O-Train Line 2/4 [Stage 2 | Greenboro to Limebank/Airport] | In Service

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Yeah you can see that's where it's going here:

Screenshot_2019-12-14 2018_ottawa_airport_master_plan_-_executive_summary_-_eng pdf by harley613, on Flickr

The train should have been built along Lester and Aviation Private, so on the other side of EY in order to hit the hotels and parking. At least when the station was planned to be inside the parking garage, it would have allowed for a loop back to Uplands, hitting the hotels. Had they created a loop, Uplands may not have needed to be double tracked.

[Hybrid247]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The train should have been built along Lester and Aviation Private, so on the other side of EY in order to hit the hotels and parking. At least when the station was planned to be inside the parking garage, it would have allowed for a loop back to Uplands, hitting the hotels. Had they created a loop, Uplands may not have needed to be double tracked.

I'm speculating here, but I imagine the intent was to avoid any grade separation requirement with the taxiway that crosses over the parkway to the NRC side of the airport. Probably would've inflated costs quite a bit.

[J.OT13]

• Video Link

[SL123]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

• Video Link

The look of South Keys Station is reminiscent of the Ottawa Via Rail Station when you get up to the middle platform

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by SL123

The look of South Keys Station is reminiscent of the Ottawa Via Rail Station when you get up to the middle platform

Ya, I really like South Keys Station - really unique on the O-Train network.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SL123

The look of South Keys Station is reminiscent of the Ottawa Via Rail Station when you get up to the middle platform

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

Ya, I really like South Keys Station - really unique on the O-Train network.

Only one with a solid roof across the entire platform along the above ground O-Train network.

[ponyboycurtis]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Only one with a solid roof across the entire platform along the above ground O-Train network.

Gotta impress the out of town travellers while they wait for the 2nd train of 3 to get to the city center.

I'm guessing the exaggerated height of the roof maybe has something to do with clearance over the diesel engines? like a fire code of some sort. Just a thought.

[ponyboycurtis]

I only now clued in that the new bridge over the Rideau is also single tracked. At least they are consistent.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

I only now clued in that the new bridge over the Rideau is also single tracked. At least they are consistent.

They restored the existing single tracked bridge. The new bridge is a pedestrian nd cyclist bridge.

The two double tacking that would have been important and weren't done are Walkley (to increase frequency) and Dow's Lake (heavy volumes likely, but improvements may come with the new Civic, though the City never did widen the trench before garage construction started).

[ponyboycurtis]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

They restored the existing single tracked bridge. The new bridge is a pedestrian nd cyclist bridge.

The two double tacking that would have been important and weren't done are Walkley (to increase frequency) and Dow's Lake (heavy volumes likely, but improvements may come with the new Civic, though the City never did widen the trench before garage construction started).

Restored/rebuilt potato/potatoh. Just another opportunity to build something that would allow for future double tracking.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

Restored/rebuilt potato/potatoh. Just another opportunity to build something that would allow for future double tracking.

Beyond Walkley and north of Dow's Lake (the lake), I'm also frustrated with the Elwood Diamond overpass. That's brand new infrastructure that could have been double tracked.

It's amazing how the relatively complicated east extension is only 50-some days late while the much simpler Trillium is around 18 months late. I think many of us saw this coming considering how SNC got the contract.

[rocketphish]

City hopes to open Trillium Line LRT to passengers in October after months-long delay

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Mar 29, 2023 • 2 minute read



Start dates continue to slip for service on the city’s light-rail transit Trillium Line heading south and the Stage 2 eastward extension of the Confederation Line to Trim Road.

In an update to the city’s new LRT sub-committee Wednesday, Michael Morgan, director of rail construction with the city, said service on the Trillium Line between Bayview Station and Limebank, and the spur from South Keys to the airport, could begin in October.

That’s a few weeks beyond the September date forecast in last fall’s construction update and more than a year later than the August 2022 completion date stated in the original contract.

Morgan cautioned a lot depends on whether train testing can begin on Aug. 1 as planned.

“If they (the builder) can’t achieve that Aug. 1 date, then we’re going to start seeing delays day by day,” Morgan said.

Meanwhile, completion of the Stage 2 east extension has fallen 51 days behind schedule, Morgan said, largely due to ongoing supply chain issues and a strike earlier this year by rail workers. If the remaining work and subsequent live testing go well, service to Orléans will begin in late February 2024.

There is a silver lining in that, Morgan said. It means train testing will now take place in the harsh winter conditions of January and February. A lack of transparency around the testing of Ottawa’s Alstom Citadis trains was one of the problems cited in Justice William Hourigan’s inquiry into the troubled LRT Stage 1 construction.

