I think it's about time that the airport rail link should be it's own thread by now. So I tool the liberties to do that. With this thread we can share our plans, stories and other stuff for rail to the Ottawa Airport.
And then at the end of the month once all of the maps are done and people have seen and talked about them, I may out up a poll up and you can vote foe who's plan is the best! Your prize can be knowing that people on the forum like your plan and wish that it could be build!
City's plan:
http://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/doc..._boards_en.pdf
My plan (ACmodels):
My plan has a PRT (Personal Rapid Transit)
There would be a PRT link to the airport from the EY Center. Kinda like Hearthow's PRT to a parking lot. With my PRT when you arrive at the airport you don't have to wait for a train you can just pay with PRESTO or credit card or cash to use the PRT and get right on to the EY Center. Once you get to the EY center you would be in a fare paid zone so you don't have to tap or show POP or you can continue your ride to the Hilton Hotel. At the EY center Station. I would have something like this:
Minus the Bus Station. Trillium Line Trains going to RS (Riverside South) and Bayview will have to stop on the EY center loop to pick up passengers from the PRT. Only people going to the Airport have to make a transfer. There would only have to be one (1) Grade Separated crossing over the airport parkway to reach the EY Center Station. While at Research Rd and Uplands Drive it can be At-Grade since PRT is only Battery powered and not Big diesel trains.
Richard Eade's plan:
NOTE: All pictures bellow are made my Richard Eade and are not mine.
OK, here’s a different approach:
since there seems to be a need to grade separate diesel trains but not electric trains, and since the original LRT plan for Riverside South was based on electric trains, and since the south will get a shuttle train to South Keys most of the day, then why not just building the extension from South Keys Station into Riverside South as electric LRT?
The basic idea would be this:
Admittedly, I have made some other changes, specifically re-aligning Lester and the Airport Parkway north (which is where the Parkway is planned to go in the future). I figured that it is probably cheaper to build the road along the north than the diesel tracks (and associated structures) and the road would support a new road network to develop those lands. A diesel train track would provide nothing but a barrier for development.
However, I would like to get the train to the airport so I have run it (relatively inexpensively) along the existing Parkway infrastructure. There is only the need for a small overpass so cars can get to Airbus Private. This would be a temporary train route and when the line is converted to electric, the new electric tracks can be built beside the re-aligned Parkway where it would co-exist with the road network. During that construction, the diesel train would continue serving the airport.
In the meantime, the Riverside South area would be served by an electric LRT which would shuttle passengers to South Keys Station – much as the # 99 bus does today. The big difference is that trains can be timed much better than bus buses seem to be. With proper timing, the transfer could go something like this:
Where north-bound passengers alight from the shuttle and wait for the shuttle to get out of the way before the north-bound (diesel) train arrives. At the same time (remember, the north and south trains will pass at South Keys) the south-bound passengers exit their diesel train and wait for the shuttle to come along momentarily. Transfers exist, but they are very fast.
A benefit of using electric LRT right from the start is that the shuttle can easily be extended along the original corridor through Riverside South as money permits. If the Riverside South train is diesel, then it will need to wait until the line is converted to electricity or there will need to be a lot more overpasses – so it would be impractical to extend the diesel train.
A draw-back is that there are two different technologies that need to be serviced. However, if the same electric trains are used for Riverside South as for the Confederation Line (they probably ordered lots of spares for future growth, or have an option to order more), then some of those electric trains can simply be pushed between the Belfast Yard for maintenance and Riverside South. (There is a rail link between the Walkley Yard and the VIA track that abuts the Belfast Yard.) The Diesel trains would still be maintained at Walkley Yard which might not need to be expanded to handle a lot more vehicles. (Probably only one or two extra diesel trains are needed to serve the airport, but if both branches are done with diesel, then the fleet will likely more than double.) Alternatively, the City is planning to open the Bowesville Yard if the Trillium Line extension requires too many diesel trains to be handled at Walkley. If Bowesville Yard needs to be opened, maybe it can be built smaller to just handle the electric trains needed for the shuttle and the diesels can remain at Walkley.
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Hers's a neat report:
http://www.queensu.ca/surp/sites/web...013-14comp.pdf
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