FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CITY MUST MEET MINIMAL CONDITIONS FOR CREDIBLE TRANSIT PLAN

Staff must deliver credible transit plan that residents, Council, and
upper levels of government wanting to fund transit can all support.

Ottawa, April 14, 2008: Transport 2000 (T2000) and Friends of the
O-Train (FOTO) insist Staff must present a credible transit plan on
Wednesday that:

* substantially increases ridership throughout implementation to
justify the proposed price tag;
* fixes the downtown capacity problem first;
* focuses investment in light rail transit;
* takes advantage of low-cost opportunities for rapid transit
connections to under-serviced destinations; and that is
* is affordable

Details of key questions that Councilors, transit users and city staff
must consider when evaluating staff's plan are attached as a
backgrounder document.

Friends of the O-Train
Formed in the summer of 2006, FOTO is a volunteer organization of

Lack of strong commuter rail line will hurt future prosperity: MP
Mohammed Adam, Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

While major Canadian cities are reshaping their futures with new light-rail projects, Ottawa has embraced a transit vision that will set the city back a decade and undermine its competitiveness and future prosperity, several experts say.

They point out that, in the past year, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver have unveiled transformative commuter rail plans that will strengthen their ability to compete for global investments and economic opportunities.

Organization

http://www.tc.gc.ca/programs/Environment/utsp/otrainlightrailproject.htm

City of Ottawa — Transportation Utilities and Public Works Department, OC Transpo
Status

Started 2001, extended to 2005
Overview

The O-Train was Ottawa’s first experience with light rail transit. The O-Train travels an 8-km track past five stations, two of which connect to the city’s bus rapid transit system (the “Transitway”), over two bridges and through a tunnel beneath Dow’s Lake. The line serves Carleton University, a major employment centre, and a shopping mall in a densely populated neighbourhood.

The O-Train was initiated to assess the technical feasibility of using an existing rail corridor for rapid transit, to validate expectations about ridership, performance and cost, and to allow proper analysis of possible larger-scale implementation.

Budget:

* Capital costs: $21 million
* Two-year operating costs: $8 million

Results:

$1.75 BILLION TO BE SPENT ON OUT-OF-CONTROL BUS PROJECTS BETWEEN 2004 AND 2010

(French translation follows...)

Council and Staff Needs to Keep Much Closer Eye on Bus Capital Spending

Ottawa, November 27, 2007: The Friends of the O-Train (FOTO) has disclosed that Ottawa City staff plans to have spent $1.75 billion on bus related transit between 2004 and 2010, without addressing the fundamental problem of downtown capacity, without public process, without any ridership studies and without a supporting business case:

* Between 2004 and 2007, $483 million was spent on bus transit capital projects.
* From 2008 to 2010, City staff is now seeking authority to spend an extra $1.27 billion on bus transit projects.

Detailed Review Needed Before Any New Bus Rapid Transit Investment

Ottawa, November 26, 2007: The Friends of the O-Train (FOTO) have discovered disturbing trends in the finances and BRT operations of Ottawa’s Transit Services. Transit Committee is debating Transit Services’ revenue-cost ratio, which has fallen from 55% to 45% between 1997 and 2007. New revelations suggest work needs to be done to improve Ottawa’s transit cost structure. According to the City of Ottawa’s current and historical budget documents, during the four year period from 2004 to 2008 (budget) Transit Services:

* Gross Expenditures have ballooned from $222 million in 2004, to a projected $330 million in 2008, a 49% increase.
* Compensation and Benefits have grown 50%.
* Fleet Costs have grown 35%.
* Yet, total passenger trips have grown only 9%.

Last Updated: Friday, November 23, 2007 | 12:02 PM ET
CBC News

A new transit plan put forward by a committee of Ottawa councillors earlier this week would make downtown congestion worse and is unlikely to get federal and provincial funding, says local transit advocate David Jeanes.

"They're going for a major expansion of bus transitways, even though nothing has been done to solve the capacity and congestion issues that buses are causing downtown," he told CBC in an interview aired Friday on Ottawa Morning.

"The federal and provincial governments understand that and they're very unlikely to agree either to their existing money being spent on this way or any future money to be
spent on a bus tunnel — a completely unproven concept — deep under downtown Ottawa."

The new plan passed by the joint transportation and transit committee Wednesday includes: