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Old Posted Jul 23, 2008, 10:13 PM
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Dado Dado is offline
National Capital Region
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d_jeffrey View Post
There is nothing preventing us for starting building a streetcar system in the meantime, but that will add hundreds of millions on top. We need an efficient transit backbone, with cheap operating costs. The key here is with cheap operating costs. I would gladly like to see the Carling to MTL road streetcar via Sparks St. going up soon, but the reality is that it's not sufficient for Ottawa's need, and we need more. The LRRT is needed in Ottawa, as it offers much capacity, but still won't be enough in 30 years.
You've missed both my and LRT Friend's point: run the primary Transitway rail network downtown on the surface initially, then move it into the tunnel once it becomes available. The surface tracks can then be used for the Carling-Rideau line. Yes, that requires a little bit of advance planning in the Laurier and Booth areas to ensure things can link up properly to allow a switchover, but of all the problems I can think of it's pretty far down the list. In the meantime it's time to start putting in place O-Train extensions on existing tracks to divert people from downtown who aren't headed there.

We don't need the tunnel's capacity yet - we'll need it soon, maybe in a decade or so, but not yet. What we do need is a fix for the current problems and we need it ASAP. We no longer have the luxury of thinking exclusively long term - the bus nuts have seen to that - we now have to think short and long term simultaneously and we can't allow the world of the perfect from discounting options.
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