it’s a bit much to expect that riders from West Ottawa will be overjoyed at the prospect of scrambling off their overcrowded express buses at Tunney’s Pasture to board an equally overcrowded train in order to travel their few remaining minutes into downtown Ottawa.
On a more positive note: More than 300,000 Calgarians use light rail every day. But that’s Calgary. Will the people of Ottawa show similar enthusiasm? We shall soon see.
Jamie Portman is a freelance journalist who formerly wrote for the Postmedia/CanWest News Service.
|
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/column...-reflects-a-total-lack-of-transit-vision
First, I will concede that Ottawa's secretive, closed-doors approach to rail expansion has not been helpful. Public consultations were more like public "here's what we're doing, live with it!". Simple things like engaging the public in selecting the public art, the train designs, livery or being honest about the issues and delays would have gone a long way.
I also agree with the author that Calgary's decision to forgo a tunnel at the time was absolutely the right move. Over the almost 40 years after the original C-Train opened, they were able to expand the system at an impressive rate, to the point that the C-Train system (59.9 km) is not far behind Vancouver (79.6 km), Toronto (76.9 km) and Montreal (69.2 km) in length, though that will change in the next few years thanks to major expansions in those cities. And the Edmonton experience, where a tunnel was built when they were no much more than half a million, the system expanded at a very slow pace to a mere 21 kilometers today.
The difference between Ottawa in 2019 and Calgary in 1981 is that the Ottawa Metropolitan today area is 3 times the size of metro Calgary at the time. Calgary's 7th Avenue transit mall is today overcapacity, but they are unable to build a desperately needed tunnel because they are tied up in the Green Line (for which the tunnel portion is at risk. If the tunnel is removed, they can expect major capacity issues in the future on that Line as well).
Side note, the author also mentions Vancouver. When the Expo Line opened in the mid-80s, Vancouver was the size of Ottawa today. Both cities opted for grade separated, automated systems with downtown tunnels (though they were lucky enough to have a disused rail tunnel to work with).
As for the free-fare zone in Calgary, this is something that is easier, and makes much more sense for a surface system (downtown) with stops closer together. Very few people would use a subway to travel one or two stations down the line; the time to go down and up the stairs/escalators could make the trip longer than just walking. A fare-paid zone within a large subway station is also important for security reasons.
To answer a few of Mr. Portman's questions:
Under what circumstances was the decision made to build a tunnel in the first place?
The Chiarelli plan did not deal with the downtown capacity issues. During the 2006 election, the citizens of Ottawa overwhelmingly voted for candidates who wanted to build a downtown tunnel, including for O'Brien, who ultimately won the Mayor's race.
What sort of discussion went on in those hush-hush negotiations that killed off plans for a Confederation Square station in favour of one at the Rideau Centre?
This was an important change in order to reduce the cost of the tunnel. It also brings the station closer to where residents and tourists want to go; the Rideau Centre and Byward Market. It's ironic how, in the same opinion piece, one can criticize the City for building an expensive subway tunnel while also complaining about re-aligning that same subway tunnel to reduce the associated costs and risks.
Who dreamed up a future westward extension that snubs residents of Kanata and Stittsville by idiotically terminating at Moodie Drive?
You can't build an entire rapid transit system in one shot. Decisions were made based on costs, transit ridership, available corridors and other. It's much cheaper and easier to finish the east branch than the much longer and much more expensive west branch.
Who on Earth cooked up the notion of a future airport connection that would require two changes to get downtown, a journey that can sometimes be made in 15 minutes by cab?
Can't argue with that.
What forces led our city guardians to push through a decision to ignore unanswered questions and proceed with Stage 2 LRT — this at a time when alarm bells are still sounding over the rocky journey to completion of Stage 1?
Stage 1 is not sustainable as a long term solution. Council needed to approve Stage 2 in order to have a more complete system within a few years. Had we delayed or rejected Stage 2, we either would have been stuck with a stub of a system (similar to Edmonton or many American cities) that would have shed ridership from a discouraged population (similar to Ottawa Senators attendance) OR, a much more expansive system should we had started over the bidding process. I have serious questions about the Stage 2 procurement process, but we need to get moving.
Prev
Linear Mode
