As much as I’d like to help out the tourists, I am having difficulty trying to reason why having a loop would benefit the STO.
As far as I know, the point of the Aylmer Tram is to get people back and forth between Aylmer and downtown Ottawa. I’m struggling to see how a loop would be a benefit in accomplishing that goal. Basically, the STO is trying to determine the best way to replace many of the buses that come from Aylmer and go to Ottawa. The options were to create another Rapibus line or a tram line.
My understanding is that most of the current STO buses from the other regions of Gatineau will still be continuing to downtown Ottawa, including the Rapibus routes that use the Portage Bridge. Looking at the STO routes in Ottawa, only the Orange Corridor buses are being replaced.
It seems that the preferred option for the STO is a tram line that crosses the Portage Bridge and then ends in downtown Ottawa. That tram will be sharing the Portage crossing with a lot of STO buses. OC Transpo is currently using the Chaudière Bridge to cross the river – but if that route becomes unavailable due to the condition of those bridges, OC Transpo might need to switch to the Portage Bridge also.
When Ottawa was designing the North-South LRT, the initial plan was to have both buses and LRT on the same street. That was soon deemed unworkable – which led to our west-east LRT being put underground. I am not seeing the surface option for a tram line running on the surface in front of the Parliament Buildings being any more practical. All of the arguments against Ottawa running its LRT on the surface would still apply. There will be vehicle crowding on the bridge/roads. There will be security issues. There will be reliability issues with people disrupting the tram’s path. And, if ONLY STO vehicles were allowed to run in front of the Parliament Buildings, I think that Ottawa, the City, (and many Anglos across the country) would be up in arms about the favouritism. I really can’t see that option as being acceptable, except to a few ‘romantics’ who think it might bring a ‘European flair’ to Ottawa.
According to the information that STO released, the option of running a tunnel from Laurier and Portage, under the river, and under Bank Street to Queen was looked at and dismissed due to the complexity of construction. Although it would be more difficult to construct, that gentle curve would result in a 1.2 km tunnel, terminating at a station just under the Confederation line. (If a shallow Bank Street Subway terminated above the Confederation Line, then there could be a wonderful transfer point to trains leaving in all four directions.) For reference, the STO’s plan for the tunnel under Sparks Street is also 1.2 km in length.
STO proposed underground
In order to form a loop, using the Alexandra Bridge’s replacement, there would need to be a complicated, underground, path from where the STO tunnel under Sparks ended to the Alexandra Bridge. This would be non-trivial work and the cost would be very high. And for what benefit to the people traveling to and from Aylmer?
In my opinion, the best approach would be for the STO to have a tram-stop (on the surface, if they wish) at Les Terrasses de la Chaudière and one under the Portage Bridge ramp, just south of the intersection with Laurier. The Portage station would tie in with its huge underground parking lot. Then the tram would run under the river, along a high-speed (max. tram speed) curve to a terminal stop under Bank Street at Queen. There could be passages to both Lyon and Parliament/Parlement Stations. Alternatively, the curve could meet up with O’Connor Street – although that would mean a fairly sharp bent to avoid the west Block.
‘The Loop’ should be a completely separate project. It would be a slow-speed vehicle that runs on a single set of tracks, in one direction, along the surface of Canada’s first pedestrian mall, Sparks Street. The loop would have stops in a number of places that tourists might be interested in, including, but not limited to; the Bank of Canada’s Money Museum and the Supreme Court of Canada; the (redesigned) Garden of the Provinces and the memorial to Communism; across Pooley’s Bridge with the Pumphouse’s Whitewater Course; the Ottawa Public Library’s new Central Branch with its Library and Archives Canada and genealogy holdings; through Pindigen Park in LeBreton Flats; past the National Holocaust Monument and the Canadian War Museum; across the (redesigned) Chaudière Bridges with access to the Kabeshinan Minitig Pavilion and views of (what is left of) the Chaudière Falls; along Rue Laurier to the Canadian Museum of History and Jacques Cartier Park; across a (redesigned) Alexandra Bridge to Nepean Point and the National Gallery of Canada; along Mackenzie to Colonel’s Major’s Hill Park, the Embassy of the United States of America, and the Stairs to the By Ward Market; the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, the Rideau Centre, and the Government Conference Centre; the National Arts Centre; the National War Memorial; and back to Sparks Street. Ideally, this would be a free service that runs every 30 minutes, or so, with two vehicles.
We should not be trying to shoe-horn more functions into the STO’s plans. The Aylmer Tram Line can not be all things to all people. It must be allowed to be the best service it can be to encourage the people of Aylmer to use transit when going to Ottawa.
Prev
Hybrid Mode