[lrt's friend]

I truly worry about a botch up of implementation of LRT which will result in a loss of ridership and slower travel times. The amount of transit disruption is going to be incredible. Just remember all the bellyaching about disruption to 10,000 passengers on the O-Train line for 3 years. Now we are expecting a similar 3 year disruption for what, 200,000 passengers and not a whimper of concern.

I went to the Ottawa light rail website and noted that LRT will be as much as 44 metres underground or 143 feet. This is even more than I was aware of. For our very first tunnel, this is outrageously deep.

Of further interest, Edmonton City Council approved a surface downtown LRT connector on June 21st. Interesting to all those who say that surface LRT would be a waste of money and even ruin downtown Ottawa. What is interesting is how Ottawa's tunnel plan actually eliminates surface downtown transit connections which may preclude a surface downtown LRT connector in the future. I have said this all along that this is a foolish choice and we will regret it.

Concerning what Toronto did in 1954 with its first subway, just remember that this was largely before suburban sprawl and Toronto was a much more compact city than Ottawa is today. I will further point out that this subway followed Yonge Street, where people actually live and do business. Much of our plan follows the Queensway where most developement backs away from.