The City of Ottawa announced a rough plan of the proposed LRT, despite the lack of commitment from senior levels of Government (Federal and Provincial). The proposed tunnel portion of the route is expected to run from Lebreton Flats (West) on the existing transitway and onto Albert, cutting through the downtown core and angeling slightly north at Kent until it reaches Sussex and Rideau. The LRT is then expected to head south along what is now the Transitway towards Campus Station on Nicholas.
Lebreton Station is above ground. The following stations are expected to be underground:
- Downtown West (Bay\Lyon & Albert)
- Downtown East (O’Conner\Metcalf & Queen)
- Sussex (Rideau & Sussex)
- Campus (Same as Transitway)
South East of Campus Station, the LRT will continue to run underground along the Transitway until it reaches Lees Station, where it is expected to reappear above ground and continue South along the transitway before turning east and ending at Blair Road. To the West, the LRT is expected to run above ground from Lebreton Station along the transitway to Tunney’s Pasture (Just past Parkdale).
Analysis
How does this plan measure up to the other options presented? 1. NIMBYists have long argued that prolonged construction in the tunnel portion of the LRT will disrupt traffic for a number of years and is not worth the short-term economic cost. However, doing nothing to alleviate traffic in this part of the city will not only create short-term congestion problems, it will cause further overcrowding in the already busy bus system in the long-term.
2. Another alternative suggested was the downtown bus tunnel. It was suggested that the bus tunnel will adapt well to the existing Transitway system, and will be cheaper to implement. It will also reduce traffic in the congested downtown core. However, the deisel powered buses would require ventilation, which would significantly increase the cost of the system, and the continued use of liquid fuel would create long term operation costs compared to electric rail. The downtown bus tunnel would not solve the long-term problem of growth in the Lebreton Flats and Blair Road areas.
The electric LRT option would reduce the long-term cost of fueling the vehicles, it has positive environmental benefits, and is considered high-order relative to the existing bus-rapid-transit (BRT) system. LRT has traditionally attracted greater local investment along the transit line than BRT, which can contribute to smart urbanization along the corridor.
The proposed LRT network will significantly reduce traffic congestion in the core caused partially by the number of transitway buses running along Albert and Slater. It will connect through a transfer point with the existing O-Train line at Bayview Station and take riders across town from Tunney’s Pasture to Gloucester.
Given the coverage of the proposed LRT line including the underground portion through the downtown core, $1.4 billion is considered a steal in the context of Canadian urban transit. This is particularly the case since the downtown core is highly urbanized with significant underground infrastructure to build around.
If we compared the Ottawa LRT with Toronto’s proposed Eglinton LRT (that also includes an underground portion), the Eglinton LRT is expected to cost $2.2 billion and span 30 KM, compared to 16 KM in Ottawa. However, much of the Eglinton LRT tunnel will run in the northern inner-suburban communities with far less existing underground infrastructure to build around than the Ottawa downtown tunnel portion of the Ottawa LRT.
Window of Opportunity
While no funding commitments have been made from Senior Levels of Government, the Provincial Government’s announcement of the MoveOntario 2020 initiative in Toronto, and more recent economic stimulus infrastructure investments at both levels of government appears to have created a window of opportunity for the City of Ottawa. Mayor Larry O’Brien has stated that he expects Federal and Provincial funding announcements this summer.
