As the City of Ottawa released its proposed plan for the Ottawa LRT including a tunnel through the downtown core, the issue of funding has yet to be addressed. While the City of Ottawa has committed its share of the funding, the proposed plan is dependent on the Federal and Provincial governments each paying 1/3rd of the cost.

On March 17th, the City formally requested funding from both levels of government. The Federal Government has already committed $200 million towards the LRT Plan, however, this remains short of the 1/3rd requested by the City.  Ontario’s Municipal Affaires Minister Jim Watson raised key concerns about the cost-effectiveness of the plan and the LRT’s ability to attract an appropriate level of ridership. Until these issues are addressed, the Minister has refused to commit funding towards the plan.

A third option not considered by the City of Ottawa is the involvement of the Private sector in financing the plan. In the event that Federal and Provincial funding is not secured, the city ought to explore an innovative third option that involves the private real estate developers similar to a plan proposed by Vancouver’s Translink.

Background

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.

So it seems that since the OC Transpo Strike, the LRT debate has died down in Ottawa. While the City of Ottawa allows the LRT debate to come to a streaking halt, Toronto has left Ottawa in its dust. Two recent developments have occurred in Toronto that should put Ottawa’s Mayor and the City Council to shame. Queens Park has announced that the provincial share of the Eglinton LRT would be a go.

This means that a LRT line would run from the East end of Toronto’s mid-town all the way to Pearson International Airport on the West end (32.5 KM). The central part of the line linking to the Yonge Subway and University Subway lines for 13 KM will be underground, while the rest will run on its own right-of-way.

Bombardier Flexity - LRT Vehicle-candidate for the Toronto LRT

The second major development in Toronto will be the selection of LRT vehicles to be used for the entire Transit City line including the Eglinton LRT. While Provincial funding for the Ottawa LRT has not been guarenteed, the City Council and the Mayor really needs to take a more active role lobbying Senior levels of Government for funding. In addition, Council needs to start selling the idea of the LRT to gain more broad public support. Toronto’s City Council launched the Transit City Plan as a marketing strategy to gain greater public enthusiasm. This strategy also worked in attracting attention to the project from Senior Levels of Government, which partially explains the Provincial funding announcement.

Reference

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/612954

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/620580

Just a reminder, as of Sunday (March 1st), the rates for the OC Transpo goes back to normal. That means, Sunday will NOT be free. As of Monday March 2nd, the fare for cash or ticketriders will also go back to normal. Of course, December pass holders who have chosen not to return their passes can purchase March pass for a 60% discount, if they haven’t already.

Otherwise, the so-called “give-aways” have officially ended for non-Express pass holders. The question is, has OC Transpo successfully brought ridership levels back to pre-strike levels? Statistics have not been released yet, but what are your thoughts?

In an unprecedented move, Ottawa’s City Council spearheaded by Mayor Larry O’Brien has rolled-back its, already announced, incentive programs leaving riders frustrated and confused. Those hurt the most will be the December bus-pass holders. Here is a run down of the incentives that has been reduced:

• Regular December Pass Holders was supposed to receive service until end-of-March
  • This has been changed to end-of-Feb; March pass will now cost 40% of regular price
• Eco-Pass Holders was supposed to have a stoppage of pay-roll deductions until the end-of-April
  • Payroll deduction will now continue as planned
• Express December Pass holders was supposed to receive service until the end-of-April
  • This is unclear, but it looks like it will be rolled back to end-of-February or March; Discounts until the end of May (TBA)

While the public fall-out to this decision remains unclear, the city will continue to debate the matter. For downtown riders who plan on cycling or walking as temperatures begin to increase, my suggestion is to get a refund on the Regular December pass before Feb 15th.  With the uncertainty in City Council, theirs no point taking the chance of having a worthless December pass, given that March is no longer covered. In addition, weekends will continue to be free in February, while weekday fares are expected to be 50% off for the rest of the month.

In a shocking move, Ottawa’c City Council has rolled-back, already announced (on OCTranspo.com) incentives.

December regular-bus pass holders will no longer get free service in March. Instead, regular pass holders will be forced to pay 40% of the regular cost of the pass. Express pass holder incentives will also be rolled back by a month.

More to come…

It appears that the Ottawa City Council may approve extending “free” transit, for ALL USERS, until the end of February. Capital Ward Councillor Clive Doucet introduced the motion to extend the “free” service and the motion was carried at City Council’s Transit Commitee meeting on Monday February 9th, 2009.

