Ottawa Rapid Transit Network developments

[waterloowarrior]

Western LRT staff report
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/mtgvi...&itemid=302837

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Does anyone know if Ottawa will be using a ground-level power supply system for its LRT trams?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-level_power_supply

If so, that will certainly help shut up nimby's about overhead wires clogging up the view.

[1overcosc]

I don't know for sure, but everything I've heard so far indicates that it will have overhead wires.

[Buggys]

Originally Posted by Dado

Yes, unfortunately they were, and the City were definitely in the lead on removing the streetcars and trams as these were removed in the 1950s before the great railway removals and realignments by the NCC in the 1960s. Some tracks, such as those along what is now the Transitway trench along Scott, existed right into the 1980s.

There's a cascade of bad decisions, amongst them the Transitway itself. Had those tracks along Scott been turned into a light rail line in the 1980s, then this issue of what to do west of Dominion would have come up three decades years ago when far more of the people living in the area had direct experience with trains and trams and when the two corridors still looked like rail corridors. I recall riding my bike as a child in the mid-80s along the segment in question and even then it was still reasonably obvious that trains had once gone there.

Due to union rules, the City made financial savings eliminating the streetcars as it removed the onboard attendant who dealt with fare control, with this function transferring over to the bus driver. Nowadays it would be comical with the introduction of swipe cards.

So sad!

[Buggys]

Originally Posted by Dado

all it has to deal with are the inevitable NIMBYs.

As we've been seeing with the Western LRT consultation, those NIMBYs can be a mighty force!

[lrt's friend]

It was the city that decided to remove the streetcars. That followed a report presented in 1958. Streetcars had become costly to operate because we were using antiquated equipment dating to the 1930s or earlier. Parts had to be all handmade. The whole infrastructure was worn out and needed replacement. I read that all the ties were rotted out in a part of the Glebe leading to unstable operations (swaying). The electrical wiring was subject to unexpected failure. The city had sold the power generation facility at Chaudière Falls eliminating the availability of cheap power. Declining ridership meant declining revenue and streetcars were no longer being manufactured anywhere in North America. Abandonment was inevitable. It wasn't union rules because two man operation of streetcars had been eliminated in the 1930s. This was when the familiar red streetcars appeared. The red colour indicated that there was not a fare collector on board and you had to enter at the front to pay your fare. The old two man streetcars were green.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I don't know for sure, but everything I've heard so far indicates that it will have overhead wires.

That's weird, because the Alstom Citadis can be paired with the system.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/08/...erican-market/

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix

That's weird, because the Alstom Citadis can be paired with the system.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/08/...erican-market/

How would it preform in snow and ice?

[NOWINYOW]

Originally Posted by Dado

Since Ottawa owns both Carling and the former CPR line (at least west of Moodie) all it has to deal with are the inevitable NIMBYs.

And to deal with those NIMBYs the city, more often than not, caves in.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

How would it preform in snow and ice?

No idea, and the Citadis has often been used in warm to mild climates. However, it's (the Citadis Spirit that is) supposedly designed for a North American market in mind.

[J.OT13]

Airport link to be studied, but likely won't be built for 20 years or so.

City and airport authority study possibilities for rail link
By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN July 8, 2013

OTTAWA — The Ottawa airport authority and the city government are studying the best way to extend rail service to the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport.
The $227,000 study is to be finished in September and its results included in the city’s “transportation master plan,” the long-range vision for billions of dollars of road, rail, bus and cycling projects, said Jeff Byrne, the city’s chief procurement officer. The existence of the study, being carried out by transportation consulting firm Delcan, is revealed in a quarterly report on dozens of normally routine contracts let by senior city officials without running them past city council.

The city and the airport authority, which asked for the study, are splitting the cost, Byrne said. Delcan is the city’s favourite firm for rail planning, doing the primary work for both the first phase of rail, which is beginning construction now, and its western extension to Baseline station.

“It’s really sort of a high level study looking at aligning our planning effort with the city’s,” explained Michael Crockatt, the airport’s vice-president of business development. The airport is satisfied for now with its transit connection, the end of the line for the No. 97 Transitway bus, but its own long-range plan calls for the airport to become a hub of commerce and government employment and it’ll need better service for that to work.

