Quote:
Originally Posted by OTSkyline
Is anybody else as annoyed as I am about how glacially slow this project is moving and how FAR behind Ottawa is in public transportation?
I was reading about public transportation in other canadian cities and couldn't believe that:
1) Calgary (a city of comparable size to Ottawa) began construction on its C-Train in 1978, that's 35 years BEFORE Ottawa and Calgary had 505,000 residents at that time. NOW, Calgary already has 56km of Light Rail and 44 stations!
2) Kitcher/Waterloo (with a combined population of 477,000) will also have its own LRT system! The first phase will be 15km and host 18 stations. Construction is bound to start in 2014 and finish in 2017.
So can anyone explain why Ottawa is JUST starting now with faster/more reliable public transportation and even in 2017 will only have 1 line; 12.5km and 13 stations?... So disappointed  |
When Jim Durrell was mayor, he wanted to go ahead with an underground tunnel for the BRT. One big reason why LRT never went ahead in Ottawa was the lack of an efficient way to get through the downtown core.
I'd suggest that the NIMBYism (and NCC) currently plaguing the western portion (LeBreton west to Carling/Lincoln Fields area) was in full force back in the BRT development stages as well.
It's going to be well over a decade before the LRT is sufficient for the needs of people west of the downtown core. Local bus transfer onto to BRT transfer onto LRT to get downtown VS one express bus now.
The tunnel should have been built 20 years ago, even if it was (at the time) for BRT.
20 years ago, the city should have started route planning and construction for the western leg instead of getting by with the parkway.
We're way behind other cities and will remain that way for many years to come.