That travel on OC Transpo be provided at no charge for the month of February to all users. (Motion 1: Ottawa City Council, Transit Committee, 09-Feb-09)

With regards to monthly pass holders who have received refunds for their December pass, a motion was carried in the same meeting, which allowed those who received refunds, to buy-back their December passes (with receipt) to take advantage of the free service until March 31st.

That residents who received refunds for their December bus passes be given the opportunity (with receipts) to buy back their December pass for use under the new rules. (Motion 2: Ottawa City Council, Transit Committee, 09-Feb-09)

More info to come following the February 11th Council Meeting at 10AM

Reference

http://www.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/tc/2009/02-09/disposition28.htm

With the hoopla surrounding the OC Transpo strike, lost in the haystack of transit coverage is Ottawa’s share of the Building Canada fund, outlined in the 2008 & 2009 Federal Budget. While most citizens in Ottawa would look for what Ottawa received directly from the Federal Government, it is the Province that the City should turn to. Much of the infrastructure spending came in the form of transfer payments to the provinces. Infrastructure tends to be a product of the Province, and Ontario has an obligation to provide funding to Ottawa’s transit network.

While, Constitutional lines may dictate that the OC Transpo is a Federal jurisdiction, it does not discount the Province from providing Provincial transfer payments to the City. Historically, major cities such as Toronto or Montreal, which are under provincial jurisdiction, have received Federal transfer payments via the Province. Its only fair that Ottawa receive Provincial funding for transit infrastructure as well.

The well documented, Move Ontario 2020 transit funding injected $17.5 Billion into transit for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). It represented the largest cash injection for transit in North America for any single Census Metropolitan Area. With the Light Rail debate back on the agenda after the infamous 51-day strike, it should be no surprise to McGuinty and company, that the provinces second largest city will come knocking.

Since the Move Ontario 2020 initiative included provisions that would support light rail in Toronto, Hamilton, York Region and Mississauga, it appears that Ottawa’s light rail plans are well in-line with the priorities of the Province. So with major infrastructure spending, slated in the Federal budget, and much of this spending in the form of transfer payments to provinces, Ottawa should expect funding to come from the Province. The ball is now in the hands of City Council to expediate the passing of a revised Transportation Master Plan that includes a major commitment to light rail.

For those who could not wake up on-time or just did not have time to listen, CBC Radio has posted the archive video for my interview with Kathleen Petty of CBC Radio One’s, Ottawa morning. The panel included myself and Nick from Transit in Ottawa. Feel free to comment on our discussion. It would be nice to continue the debate on what OC Transpo can do, to attract riders once again.

Here’s the link to the Feb-02-2009 segment, OC Transpo users anxious to climb on-board.

Last time the OC Transpo had a labour strike, in 1996, ridership dropped and it took years to restore ridership levels, despite 4-days of ‘free’ transit service. After the longest transit strike in Ottawa history, the City and the Union will have to make a much more meaningful effort to restore confidence this time around. However, with Winterlude festivities coming up next weekend, the City has a unique opportunity to restore faith in the transit system and inject some much needed life, into the local economy, as riders take advantage of transit to participate in activities.

In order to attract disgruntled riders back onto transit, the city really needs to provide an added incentive to take transit again. This means providing ‘free’ service from now, until the end of the Winterlude festivities. This provides a number of key advantages for the city:

• ‘Free’ Transit (tax payer funded) will re-introduce Ottawa citizens into the habit of taking transit again
• ‘Free’ Transit can help revive the local economy. People will want to take advantage of the free service, they will eat out at local restaurants and they will shop at local stores.
• Finally, with Winterlude festivities coming up, riders will want to take advantage of the free service to participate in festival events. This will help restore local morale after a difficult two months without transit, and perhaps restore faith in the system.

While transit drivers provide little value-added incentives, the Union ought to take note of the public relations opportunity the ‘free’ service can provide:

• The Union should instruct drivers, that as the public face of OC Transpo, they should make the extra effort to be more courteous during this period. While it may not win over all riders, it can certainly win over some riders
• Perhaps the Union should consider settling up a kiosk, offering free hot chocolate, to thank residence for their patients throughout the ordeal (perhaps a joint event with the City to illustrate a united face)

What the City or the Union should NOT do:

• The City needs to give the residents in Ottawa some credit and should NOT waste tax payers money on marketing schemes or traditional advertising.