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Transit Plan
City wants to begin transit line in east and south

Patrick Dare
The Ottawa Citizen


Thursday, September 11, 2008


OTTAWA - The City of Ottawa says it could take three years to sort out objections to commuter rail along the Ottawa River Parkway, so the city should consider going ahead with rail service east to Blair Station and south to Riverside South.

The city unveiled four construction scenarios for the ambitious new rapid transit plan, which is now expected to cost $4.7 billion over the next 25 years. Two of the plans run rail east and west, but they are problematic because of concerns from the National Capital Commission about a train corridor running along the Ottawa River. The city's managers say they want to work through the issue with the NCC and can't hurry that consultation process.

But the effect of the delay will be that the east-west service can't be built within the next decade, leaving the city to build its downtown tunnel and then east and south.

For Kanata North Councillor Marianne Wilkinson, the new plan is a revival of the old plan, championed by former mayor Bob Chiarelli, bringing commuter rail to thinly populated neighbourhoods in the south when all the riders are in the east and the west.

"They've brought back the train that we turned down," said Ms. Wilkinson. "But we're growing like crazy in Kanata and Stittsville."

The transit plan is $700 million more expensive than previously reported because the plan is fully costed and includes additional elements such as a streetcar along Carling Avenue, a new bus transitway in the east and creating a bus transitway on Baseline Road.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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