Ottawa Rapid Transit Network developments

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by m0nkyman

I've always thought the natural route for LRT from Gatineau was the Alexandria bridge, using the existing tunneling under the Chateau, and terminating at the old rail station.

How soon we forget? When they renovated the Plaza Bridge they made the amazing discovery of the old Hull Electric streetcar loop under the bridge. How much closer to downtown Ottawa can you get? It is time to reclaim certain bridges for transit that are not heavily used by regular traffic anyways. The Alexandra Bridge was mainly designed as a rail bridge in the first place.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Most forumers who post here (and who are almost all from Ottawa), for starters. Several Ottawa politicians have also opined about extending the O-Train into Gatineau. But no politicians from Gatineau have.

Fun fact: Gatineau is populated by more than politicians!

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

-skip the rest of the Glebe for obvious reasons

Not obvious to me.

-8station; Eastwiew Shopping Centre (between Montgomery and Vanier Prkw), potential for 30+ storey towers without blocking any views.

Call this one, "Vanier".

-9station; Altha, location of Wabano centre, aprt building and potential for other development

A little far from the previous one.

How about it?

Not dissimilar from my dream plan. Does it have to be underground all the way, though? I'd resume the surface east of St-Laurent.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Sums it up nicely. If you look more closely at where the Prince of Wales Bridge ends up in Ottawa (a few km west of downtown), and the low population density along the QG rail line through Gatineau, O-Train-to-Gatineau is not as much of a no-brainer as some people think.

Population densities can change.

Well, maybe not in the hideous suburb that is tacky, awful, Gatineau... but most other places, they can!

Well, not in frozen-in-time, NIMBY-infested Ottawa... but it happens somewhere!!!

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

What has been suggested is that the O-Train become the main line rapid transit service to Gatineau.

Passive voice alert: "been suggested" by whom?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by m0nkyman

I've always thought the natural route for LRT from Gatineau was the Alexandria bridge, using the existing tunneling under the Chateau, and terminating at the old rail station.

Could actually work; easy transfer to Rideau + Photography museum was closed to allow more committee rooms... oh wait, aren't those committee rooms of National and Historical importance, god forbid we use rail tunnels and train stations as rail tunnels and train stations...

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Not obvious to me.

NIMBYs, save the oposition and lawsuits

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Not dissimilar from my dream plan. Does it have to be underground all the way, though? I'd resume the surface east of St-Laurent.

As long as it's grade seperated from other traffic (median or elevated).

[kevinbottawa]

This makes so much sense. Makes you wonder why they didn't think of it sooner.

Extend LRT to Orleans sooner: Planner

By Jon Willing ,Ottawa Sun
First posted: Friday, May 25, 2012 12:00 PM EDT

Could light rail transit come to Orléans sooner than previously thought?

A memo sent to council Friday morning from the citys top planner says it might be a good idea to take money earmarked for rapid transit projects in the east and put it towards extending LRT from Blair station.

The transportation master plan talks about two rapid transit lines running into the east.

One is the Transitway corridor along Hwy. 174 and the other would be a segregated Cumberland Transitway between Blair Rd. and Millennium Blvd.

The master plan doesnt talk about bringing LRT to Orléans until sometime after 2031, but planners have found the east end has some of the highest transit demand in the city.

About $380 million has been earmarked for all rapid transit in the east.

As limited funds exist for transit during the planning period and recognizing councils intent to ultimately service the east, south and west with light rail, it is prudent to explore within the current envelope of funding for eastern rapid transit investment if redirecting (bus rapid transit) investment to LRT in one of the two corridors identified will allow for earlier LRT service to Orléans, John Moser writes in the memo.

Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais got the ball rolling last July with a successful council motion to have staff research the feasibility of bringing LRT to Orléans at the earliest opportunity as long as it fits within the citys long-range funding plan.

The planning study into Orléans LRT is expected to inform an upcoming review of the 2008 transportation master plan, which is the transportation blueprint for the city over the next two decades.

That review will essentially confirm or change plans on where rapid transit infrastructure should be built next.

Mosers memo says staff will examine whether it would be best to defer bus rapid transit in the Cumberland corridor and redirect funding to LRT through the greenbelt along Hwy. 174.

There could be cost savings if the work is done at the same time as the planned highway widening between the Hwy. 417 split and Trim Rd., Moser notes.

The current LRT plan on the books would begin construction in early 2013 and run trains between Tunneys Pasture and Blair station, with a downtown tunnel, at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion.

jon.willing@sunmedia.ca

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/25/...sooner-planner

[McC]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/25/...sooner-planner

if you can think it, it's already been thunk somewhere on the 227 previous pages of this thread, and, of course, before that on the 250 pages of the "Future" thread. The Sun's online editors still haven't fixed the Zombie photo of the old NSLRT that accompanies that article with the tag "An artist's conception of a portion of the Ottawa LRT project. (File image)." you just cannot kill artist's conceptions of the old plan with conventional means.

