Rural Commuter Rail

[kwoldtimer]

What is that I hear? Could that be Frank Sinatra singing "Fairytales can come true"..... ?

[FFX-ME]

Originally Posted by Joseph Potvin

Today Moose Consortium applied to the Canadian Transportation Agency seeking federal government authorization to proceed with the development of a 400 km inter-provincial passenger rail service throughout Canada's Greater National Capital Region.

Simultaneously, Moose Consortoium applied to Canada's Competition Bureau to initiate a process towards obtaining a written opinion of the degree of accessibility versus exclusivity of the metropolitan passenger railway market in this region.

Details and Media Release:
https://www.letsgomoose.ca/letter-of...ta-2016-06-29/

Skyscraper hosts a very thoughtful community, and there has been some interesting discussion here in the past about our plans. Now that more specifics have been published with our formal application, we look forward to comments from participants on this site, and we'll be happy to respond to feedback.

Joseph Potvin
Director General | Directeur général
Moose Consortium (Mobility Ottawa-Outaouais: Systems & Enterprises) | www.letsgomoose.com
Consortium Moose (Mobilité Outaouais-Ottawa: Systèmes & Enterprises) | www.onyvamoose.com
joseph.potvin@letsgomoose.com
joseph.potvin@onyvamoose.com

This was posted in the Canada section. Figured it was important for it to be shared here.

[lrt's friend]

I will believe this when I see it.

[Norman Bates]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I will believe this when I see it.

My thoughts exactly. But it is a start.

[DubberDom]

Check it out!
https://www.letsgomoose.ca/
https://www.letsgomoose.ca/maps/
http://www.obj.ca/Local/2016-07-06/a...Region /1

[Norman Bates]

Already posted on Monday:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...50#post7493350

[citydwlr]

Originally Posted by Norman Bates

Already posted on Monday:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...50#post7493350

True, but the OBJ article is new, as of today:

Published on July 06, 2016

New passenger railway proposed for Ottawa region

A private-sector group is proposing a new passenger railway for the Ottawa region.

By Jacob Serebrin

The group, called the Moose, or Mobility Ottawa Outaouais: Systems and Enterprises, Consortium, applied for approval from the Canadian Transportation Agency to move forward with its plan in late June.

"Our plan involves operating three-coach, double-decker diesel-electric passenger trains with hourly service every day, through Ottawa and Gatineau, and extending out to six rural towns," Scott Ivay, one of the people behind the plan, said in a press release.

The railway would run on existing VIA tracks and connect with Ottawa’s light rail service at Bayview Station in LeBreton Flats as well as with VIA tracks at the Tremblay Road station.

According to the group, it would require no new government spending to get up and running.

The plan would also see the consortium make some infrastructure investments of its own.

"We have now formally submitted Moose's $50-million plan to retrofit the bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau. In addition to the repairs and upgrades required to restart railway operations, this will include the addition of a new cycling pathway cantilevered off the upstream side, and a pedestrian walkway on the downstream side, with picnic areas on Lemieux Island, offering a direct view of Parliament Hill," Wojciech Remisz, the president of REMISZ Consulting Engineers, one of the companies in the consortium, said in the release.

The group’s financing model calls for the railway service to be funded largely through commercial and residential development at and around train stations.

"All the infrastructure and operational financing will be based upon the value added to property income and capital near stations," Joseph Potvin, Moose’s director general, said in the release. "Each station will be owned, developed and operated as an autonomous enterprise under common regulation and monitoring."

So far, the plan has the endorsement of Smith Falls Mayor Shawn Pankow.

"A rail service for the whole National Capital Region will transform our town and others like it for the better," he said in the release. "Faster, more efficient and more environmentally sustainable transportation will provide tremendous economic benefit for the people of Smiths Falls and the entire region."

The group hopes to obtain approval from Canadian Transportation Agency within three months. At that point it will begin negotiations with railway owners, including VIA, as well as several municipalities.

If the plan does go ahead, it will the largest privately funded passenger railway to launch in Canada in more than a century.

The group says that if everything goes as planned, it could start moving passengers as soon as July, 2017.

http://www.obj.ca/Local/2016-07-06/a...ttawa-region/1

[citydwlr]

Also, while perusing the Moose site mentioned earlier, I noticed they have a technical drawing of the POW bridge that I haven't seen before:

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by citydwlr

Also, while perusing the Moose site mentioned earlier, I noticed they have a technical drawing of the POW bridge that I haven't seen before:

I'm on my phone, so I haven't had a chance to look at the documents, but are there more graphics regarding the pedestrian and cyclist accommodations? Looking at that image, I wonder if 8 feet is too narrow for bidirectional bike lanes. However, I'm more curious about how will cyclists and pedestrians cross the tracks to get to their side.

What I mean is, if the train runs down the middle, and the O-Train MUP is east of the tracks, how will pedestrians get to their path on the west side?

