The future of Ottawa's Transit

[lrt's friend]

Another reason to not lay track on the Transitway in the short-term: Once we open a downtown tunnel, we will have at least doubled our transit capacity downtown. If we then lay track on the Transitway and consequently remove most of the buses, we have then again reduced our transit capacity. In a perfect world, it would be nice to remove all the buses from downtown but I think it will be a mistake to do that in the short-term or even the medium term.

d_jeffrey made a valid point about the impact of sharing the track with too many LRT routes. If we start funnelling trains from every direction into the same downtown tunnel, service frequency will start to degrade. Calgary's 7th Avenue corridor is near capacity right now and the only way they can deal with more passengers is by adding to the length of each train. They only have two LRT routes. This is why a while back I talked about tunnel capacity and in the discussion a double decker tunnel was mentioned as a way to deal with it.

So, if we chose Transitway conversion as a high priority, what do we do about Montreal Road, Carling Avenue, Orleans South etc.? All these trains cannot go through the same tunnel unless we cutback service or go to a double decker tunnel. Or do we start planning for a second tunnel when we don't even know if we can afford the first tunnel?

What will Calgary do when they finally build their downtown tunnel? They won't be closing the 7th Avenue surface route. Why? Because they know that using a tunnel alone doesn't increase capacity that much. So they will continue to use the surface route as well as the tunnel to effectively double their capacity.

We have to do the same thing. Build our tunnel, and still use the Albert/Slater bus corridor. This requires the east-west Transitway to remain open.

Regarding a new LRT route via the General Hospital to Orleans South and the south-east, I agree with the route to the east because of the enormous population potential in Orleans. Do expect Peter Hume not to very enthusiastic because the route would run next to some homes in his ward between the General Hospital and Russell Road.

I have thought about a south-east extension from the General Hospital towards Hunt Club through the Alta Vista Parkway corridor and I think we would be better off with a Transitway. I know this area very well and development is almost entirely oriented away from the corridor. Intensification is not likely or will be greatly resisted. Buses that could circulate the various neighbourhoods and use a Transitway for a more direct route into the city would almost certainly attract more passengers than a difficult to access LRT line.