Thursday, January 6, 2011

Wilkinson pushes for light-rail to Bayshore

Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson is pushing for an extension of light-rail west, to extend the line right into Bayshore Station. From the Ottawa Citizen:
Under the plan, Barrhaven and other commuters from the southwest will transfer from buses to the train at Baseline Road, and then head downtown. Kanata and other west-end commuters will get off the buses at Lincoln Fields and then catch the train east along whatever route it ends up taking.

But Wilkinson says that plan will ruin the commute for thousands of the people who live in west, and could drive them away from public transit. The Kanata North councillor says the trains coming from Baseline would be chock full by the time they get to Lincoln Fields, causing unacceptable delays for the west-enders.

She says the city has to seriously examine the possibility of extending a spur from Lincoln Fields to Bayshore to make the transfer easier for commuters coming from Kanata and surrounding areas.

“What they are saying is that everybody from the west, a very large number of people — about 300,000 — will come by bus and transfer at Lincoln Fields to a train that’s already full with people from Barrhaven and the south,” Wilkinson told the Citizen Wednesday.
Given where we are now, it's a bit of a strange push for Wilkinson to make. Realistically, light-rail won't be moving at all for about 20 years. And although the current transit plan doesn't include an extension of light-rail to Bayshore (it stops at Lincoln Fields station before heading south to Baseline), you've got to think the plan will be amended--and perhaps significantly--in the 20 years we have before we'll even be finished phase one of the massive transit plan.

As the Citizen article says, though, earliest planning is already underway for the second phase of the plan. And given that the plan already includes a southern leg (on the eastern side of the Rideau River down towards the Airport and Riverside South), continuing the western corridor west rather than directing it south does, in theory, make some sense.

But Baseline Station is a huge transit hub, and an actual huge destination, given its placement within the Algonquin College campus. On-campus residents looking to head downtown would be served start to finish with a light-rail line (no transfers!), and Algonquin students living along the rail line would be in the same boat. Aside from shopping, Bayshore Station isn't a huge transit destination, but would be used as the western transfer point from bus to light-rail; looking at it objectively (or trying to), Lincoln Fields is likely a better transfer point than Bayshore, because it's more established and has more room.

It's unclear what Wilkinson envisions the "spur" to Bayshore would do. Will it simply be a short rail route connecting Bayshore to Lincoln Fields? If so, it's simply adding an extra transfer to riders from the west, and still sets them up to jump on an already-full train.

Will it be a stand-alone route running alongside the one from Baseline Station? If so, one would assume that it would double the amount of waiting time for users transferring onto rail at the two hubs (those from the west at Bayshore, those from the south at Baseline, as the two routes would take turns running along the main line). Would that offer a service frequently enough to adequately serve riders in either situation, or will it simply compromise service for both groups?

At some point, extending rail further west will likely be required. But at this point, questions remain as to whether or not it is the most prudent priority for city transit planners to put their weight behind.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live an hour south of the city and work downtown. I tried to do the whole transit thing but these things drove me away.

1 - Cost. By the time I get to the nearest park and ride, I have spent 90% of my fuel cost anyways. Then buy bus passes for myself and my wife ($180) and I might as well pay $200 for parking and drive right to work.

2 - Parking at the park and ride locations. When I was working downtown and my wife worked from home, the cost wasn't so much an issue. One bus pass is fine. $90/month beats $200/month for parking. By the time I got to South Keys park and ride at 7:30, it was FULL. Park in mall parking, nice ticket. Park outside the lines in the park and ride lot.... ticket. By the end of the month, I would have been better off driving right to work.

Ottawa has a useless transit system and it encourages no one to take it.

Solutions?

- Commuter passes for families (couples) $100 for both members and only good from 7am until 7pm Mon-Fri.

- Expand parking space at park and rides or at least have less zealous enforcement at surrounding malls and within the p and r lot itself.

Until these things happen, they can keep their public transit. It just doesn't work for me.

David said...

Peter, if you're going to run a blog on transit issues in Ottawa, please be serious about it. This post makes me wonder how informed you really are.

It's unclear what Wilkinson envisions the "spur" to Bayshore would do. Will it simply be a short rail route connecting Bayshore to Lincoln Fields? If so, it's simply adding an extra transfer to riders from the west, and still sets them up to jump on an already-full train.

This is frankly absurd. It has all the hallmarks of a strawman. There's no way Wilkinson is going to propose a rail "extension" that operates only as a rail shuttle with an extra transfer.


Will it be a stand-alone route running alongside the one from Baseline Station? If so, one would assume that it would double the amount of waiting time for users transferring onto rail at the two hubs (those from the west at Bayshore, those from the south at Baseline, as the two routes would take turns running along the main line). Would that offer a service frequently enough to adequately serve riders in either situation, or will it simply compromise service for both groups?


This pair of paragraphs really demonstrate a complete and utter lack of understanding of the basic issues of dealing with rapid transit in the west end.

Right now - today - going through Lincoln Fields there are more peak period riders coming from Bayshore and Kanata than there are from Baseline and Barrhaven, and that trend is just going to continue (most of the additions to the urban boundary in the new city have been in Kanata/Stittsville, so that's where a disproportionate amount of development will occur in the coming decades). Baseline "lucked out" in the LRT lottery because it already has a transitway to it and because of Algonquin College providing all day ridership. Were it not for at least one and possibly both of those factors, we'd either be terminating the line at Lincoln Fields or running it to Bayshore.

Once we get LRT out to Lincoln Fields and Baseline, we're going to have a major problem on our hands because of this ridership split between the west and southwest. That problem is that Kanatans arriving by bus at Lincoln Fields are going to be faced with fullish trains if each and every train comes from Baseline. If those Kanatans are boarding fullish trains at Lincoln Fields, they are (1) going to be pissed off that they can never get a seat and (2) are going to delay the Barrhavenites already onboard due to the boarding times necessary to accommodate their numbers, in turn pissing those Barrhavenites off.

The only other option than Wilkinson's is to short start some trains at Lincoln Fields using a separate dedicated platform, but then all of the issues you're apparently worried about like extra waiting time and reduced frequency are going to occur anyway.

Another point to consider is that the former Nortel Campus will be gradually taken over by DND, many of whose employees live well to the east. So not only will there be a demand for inbound transit from Kanata, there will also be a demand for outbound transit to the new DND campus. Forcing people to transfer at Lincoln Fields rather than much closer to their destination at Bayshore or beyond will

If we had any sense, we'd be thinking about extending light rail to Bayshore or even further now rather than wasting time on a second EA for a transitway between Lincoln Fields and Pinecrest. Put simply, we should either terminate at Lincoln Fields (making everyone from Barrhaven and Kanata transfer there) or extend to both Baseline and Bayshore. Going to Baseline alone will be a major mistake.

David said...

I would also point out that we are going to have a somewhat similar issue on the eastern half of the system. Much of the traffic coming up the Southeast Transitway will have to transfer at Hurdman onto trains filled by people from Orleans. The only saving grace is that in this case the direction supplying the greater number of passengers (Orleans) is already on the train, unlike at Lincoln Fields. Nevertheless, we ought to be extending a line down the Southeast Transitway as well - but such an option has been designed out.