Also, what about pedestrians and cyclists accessing Lemieux Island and crossing the tracks in Gatineau?

[Horus]

Originally Posted by Urbanarchit

I'm on my phone, so I haven't had a chance to look at the documents, but are there more graphics regarding the pedestrian and cyclist accommodations? Looking at that image, I wonder if 8 feet is too narrow for bidirectional bike lanes. However, I'm more curious about how will cyclists and pedestrians cross the tracks to get to their side.

What I mean is, if the train runs down the middle, and the O-Train MUP is east of the tracks, how will pedestrians get to their path on the west side?

Also, what about pedestrians and cyclists accessing Lemieux Island and crossing the tracks in Gatineau?

The post from the Director of MOOSE in the Canada Transit thread had a link to their documents. The plan is to have one or more secure crossings of the rail ROW on Lemieux island either by passing under or bridging over the tracks. They also plan to have an observation area on the bridge at the spot of the Ontario/Quebec border, also with a passage under the bridge and the tracks.

On the Gatineau side, the plan is to reroute the MUP to the north of its existing location where it currently crosses the track at grade and use an existing bridge (leftover from the Hull Electric Railway?) that passes over the track ROW, closer to UQO. There would then be "on/off ramps" to the MUP running parallel to the tracks.

[Horus]

Operational Passenger service by July 2017 seems EXTREMELY optimistic to me.

[1overcosc]

I'm starting to wonder if their real plan is to develop a detailed, comprehensive plan.... then ask for government funding, saying "here, we have a thorough plan for commuter rail that can work, now fund it."

[Norman Bates]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I'm starting to wonder if their real plan is to develop a detailed, comprehensive plan.... then ask for government funding, saying "here, we have a thorough plan for commuter rail that can work, now fund it."

Ladies and gentlemen: we have a winner!

[Kitchissippi]

The tracks between the POW bridge and the Trillium line have been severed with no plans to reconnect them since they will be at different levels. The Bayview bridge/station is also being built lower than it was, will it even have regulation clearance for heavy rail? The bridge across the Gatineau river is already overworked as a one way Rapibus bridge, it seems silly to add a parallel commuter train to the mix.

The tracks through Fitzroy have been ripped up, there's no way they can reinstall them without a huge cost. I doubt the tracks up to Chelsea have even been fixed since the past washouts, and there has been talk of turning it into a trail.

I think the best these guys can do is operate trains from Ottawa station to Arnprior, Smiths Falls and Alexandria at most.

[eltodesukane]

This project is similar to the one in Montreal.
"Ambitious light rail project for Montreal proposed by Caisse de dépôt
$5.5B project funded by province's pension fund would span West Island, South Shore"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...idge-1.3548109

[eltodesukane]

This project is similar to the one in Montreal.
"Ambitious light rail project for Montreal proposed by Caisse de dépôt
$5.5B project funded by province's pension fund would span West Island, South Shore"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...idge-1.3548109

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

The tracks between the POW bridge and the Trillium line have been severed with no plans to reconnect them since they will be at different levels. The Bayview bridge/station is also being built lower than it was, will it even have regulation clearance for heavy rail? The bridge across the Gatineau river is already overworked as a one way Rapibus bridge, it seems silly to add a parallel commuter train to the mix.

The tracks through Fitzroy have been ripped up, there's no way they can reinstall them without a huge cost. I doubt the tracks up to Chelsea have even been fixed since the past washouts, and there has been talk of turning it into a trail.

I think the best these guys can do is operate trains from Ottawa station to Arnprior, Smiths Falls and Alexandria at most.

I'm not sure they have actually looked at the tracks. The Via line and trillium line are in decent shape (although much of it is single track and this would make Via and Trillium even less reliable). The rest of these lines are torn up, washed out, have been partially torn up or haven't been used for passenger rail for years or decades.

This looks like a student project.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

This project is similar to the one in Montreal.
"Ambitious light rail project for Montreal proposed by Caisse de dépôt
$5.5B project funded by province's pension fund would span West Island, South Shore"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...idge-1.3548109

I don't know how this is similar. REM is a major transit project tying in many well developed suburban areas of Montreal. This is more equivalent to our plans to extend the Confederation Line to Orleans. This plan goes way out into rural areas.

[FFX-ME]

Do we really need a third separate thread on this topic? Could an admin join them together?

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I'm not sure they have actually looked at the tracks. The Via line and trillium line are in decent shape (although much of it is single track and this would make Via and Trillium even less reliable). The rest of these lines are torn up, washed out, have been partially torn up or haven't been used for passenger rail for years or decades.

And the tracks on the Trillium line are beyond maximum capacity. How do they expect to get even one additional train an hour (each way) through without causing additional delays? As for VIA's tracks, have they even talked to VIA rail about using them? I am not sure if VIA will want to schedule all of those trains across the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Bridge. They would be risking significant delays to their own trains. Once they have double track it might be workable, but not until then.