The Stage 2 extension west from Tunney’s Pasture to Baseline Road and Moodie Drive is still 17 months behind schedule, unchanged from the delay announced at the last update in November. A pedestrian bridge crossing the line at Woodroffe High School should be completed by August, Morgan said. An older pedestrian bridge was torn down last summer, forcing students and other pedestrians to make a detour to busy Carling Avenue to cross the Transitway, which is now a beehive of LRT activity.

The construction update came the day after the federal budget was released and one week after the provincial budget, neither of which delivered money for public transit in Ottawa. OC Transpo was banking on a $39-million infusion of provincial Safe Restart funding to make ends meet this year.

Asked about the shortfall Wednesday, the city’s Transit General Manager Renée Amilcar said it would be “premature” to comment. But acting city General Manager Wendy Stephanson said the budget slights were a letdown, especially because OC Transpo has been especially hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are disappointed with respect to both budgets that were tabled and the lack of enhancement in them,” Stephanson said. “When you look at our transit system here in the City of Ottawa, we have been disproportionally affected in terms of what’s happened to our ridership and the return to our downtown core, whether they be private companies or the federal government.

“We know we have a gap but we are going to continue to pursue the money from other levels of government and seek that assistance over the next while,” she said.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ngers-in-october-after-months-long-delay

[lrt's friend]

And the Trillium Line Phase 2 opening is delayed again, just as I expected. They tried to minimize it by saying that they will pass it over to the city in October, which means a November opening at the earliest. They also said that end to end testing will not take place until August or September. This builds confidence?

When this information was release this afternoon, I was out walking in that direction, so I walked all the way to South Keys station. The north bound track ends at the south end of South Keys Station. Will there be escalators? Since we designed this without an ideal cross-platform transfer between buses and trains, it means it is a down and up experience for everybody not heading to the airport. Even to access the shopping centre, the user has to go up and/or down.

[lrt's friend]

-

[rocketphish]

O-Train to skip another September at Carleton University
Councillors grill staff during LRT update about final testing of Trillium Line

Kate Porter · CBC News
Posted: Mar 29, 2023 6:37 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago



Students and staff at Carleton University will once again head back to campus in September without being able to ride the promised new north-south Trillium Line.

During Wednesday's Stage 2 light rail construction update at Ottawa city hall, however, councillors were most intent on how that train line would undergo final testing. They want to ensure it does not repeat the tumultuous Stage 1 LRT launch that was so heavily scrutinized during last year's public inquiry.

"I'm sure the students at Carleton are going to be disappointed because they've been really impacted by this," acknowledged the light rail subcommittee's chair, Coun. Steve Desroches. "But I don't think anyone is saying, 'Accelerate this, cut corners, get it and running without all the due diligence taking place.' We need to get it right."

The 19-kilometre Trillium Line, also referred to as Line 2 of the O-Train, is under construction from Bayview Station to Riverside South, with a four-kilometre spur line to the Ottawa International Airport.

The first of three extensions under the municipality's Stage 2 construction project, the Trillium Line was originally scheduled to open in time for the resumption of classes last fall.

Best estimates by rail construction director Michael Morgan now see the City of Ottawa taking over that train line this October, after contractor Transit-NEXT, a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, does its final trial run in September.

A different contractor, Kiewit Eurovia Vinci, is at work extending the electric Confederation Line. The western extension to Moodie Drive and Algonquin College remains 17 months behind schedule and is due to be transferred to the city in late 2026, while the eastern extension to Trim Road is just 51 days behind and should undergo final testing in January 2025.

Much of the attention at Wednesday's meeting was on the Trillium Line, however.

One key date Morgan is watching is Aug. 1, when according to the contractor's schedule trains should be running along the entire Trillium Line. If that works, the city can move into several weeks of training staff.

As it stands, most of the track has been laid except for a section over Hunt Club Road. The diesel trains for the Trillium Line have been in the city for some time, and include a combination of seven new Swiss-made Stadler trains and six Alstom LINT trains previously used on the line before it closed for construction.

Siemens Mobility is responsible for updating the train signaling system and the Trillium Line's train control system, but has not installed those elements across the line.

The struggle to integrate the many systems of the Confederation Line had contributed to that project's delay, but Morgan doesn't see the same issues for the Trillium Line.

"Right now I don't have the same level of concern. We don't have the same level of complexity as we had on Stage 1," he said. "We're in a much better spot than if I think about the last project."

City councillors asked several questions Wednesday about how the final testing would be different from August 2019, when Commissioner William Hourigan found a small group of city staff and politicians knew the criteria for Stage 1 of the Confederation Line had been lowered to allow the new system to pass.

Morgan pointed to two main changes. First, the final trial period would be 21 days — longer than the 12 consecutive days originally set for Stage 1 before the criteria were changed. Second, the City of Ottawa wrote specific trial run criteria into the contract.

That document states Transit-NEXT must hit 98.5 per cent on-time performance over a 14-day period within the 21-day trial running period.

