Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Eade
I wonder how much actual analysis people put into their comments, or whether they are simply thoughtlessly repeating the mantra ‘Bus Bad – Train Good’.
I'm pulling up the Gatineau’s Rapibus system is an excellent example. A quick scan of several transit threads will turn up a number of very negative comments about how Gatineau is crazy to make the same mistake Ottawa did; that they are building a busway right beside a “friggen” railway track; that they should have built their new system as LRT since people need to transfer onto the BRT buses any way. ‘Bus Bad – Train Good’.
The main line from Labrosse to Alexandre-Taché could have been built as rail, but then where would people go? LRT passengers would be forced to transfer back onto a bus to get to Ottawa. “Well, they just need to build a tram into downtown Ottawa”, comes the response. And just how is the STO supposed to build anything through the core of Ottawa? Seriously, how much thinking goes on before these ideas are uttered?
STO, Gatineau, or the Province of Quebec has no authority to build a rail line into Ottawa.
They could, potentially, use the existing line across the Prince of Wales Bridge, but it is a single track to a Transitway station which will be closed down, torn out, and not ready for another five years – and even after that, their customers will be forced to transfer onto crowded trains along the Confederation Line. GREAT! This sounds like an awesome idea for encouraging people to use their new rapid transit service.
In truth, there is no reasonable option but to continue to use STO buses into Ottawa’s downtown. So, if their customers must use buses to cross the river, and that accounts for a large part of the market that they are trying to move, does it make sense to force everyone to transfer after a five minute LRT ride onto a bus? How much infrastructure will need to be built to handle the passenger transfer flows? Is there a better way?
Yes, there is a better way; simply put people on a bus and take them into Ottawa without the extra transfer. But not in a system of Express buses; the new system would use neighbourhood ‘collector’ buses to bring customers to their closest Rapibus station. Once the ‘collector’, or ‘feeder’, buses have concentrated the customers at the stations, they transfer onto frequent larger ‘Trunk-line’ buses. The bus to Ottawa will be one of the three ‘Trunk’ lines running on the Rapibus infrastructure. Anyone going to Ottawa will simply hop on the next Red-line bus and they will be whisked across the bridge to downtown Ottawa. Anyone traveling from Ottawa’s core to Gatineau can hop on any STO Rapibus vehicle passing, since they all travel the same route. There is no longer any waiting for a particular Express bus; they just take the first bus and transfer from their closest Rapibus station.
I would be interested to hear any good arguments about how Gatineau could have developed a rail based rapid transit system at this time. To me, they have made the most reasonable decisions they could have, given the limitations they faced. I am not looking for ‘magic wand’ options, like creating a new tunnel under Gatineau’s downtown , under the river, and under Ottawa; these are not in anyway realistic
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Now let's flip this around by 180 degrees. Because, what Richard is talking about is what is planned (and even worse) for the south end of the city.
The last I have heard is that we will have a Transitway from Hurdman to South Keys and a Transitway from Leitrim to Barrhaven. and the O-Train from Leitrim to Bayview. Everywhere pretty well requires a transfer.
How many transfers are we expected to put up with especially during off-peak hours? Trains will not be running every 3 minutes in off-peak hours, in the case of the O-Train they will not be running at that frequency any time. They will be running likely every 15 minutes instead during off-peak hours and late at night every 30 minutes on the O-Train.
I will get back to my old argument that speed of service from start to end of our trips is more important than whether it is a train or a bus. I realize that rail will affect the design of the city but what about the 100,000s of taxpayers who will never live within walking distance of rail. Why are our concerns ignored?
At some point, my city councillor (Diane Deans) will hear from me about this because I am funding these rail projects that are not going to deliver faster service to the majority of the population.
Yes, make us wait to transfer (often multiple times), but when it gets too long, day in and day out, we will find an alternate way to get around the city.
So, apply my thoughts to what Richard is talking about. I am being quite practical about this. People are not going to put up with waiting much longer, just because it is a train.
And I think Richard also makes a point that I have made in the past about transfers at Bayview and the fact that trains will be overcrowded for those few stops into downtown. We can make Bayview a mega transfer station but this will become a major bottleneck for passengers and wait times could become unacceptable if you have to wait while more than one full train passes. It is also a point of efficiency since you have to build your system to handle the maximum load on the line. When you force thousands to transfer at Bayview and 90% are going in the same direction, you need enough trains to handle that load but outside of that small section between Bayview and downtown, you are running more trains than are necessary and there is a cost of doing that.
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