Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
Because of my opinion on the Trillium Line, you assume this. But just remember, that you already have to transfer to get on the Trillium Line in the first place with only a small number of exceptions. All I want is to be able to reach downtown with one transfer during all time periods. The Trillium Line as planned will not deliver that to most south end residents. I do not think what I am asking for is unreasonable.
I want the Trillium Line to be a big success and as I pointed out, it is not going to be competitive. So how will it ever move beyond being just a secondary transit line with modest ridership?
We have already seen the situation with Rapibus and the gradual return of Express routes because of the lousy service being delivered by Rapibus in its original configuration. Given the fact that almost everybody will be forced to transfer onto the Confederation Line, how is this not the same scenario that Rapibus created? The Confederation Line does not remotely serve the south sector of the city, yet we will be required to transfer onto the most crowded segment of the route. I can really foresee the same situation that occurred with Rapibus happening and pressure being placed on the city and the transit commission to resume some direct services into downtown, especially from the south end of the city.
Also, what city of 1,000,000+ creates a single route transit system through downtown as their long-term plan? Other than Ottawa, none of the five biggest cities in Canada are doing this and yet, we have really made no allowances for interprovincial transit at all in our rapid transit plans either. We say, we can't interline yet many cities do so including a much bigger city, San Francisco. We say we can't build a second line into downtown because we cannot look beyond 100% grade separation.
I am looking for what is best for the overall city. I am also looking towards a vibrant Ottawa downtown in the future. The meeting place for Ottawa residents. We are not creating a scenario where that is possible. As I have said, I just returned from Europe and what I saw there for cities bigger and smaller than Ottawa was the number of transit lines that entered the centre of the cities. Whether tramways or subways or whatever, the coverage of direct lines into the city centre was substantial. These cities are not afraid of interlining, often 5 tram routes sharing the same track. No, you don't always get single seat rides, but at least you are limiting the number of transfers.
The Confederation Line is a big step forward for Ottawa, a necessary one, but it is not the end answer towards reversing the decline of downtown Ottawa over the last 50 years. The coverage of the Confederation Line is going to be far too small and most people will not travel downtown if it requires multiple transfers at 10:00 p.m. when connecting routes only run every 30 minutes or 60 minutes. You just have to look at Canada Day or even Red Black Games. Transit is very successful under those conditions because direct service runs to many locations in the city. No, I am not suggesting direct service to every neighbourhood, but it should be much easier to get downtown than what we are planning.
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I bolded some talking points, but will talk about them in no particular order.
I certainly don't think the Confederation line is perfect. If I were dictator, I would be using higher capacity vehicles, running the western part under Richmond among other things (probably bankrupting the city in the process). I do think that at some point there will be a need for another line to relieve this one, maybe on Montreal road. These vehicles are a bit small for a trunk line, even though train lengths and frequencies will make a difference.
IMO, transit should not just be about getting people to work, but also to where people want to go. Travel in Europe has made me appreciate getting a day pass and being able to see anything in the city just by taking the subway. This is why I think it would be an epic fail if the Trillium line does not go to the airport.
Anyways, along with this, we need at least some grade separated transit, especially downtown. This is what we're getting now. For the Confederation line, being on the surface downtown would defeat the purpose of the whole line.
The Confederation line was a NECESSARY venture, and I'm not sure if everyone really understands that. Would it be nice to have a spider web of rail transit that services every area of the city and connects to downtown? Yes! But the city for whatever reason doesn't have the money. And so we have to build it in pieces. The first piece is the Confederation line. And this piece is an expensive one that will use up the city's money for many years. But it's still worth it, because the confederation line is the most important part of the system, and we need it in order to have a system to add to.
People say "Oh, it only serves whatever percent of the city!" "it's useless!" But we can't wave a magic wand so that rapid transit will appear everywhere. you need to start somewhere so that you can build on it. Of course a city of 1,000,000 could have more than one line. But we only have money for one line. The rest has to come later. If you insist on something perfect, you will get nothing (unless an Olympics or World Cup come to Ottawa and we get lots of $$
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Your comparison to the Rapidbus I've never thought about. It could pan out that way, but probably won't. There will need to be some busses, since the queen alignment misses a bit of employment.
But, considering it's Ottawa, we're getting it pretty good (that phrase describes pretty much everything in the city lol). We now will have rail rapid transit that connects downtown offices, the major hotels, the train station, all of the major malls, all major universities, Algonquin College, river access, Byward Market, a baseball stadium, Dow's lake area, and potential hockey arena together. Not too shabby.
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