Councillors also wanted to know if the system had been tested in winter, which was another criticism of the Stage 1 project.

Morgan pointed out a short stretch of test track is being used between Hunt Club Road and Leitrim station, with Siemens's train control systems in place. Trains have been able to run back and forth in that area in the past few months even on a very cold winter day, Morgan reassured councillors.

As for the extensions to the Confederation Line, which is powered by an overhead electric catenary, Morgan said the hope is that early testing can begin on the eastern extension by this fall.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/stage-2-update-lrt-subcommittee-1.6794565

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Since we designed this without an ideal cross-platform transfer between buses and trains, it means it is a down and up experience for everybody not heading to the airport. Even to access the shopping centre, the user has to go up and/or down.

I'm not sure how you envisioned any kind of station meeting your requirements that wouldn't have involved some kind of going up and/or down.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

I'm not sure how you envisioned any kind of station meeting your requirements that wouldn't have involved some kind of going up and/or down.

Maybe a crosswalk across the tracks?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Maybe a crosswalk across the tracks?

When I was there yesterday, the bus station is right next to the tracks, but you will need to go down and up to connect. Some cross platform transfers would be possible by opening up between the bus station and the train station. I realize that does not facilitate the most popular transfers but it would be an improvement. And no, I am not suggesting walking across the rail line or the Transitway.

If you look at Greenboro or Hurdman Stations, you connect between the two modes by going up or down but not both. If you are disabled, that means two elevator rides to connect between the two modes at South Keys, if the elevator is functional at the bus station.

The connection could have been made more simple by putting South Keys rail station on a bridge and having the buses dip underneath the train station. Therefore, one movement up or down, and no longer both. An elevator and/or escalator would directly connect both the rail and bus platforms. I know that would have cost more and was beyond scope.

As it stands, this creates a disincentive to transfer to the train at South Keys unless your destination is specifically on the Trillium Line. In other words, a transfer to a bus to Hurdman remains the most convenient option for going towards downtown. It also means that South Keys station will be mostly a dud and most transfers between the two modes will be at Greenboro and not South Keys. People will quickly learn that Greenboro will provide the easier transfer. So, we build the fancy station that will be less used than the bare-bones station at Greenboro. Nobody really thinks from the passenger perspective.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

And no, I am not suggesting walking across the rail line or the Transitway.

It was intended as a joke. Sorry.

If you look at Greenboro or Hurdman Stations, you connect between the two modes by going up or down but not both. If you are disabled, that means two elevator rides to connect between the two modes at South Keys, if the elevator is functional at the bus station.

Greenboro is a single track station, so the platform can be kept on the same side as the bus platforms and the exit, so you don't need to cross the tracks. Hurdman is a terminal bus station, so you don't need to cross the busway.

The connection could have been made more simple by putting South Keys rail station on a bridge and having the buses dip underneath the train station. Therefore, one movement up or down, and no longer both. An elevator and/or escalator would directly connect both the rail and bus platforms. I know that would have cost more and was beyond scope.

The only way that would work is if you had a centre platform for the bus station (meaning buses would have to crisscross each other). Even then, you would still need a third concourse level for exiting the station (meaning people having to go up or down two levels anyway) or have a crosswalk on the transitway. A lot of money for marginal benefit.

As it stands, this creates a disincentive to transfer to the train at South Keys unless your destination is specifically on the Trillium Line. In other words, a transfer to a bus to Hurdman remains the most convenient option for going towards downtown.

And how is that a bad thing? If the bus you are riding is continuing on to Hurdman, it makes more sense to stay on it than to add an extra transfer. It is also better to keep that bus full than to have it run empty between South Keys and Hurdman. It is with buses continuing on to Hurdman that OC Transpo will balance the east and west demand on the Confederation line. I haven't seen the numbers, but I suspect that OC Transpo will want to have as many people as possible continue on to Hurdman, rather than transfer at South Keys (or station further north).

It also means that South Keys station will be mostly a dud and most transfers between the two modes will be at Greenboro and not South Keys. People will quickly learn that Greenboro will provide the easier transfer. So, we build the fancy station that will be less used than the bare-bones station at Greenboro. Nobody really thinks from the passenger perspective.

Unless of course you are to/from the south on the O-Train as a transfer at Greenboro would add to the distance and risk missing a transfer. If the bus is continuing on to Greenboro anyway, why does it matter which station people transfer at?

South Keys station serves a purpose, just not the one you are imagining.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

When I was there yesterday, the bus station is right next to the tracks, but you will need to go down and up to connect. Some cross platform transfers would be possible by opening up between the bus station and the train station.

But the northbound track is between the bus platform and the train platform. NO cross-platform transfers to/from the southbound bus platform are possible, even if they "opened up" between the bus and train areas.