City and NCC come to agreement on Western Corridor alignment

In a joint press conference this morning, the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa announced that they have come to a mutually acceptable agreement on the alignment of the Western Corridor of the city's LRT project, stretching from Dominion to Cleary stations.

The agreement, which came out of the much-ballyhooed 100-day truce mayor Jim Watson and outgoing MP John Baird agreed to, will see a fully-buried tunnel connecting the two stations. The tunnel, as illustrated above, will run underneath a re-aligned Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway from just after Dominion Station to Cleary Avenue, at which point it will turn south towards Richmond Road. The section underneath the Parkway will be a "stacked" transportation corridor, where the roadway will run on top of the underground rail line. There are a lot of other details in the memorandum of understanding, which you can read on the NCC website if you'd like.

From there, it seems to proceed as envisioned in the Richmond Underground proposal, hitting the new Cleary and New Orchard stations before emerging from the tunnel nearer to Lincoln Fields station. The only real difference between this one and the Richmond Underground alignment is the fully-buried tunnel under the Parkway, the NCC's major sticking point. UPDATE: According to more detailed information on the city's website, the alignment will transition from under Richmond Road to under [the] western portion of Byron Linear Park," where it will presumably continue toward New Orchard station.

There remain several key groups, including the First Unitarian Congregation and Neighbours for Smart Western Rail, who will likely be opposed to this alignment, but it generally meets the broad needs of most stakeholders:

• It won't affect sightlines along the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway: In fact, it should improve them, with a realigned roadway that increases potential greenspace as well as two proposed cycling/pedestrian connections from the residential area to the riverside (illustrated above, connecting Dominion and Cleary stations to the riverside).
• Parkway buffer is retained: There will still be a 30-metre tree buffer between the roadway/rail tunnel and the residence bordering the affected areas of the Parkway.
• It won't affect the Byron Linear Park.
• It adds stations where people are: The addition of Cleary and New Orchard stations to this stretch of train corrects a longstanding flaw of the existing Transitway, increasing access to areas that weren't served by high-speed transit previously. It won't increase access as much as a Carling alignment might have, but it's still pretty good (especially if trams are one day added to Carling, as is proposed).
• It won't increase cost: Apparently the work done here can be done for the same $980M budget as the previous alignment.

There are still a lot of details to work out, of course, but it is promising that both sides were able to come to some sort of agreement. The City will host an information session on March 30 at City Hall to gather feedback on this proposed alignment.

What's to come with the Richmond Underground: New Orchard Station

Earlier in the week I posted some photos and concept images of Cleary Station, one of two proposed stations that would be incorporated into the City of Ottawa's Richmond Underground LRT plan. The second of those stations is New Orchard, which would be located at the intersection of New Orchard and Richmond Road in the Woodroffe North community. The indicator on this map indicates roughly where the station will be:

Below is a photo from ground level on Richmond Road of roughly where the New Orchard Station will be; it's basically right at the spot that transit shelter (which serves the 2 bus route) stands today.

 The station will be right in the middle of Byron Linear Park, an extremely popular narrow strip of greenspace separating Byron Avenue and Richmond Road. This is a close-up of the bus shelter that currently stands where New Orchard Station is proposed, looking along the linear park:

And below is a concept image of the station from the middle of Richmond Road. As you can see, it seems to occupy the full width of the park; I'll be curious to see how the city makes space to allow dog-walkers using the park to get from one side of the station to the other without having to walk on Richmond or Byron.

Finally, a look at the station from Byron Avenue looking to the east.

New transit stations are always interesting, especially when they're added onto an existing and very popular transit corridor. We might be 15-20 years away from seeing these stations actually built, but they present a very good way of improving transit access and, hopefully, increasing its use.

Details of the Richmond Underground LRT extension

Although this is old news by now, the City of Ottawa is moving forward with the so-called "Richmond Underground" option as the western corridor of the city's new light-rail line. It's the second phase of the line, heading west from Tunney's Pasture Station towards Baseline Station.

Here's a brief video of the latest tweaks to the line, from the city:

Much has been made of the National Capital Commission's refusal to budge on light-rail on the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway, and rightfully so; it's kind of a big deal. But the city seems convinced that their latest plans to bury most of the line in a deep trench should satisfy the NCC. The City has also said that to fully comply with what the NCC is asking for would cost an extra $180M, which isn't in the budget for the city.

Here's an image showing the route from Westboro to Lincoln Fields (click to enlarge); the remainder of the line will follow the existing Transitway infrastructure:

The addition of two new major transit stations, Cleary and New Orchard, is great; the huge distance between Dominion and Lincoln Fields without stops under the current Transitway system is a huge drawback. The catchment area for both stations is quite strong, as well, so it will offer residents of those areas hugely improved transit access.

Given that the first phase of the light-rail plan has just recently started construction, we're still a ways off from seeing this one running. Construction isn't even expected to begin until 2017 at the earliest, so there's still plenty of time for the city to gain the NCC's approval and gain some more community support.