Quote:
Originally Posted by KHOOLE
There are not that many important cross-road intersections along Carling Ave and when there are, such as at Woodroffe or Holland, why not "cut and cover" for the LRT to go through.
Also, a lot of people shop and work at Carlingwood and Westgate areas as well as having to work or being patients and visitors at the Royal Hosp and the Ottawa Civic Hosp. There would be a greater opportunity to revitalize Carling with more stores and residential high rises, such as SOHO Italia and others.
Morever, why does it have to be a fast LRT train along Carling or any other built-up areas? Speed should be for transporting passengers across the Green Belt but built up areas should have stops every 500 meters to be serviceable to passengers and increase ridership. This is Canada and we have foul weather, rain and snow probably half of the time throughout the year. Nobody wants to walk a Km in freezing rain to get to work so they will keep on using their cars.
No need for a tunnel downtown. A Carling line connecting with the Transitway at Lincoln Fields and the O-Train at Preston will be more functional and will increase ridership while there is no guarantee that a Blair Rd to Tunney's Pasture LRT using established bus lines and building a downtown tunnel will increase ridership by even one person! You don't build a bigger store if you have no idea if your sales will even increase!
Why so much emphasis with Tunney's Pasture? There may be no one working there in a few years. It was built in 1968 and many buildings are decrepit and are up for major repairs or demolition.
Better to have a Carling line that will go to the old Nortel campus where 10,000+ National Defense employees will find themselves in the near future.
A LRT tunnel through the downtown core will be useful for a few hours in the morning and afternoon Monday to Friday and be absolutely useless in the evenings and on weekends, just like the Sparks Street Mall.
Does the City have a business plan for the LRT tunnel? How long will it take to break even or make a profit? Probably never! Just like the baseball stadium or the municipal golf course or riding school. Lansdowne Park was profitable until the City took the management away from CCEA.
The City is a municipality created to provide sevices to its residents. The City is not a business and it has never proven itself to have business acumen.
Forget the tunnel and put taxpayers money into projects like a Carling line that taxpayers will use and appreciate 24/7 all year round. Hell, it might even turn a profit for OC Transpo!
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As much as I am not a fan of Mega Huge Ottawa, it is the reality and we have to serve everyone from city to suburbs to rural. In the case of this LRT, it is designed to (eventually) bring people from the suburbs to downtown as fast as possible while still giving the city some service.
The LRT isn’t as much about increasing ridership as decreasing operating cost and greatly increasing capacity (from 10000 phpd BRT to 40000 phpd with 150 meter LRT platforms) to serve the suburbs for the next 50-100 years.
Why so much emphasis with Tunney's Pasture you ask? No more jobs within the next few years you say? Even if they decide to demolish most of Tunney’s, it will be redeveloped as mixed use residential/office/retail, therefore ridership is guaranteed for the long run, not to mention significant development on Parkdale and Holland
As for the old Nortel campus, it will likely be served within 20 years.
A LRT tunnel through the downtown core will be useful for a few hours? Ever been to the By Ward Market? I’m pretty sure it’s bustling til’ 2 am.
And as Kitchissippi said; what nightlife on Carling?
And for everyone obsessed with streetcars;
a.they don’t have much more capacity than buses
b. we had streetcars, we removed em’ in 58’
c. time to move on; if we build something, it should be subways (after the lrt is completed)
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