Friday, January 17, 2014

Video shows roadheader digging at the east portal

Came across this video uploaded by Councillor Mathieu Fleury of a roadheader digging away at the eastern LRT portal. The video appears to be shot in early November since the woman explaining the work of the roadheader is seen wearing a poppy. To see machines in action, skip ahead to about the 50-second mark.



LRT East Portal Update from Mathieu Fleury on Vimeo.


For those not on Twitter, here's a photo of the tunnel provided by the City of Ottawa last week, reminding us how big this project really is:

Friday, January 10, 2014

The other bus-rail crossings

Update (3:43pm): Thanks to Transit Ottawa reader @pinemud for adding routes 192, 232, 149 and ones on Fallowfield.


Update (3:08pm): The list below seems to consist of only half the number of level rail crossings used by OC Transpo buses. Apparently, there are more than 20 of them, the Citizen reports:
OC Transpo has bus routes using more than 20 level crossings, according to the city’s communications department. Of those crossings, 15 have lights and gates, four have only lights, and one has markings but neither lights nor gates.
Feel free to leave any crossings I've missed in the comment section.


Employment and Skills Development Canada has ordered the City to review all bus-rail crossings following the fatal September collision. The City will have to assess such crossings for any hazards, like "obstructed sightlines", an email to Council says.

The OC Transpo system map and Google Street View showed these bus routes traveling through an at-grade rail intersection:
  • Transitway, north of Fallowfield Station
  • 114 on Conroy
  • 192 on Michael Street 
  • 149 on Pleasant Park
  • 99 on Lester
  • 146 on McCarthy
  • 116, 176 on Merivale
  • 170 on Greenbank
  • 170, 173 on Jockvale
  • 170 on Strandherd
  • 70, 76, 170, 173 on Fallowfield
  • 181 on Herzberg
  • 60, 93, 181 on March
  • 232 on Rockdale
  • 232 on Boundary
  • 232 on Piperville
  • 232 on Anderson

Because it follows more than one routing, route 170 crosses train tracks once in a trip during the daytime on weekdays and three times on weekday evenings or weekends.