Staff say revenues in the first quarter was "significantly higher than projected" due to fewer strike related refunds of December transit pass sales and higher ridership.
OC Transpo will continue to monitor the ridership numbers and will provide a further update on revenues this summer.
The Strategy was launched as a proactive step to improve interprovincial coordination and efficiencies within the STO and OC Transpo transit services in the downtown cores of Gatineau and Ottawa.There are a number of key issues to consider, not the least of which is the needs of commuters from either side to the other. It is anticipated to come to an end in January 2010, at which point the data gathered will be assembled into a recommendation for the best possible solution for inter-provincial integration.
Two weeks ago, I told the story of three Algonquin College students who were charged with trespassing after they were found near the transitway, snapping photos of the buses-only road. That led to two confrontations with a Transpo special constable. When one of the students, Nicole Thompson-Walker, stopped answering questions about her identity and address, she was arrested and handcuffed -- a silly and unnecessary use of force and authority.
But Transpo doesn't think so.
Then there was the story a few days later of Jackson Adeney, a 16-year-old cyclist who collided with a bus. He was still trying to understand how the operator could drive off, leaving him by a Barrhaven roadside with a separated shoulder. Was he offered an apology? They don't seem to do that at Transpo. But the city agreed Friday to pay for a new bike and some accessories.
And now there's Bryan Cook. He's a regular rider who was left wondering why he takes the bus after the treatment he received from fare-enforcement officers. As he was riding the bus to work on April 21, two officers approached him, one looked at his bus pass and then "told his buddy to, 'Come deal with Bryan'," says Cook.
The second constable took his pass and ordered him off the bus at the St. Laurent Transitway stop. He asked to see Cook's driver's licence, and then gave him a $150 ticket.
In a broad sense, the paper and it’s framework make it clear to me that if you were to ignore the environmental and city density benefits of that could result from the development of urban light rail, there is still a compelling economic case for it to be built. Especially in cities like Ottawa where there is no (or almost no) light rail in existence and the benefits of reducing (or eliminating) congestion costs could be quite large in their own regard.The reason I refer to Ross by his first name, by the way, is because I sit at the same table as him at least once a month on the Fulcrum's Board of Directors.
Transport Canada is supportive of the transit plan, but officials who are engaged in talks with the city should take a "neutral stance with regards to the downtown tunnel alignment and station locations...""While the federal government has been supportive of Ottawa's efforts to develop a rapid transit strategy, the federal government should not commit to an agreement in principle to fund the entirety of phase one of the rapid transit plan."
Transport minister John Baird's office, though, says discussions with the city about funding are going well.
The federal government currently has $200 million on the table for Ottawa's long-term transit priorities and Transport Minister John Baird says he is committed to adding to that.
"We are working well with the city and the province to deliver for Ottawa on this important priority," said Baird's press secretary, Chris Day.
Bay councillor Alex Cullen, the chair of the city's transit committee, told us in an email that he isn't shocked by the concerns raised by Rogers:The city’s downtown train subway should run farther south than city planners have plotted, said Hume Rogers, of the Downtown Coalition. He said the city’s proposed route, gradually turning north beginning at Kent Street, takes the commuter rail line too far north downtown too early. Rogers says the Downtown Coalition property owners believe a better route is to continue under Albert Street for another three blocks, then turn north at Metcalfe Street.
Rogers said the problem with veering northward at Kent Street is that it will reduce the rail line’s future potential ridership because there will be new development on streets like Slater and Laurier Avenue, rather than farther north on Queen and Sparks. Rogers said that by staying farther south, the city would be able to include buildings such as the Bell Canada tower within reasonable walking distance of the subway.
Downtown businesses are pleased to see progress on the downtown tunnel, but want to see it serve their properties (Here! No, here! No, over here!). No surprise here.Whether or not businesses will accept whichever tunnel route is ultimately selected is, of course, unknown at this point. But we'll see how much council wants to appease the concerns as the public consultation unfolds.
It is not possible to go faster without federal/provincial funding (this is coming).As we noted on this site earlier, funding commitments made by other levels of government these days tend to favour projects that are ready to go. But as Cullen admits, this process cannot proceed any more quickly without funding.
This was from the Ottawa Citizen towards the end of 2006:
Transportation expert John Bakker has a few words of advice about a downtown tunnel for Ottawa's proposed light-rail transit line: Don't do it.
"Going into tunnels is about 10 times as expensive as going on the surface because you have to relocate utilities," Mr Bakker said yesterday. "And you have to build stations, which are really extensive works, and very disruptive, too. Afterwards, you have high operating costs because of the ventilation systems."
Mr. Bakker, a civil engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, was part of a team that in 1968 recommended a downtown tunnel for Edmonton's light-rail system.
Bakker wrote a report about transit tunnels for lobby group Transport 2000 soon after the Citizen story went to print. In that report, which appeared in the December 2006 issue of Transport Action, Bakker pointed to a number of costs associated with tunnels that can add up quickly:
- relocation of utilities
- construction and maintenance of escalators and elevators, as well as stairs
- protection of entrances from "outside elements", requiring more space
- ventilation costs, which includes construction of reversible fans
- back-up power capability
- illumination of stations
- clean-up of graffiti