Although the current O-Train line ends quite a bit farther north at Greenboro, the tracks it uses run right past the airport and beyond to south Gloucester. The city’s plans call for that line to be developed and, eventually, converted to the same electric light-rail technology it’s installing downtown.

The airport’s master plan includes a spur extending from the existing track to the terminal, though spurs that short can be difficult to integrate into regular rail service. One of the reasons the city rejects Carling Avenue as a route for a western extension of the first light-rail line is that it would leave Tunney’s Pasture hanging off by itself on the end of a spur, confusing riders about which trains end up where and how frequently. That’s likely the sort of problem that Delcan’s work is meant to resolve.

“We’ve always contemplated some sort of transit — rail transit — connection to the airport,” Crockatt said, though the study doesn’t prejudge anything. “It could be everything from different rail technologies to bus technology. We don’t know what the outcomes are going to be.”

Don’t get too excited about the prospect of taking a train to catch a flight soon, though. It took Toronto 20 years and eventually the promise of the Pan-Am Games to begin building a rail link from downtown to Pearson International Airport.

“I don’t think there’s going to be anything imminent that comes out of it,” Crockatt said.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ci...253/story.html

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Airport link to be studied, but likely won't be built for 20 years or so.

It's Ottawa. It won't be built this century. It won't even be built to this terminal. It'll be built to this terminal's replacement, or its replacement's replacement.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

It's Ottawa. It won't be built this century. It won't even be built to this terminal. It'll be built to this terminal's replacement, or its replacement's replacement.

I think the chances of it being built are fairly good. My worry is that it won't have direct to Downtown service, we often go just short of what we need.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I think the chances of it being built are fairly good. My worry is that it won't have direct to Downtown service, we often go just short of what we need.

And often citing cost as the excuse.

[eternallyme]

The anti-rail groups, primarily NIMBYs from McKellar Park and that area, are really active again today in the discussion at City Hall...

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

The anti-rail groups, primarily NIMBYs from McKellar Park and that area, are really active again today in the discussion at City Hall...

I know. They keep pushing Carling, "why not Carling? Why not Carling?"

The reasons why Carling is out of the running are pretty damn clear!

Some other nut job wanted Cleary station taken out completely. Why? That's one of the points of the new rail transit; eliminate the gaps, both in grade separation (Downtown Tunnel) and service (Cleary and New Orchard).

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I know. They keep pushing Carling, "why not Carling? Why not Carling?"

The reasons why Carling is out of the running are pretty damn clear!

Some other nut job wanted Cleary station taken out completely. Why? That's one of the points of the new rail transit; eliminate the gaps, both in grade separation (Downtown Tunnel) and service (Cleary and New Orchard).

If this stalemate goes on, then that should go on indefinite hold while an eastern extension (the most likely Stage 3 or 4) is planned and built...

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

The anti-rail groups, primarily NIMBYs from McKellar Park and that area, are really active again today in the discussion at City Hall...

Are you there now? If it's still going on I'm going to try and make it down there and raise a stink against them. I was quiet at the gong-show that was the Western LRT Open House a month or so ago, and I'll be damned if I'm letting them continue getting away with it.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix

Are you there now? If it's still going on I'm going to try and make it down there and raise a stink against them. I was quiet at the gong-show that was the Western LRT Open House a month or so ago, and I'll be damned if I'm letting them continue getting away with it.

No I am not there now. I'm listening online.

It is still going on - started at 9:30, just came back from lunch there.

[OTSkyline]

I've been watching the live feed on ottawacitizen.com and I can't believe how much of a fuss everyone is making over this.

They don't seem to have legit excuses, only thing is they say that they wouldn't be able to reach the park/river on the other side of the tracks (umm yes, the tracks are burried and there would be pedestrial trails and crossings to access them..
And they just keep screaming "We want it all burried, we want it all burried"; just like the NCC. Well you know what? I agree with one of the councellors, if you want it all burried then why don't the NCC or the residents of that neighbourhood pay for it? The city has done a lot to bury 3/4 of it underground and if it plans on expanding the system and making it accessible to other people than it can't spend 1,2 or 3B on this small extension just to please the neighbours.

Also, about the elimintation of Cleary station; I agree. You want to complain about having a station there and accessibility? Fine, NO ACCESSEBILITY FOR YOU! (in the style of NO SOUP FOR YOU in Seinfeld)... You can walk...
Saves the city money