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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
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What
NOWINYOW said. Also, again reflecting part of what was previously said, they had plans for a bus tunnel under the Byron strip but it was "delayed" while we used the Parkway as a "temporary" route. If you haven't noticed, the word "temporary" has a very loose definition in this city.
Calgary might have built it's LRT to compete with Edmonton.
As for Kitchener-Waterloo, there are two things to keep in mind;
1. It is an LRT system in its purest form; it will run at grade in mixed traffic. Ottawa has to invest more money on shorter phases for a true, grade separated rapid transit.
2. Kitchener-Waterloo has special treatment from the Ontario government. Anything served by GOld transit feels the Midas touch of Toronto (keep in mind the lrt system has nothing to do with GO transit, but the area is served by GO trains headed to Toronto). The project 790 million dollars, the feds are paying 160 million and the province is paying 2/3 (526 million dollars) for a total of 86% funding. That only leaves 104 million to be paid by Kitchener-Waterloo.
Ottawa on the other hand has a 2.1 billion dollar project, reflective of our need to bury transit under the city, only has 600 million from each level of government, so 57 % funding leaving us with 900 million coming out of municipal pockets.
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No sooner had Waterloo approved the LRT line, but local Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear announced that Ottawa would contribute $160-million to the project whose total estimated cost is $790-million. This took Regional Chair Ken Seiling completely by surprise. Support also came from Kitchener MP Stephen Woodworth who pointed out that this money will come from the “Build Canada Fund”, not the “Stimulus Fund” and therefore the project is not constrained by the latter’s March 2011 cutoff.
Meanwhile, the Liberal MPP for Kitchener, John Milloy, announced that Queen’s Park will provide two-thirds funding for this project. If you do the math, this leaves Waterloo Region with a comparatively small cost, roughly 1/6 of the total. The project also has support from local Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer. Bipartisan enthusiasm for transit is a refreshing change from Toronto where transit projects are used to score political points by the right wing of Council.
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http://stevemunro.ca/?p=2316