[J.OT13]

Why build BRT if we're just going to convert it to LRT in 20 years? Save time/money and trouble by building LRT right off the bat. Besides, LRT takes less room than BRT (2 tracks as opposed to 4 lanes).

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Fun fact: Gatineau is populated by more than politicians!

Yeah, I know a few who are not since I do live here.

People in Gatineau are somewhat skeptical about the Rapibus but will wait an see if it delivers. As for a train, it always sounds like a great idea but then people aren't so enthusiastic when you tell them if you took the train you'd end up on the other side of downtown Ottawa, and have to transfer to another train and come back eastwards to downtown Ottawa. Plus there would be no link to downtown Hull via the train which is another huge problem.

Any transit system serving Gatineau really has to have its main line(s) go through downtown Hull before it crosses over to Ottawa.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Population densities can change.

Well, maybe not in the hideous suburb that is tacky, awful, Gatineau... but most other places, they can!

Well, not in frozen-in-time, NIMBY-infested Ottawa... but it happens somewhere!!!

You are partially correct. There is some good potential for densification along the line in the vicinity of Maloney over a good distance. In fact, it has already started on some stretches.

However, a lot of area through which the line runs is industrial or institutional and the population density won't likely ever budge there (think of the Casino and the surrounding industrial area). These are employment centres of course, so there is that passenger potential there I suppose.

[eternallyme]

Agreed, BRT should be built only if there is no chance of conversion beyond the 25 year timeframe. That includes "natural" BRT corridors (i.e. spur routes and non-downtown corridors like the Baseline corridor) and the most distant suburbs beyond the town centres.

Because of that, the Pinecrest-Lincoln Fields Transitway segment should NOT be built now.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Acajack

People in Gatineau are somewhat skeptical about the Rapibus but will wait an see if it delivers. As for a train, it always sounds like a great idea but then people aren't so enthusiastic when you tell them if you took the train you'd end up on the other side of downtown Ottawa, and have to transfer to another train and come back eastwards to downtown Ottawa.

People are much less transfer-averse when trains are involved, esp. train-to-train.

Try us.

[cityguy]

When does construction start on the downtown subway tunnels?

[McC]

Originally Posted by cityguy

When does construction start on the downtown subway tunnels?

Contract should be awarded to one of the three consortia in the fall with construction to start next year, but the scheduling of when digging the tunnel actually starts ought to be determined by the winning firms. In the meantime a different kind of digging is going on right now near the location of tunnel's western portal: a team of archaeologists are doing a Time Team style excavation in the city land north of Albert between Commissioner and Empress, looking for artifacts of old life on the Flats.

[J.OT13]

West OLRT extension;

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/30/...cost-up-to-11b

[umbria27]

Originally Posted by gjhall

I think to make this sound you need a couple additions:
-It should start at Billings Bridge to connect to the SE Transitway/potential LRT/potential regional rail/potential additional VIA rail station (there's really a lot of transportation possibilities here)
-Sunnyside station
-Terrible as it may be to get it done, no stations between Lansdowne and Catherine seems to far to me, I'd try for one at 2nd avenue
-Add a station at Gladstone
-Add a station at Chapel, for the same reason as Charlotte, expect a development boom there, didn't Claridge just pay $15M for some land there?
-Move Altha to Marier, which is the only N-S street that connects Beechwood to Montreal, which will be the most important street in the revival of Vanier, IMHO
-CFB Rockcliffe, locate the station to serve NRC as well
-Turn south to serve CES and CSIS at a station along Bathgate
-Connect finally to Blair station

These additions won't be cheap, but I think it makes the line a more strategic investment in regional transit, rather than just serving urban areas and thus more easily embraced by Council, the province and the feds

Like it. Billings and Sunnyside additions are a must. A second Glebe station is a nice to have, but it really would depend on where the Lansdowne station was located exactly. If it's right at Holmwood it's walkable from most of the Glebe (and Ottawa East with the new ped bridge).

[waterloowarrior]

http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/cit...ridor%20EA.pdf

WESTERN LRT CORRIDOR (BAYVIEW TO BASELINE) PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT - INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT

[waterloowarrior]

also...
STATEMENT OF WORK TO REVIEW AND UPDATE THE TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN, OTTAWA PEDESTRIAN PLAN AND OTTAWA CYCLING PLAN

http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/cit...0of%20Work.pdf



Advancing LRT to Orléans: Issues and Approach to Analysis
http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/cit...eans%20ENG.pdf