Mayor Jim Watson announced the City of Ottawa's proposed Transportation Master Plan this morning, and the ambitious plan includes light-rail extensions to Baseline, Bayshore, and Place D'Orleans, plus conversion of the O-Train to light-rail before adding in new stations on the current line and then extending the whole thing to Bowesville -- all happening concurrently, all finished before 2023, at a price tag of about $2.5B.
Here are the details of the mayor's speech from various city hall reporters and the mayor himself:
"We did not change the balance of investments towards transit and away from roads." That's maintained in the new TMP.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
Plan is to connect La Cite to the rail network. NOT waiting for provincial or federal contributions.Not sure what that entails. It could mean better bus service connecting to the Confederation Line, since the college is not considered within walking distance from either Cyrville or Blair Station.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
New Transitway from Bayshore to Moodie and from March to Terry Fox. New bus measures in the east along Blair as well. #ottcityThe new busways in the west are nothing new. Kanata North will likely see more reliable and less travel times for route 93 once the busway opens.
— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) October 9, 2013
These "new bus measures in the east along Blair" are probably for route 94. Innes was mentioned as one of the "transit priority" roads in the city's media release. The others are Montreal Road, Hunt Club Road, Carling Avenue, and Bank Street. Transit priority usually means an adjustment of the traffic lights to minimize delays to transit vehicles.
Q about the Airport Parkway. I think JW said it’ll be twinned, but new lanes for HOV and cabs.The Airport Parkway will be expanded to four lanes total. The HOV lane will certainly improve service on the 97 route. Creating dedicated lanes act as an alternative to extending the O-Train to the airport. (As you'll see later, the O-Train line extends south of the airport, but doesn't connect to it.)
— David Reevely (@davidreevely) October 9, 2013
For pedestrians, there'll be funding for pedestrian bridges, including the Somerset-Donald bridge.This benefits transit users in that area too because they'll now have access to either routes 16 or 18.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
So the western extension from Tunneys to Baseline, we've heard lots about. NCC still not completely on board, last I heard.Plenty of discussion about the Richmond Underground already.
— Joanne Chianello (@jchianello) October 9, 2013
One of the proposed light-rail extensions is from Lincoln Fields to Bayshore Shopping Centre and here's how it's supposed to look:
Plan is to skip the Transitway planned there. Go straight to rail on the planned route, including in the little tunnel.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
Line runs north along the Queensway past Leon's, etc. New ped overpass to Ikea (and, er, the Citizen).So, it appears the Pinecrest-Bayshore busway, where routes 93 and 96 travel, will be converted into light-rail.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
The O-Train south extension:
LRT South: Further enhancements to O-Train: New stations at Gladstone, Walkley and South Keys, extend line to Leitrim and Bowsville #cbcottInteresting how there's an LRT extension to a rural area, but not to the airport. The additional ridership from the added stations and line extension can't be supported from the existing single track sections of the line. It would have to be expanded entirely to double-tracking eventually.
— Alistair Steele (@alistairsteele) October 9, 2013
The new stations in the south will take some pressure off buses on the south-east Transitway, which is likely the goal here. To the north, the Gladstone O-Train station is a welcome addition.
Orleans LRT extension:
And now to the east: new LRT stations at St-Joseph, Jeanne d'Arc, Orleans Drive, Place d'Orleans along the 174.Most of the 95 bus line will be replaced in the east end and Orleans Boulevard Station will be a new station since there isn't an existing BRT one at the moment. One thing to note is the rail line will extend through the Greenbelt on NCC land, which is not something the crown corporation will easily give up.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
This is supposed to be one large project, both physically and financially:
Mayor says will expand rail to east, west and south "together."
— Joanne Chianello (@jchianello) October 9, 2013
All this can be done for less than $2.5B, JW says. Rattles off numbers quickly. $500M to get to Orleans, for one thing. $100M for O-Train.
— David Reevely live (@ReevelyLive) October 9, 2013
$2.5B in rail extensions east, west and south can be done by 2023 if feds, province provide money, Mayor Watson says. #OTTPoli
— Jon Willing (@JonathanWilling) October 9, 2013
Hard to imagine all rail extensions would be constructed simultaneously within ten years, given that both federal and provincial governments are experiencing enormous budget deficits.
The new bold LRT plan is called "Stage 2":
Stage 2: 35 kilometres of new rail and 19 new stations. Not multiple phases. One project. East, west, south. Together pic.twitter.com/KnFNOdBLTa
— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) October 9, 2013
The draft outline of the Transportation Master Plan can be seen on the city's website and further details are to be released later this afternoon by the city. The plan will be debated at a Transit Commission meeting next week, and at a Transportation Commission and City Council meetings in November.
2 comments:
Why Walkley is blue on the map?
"Why Walkley is blue on the map?"
Because a new O-Train station is proposed there. Same for Gladstone. The existing Walkley Transitway station remains as-is.
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