Re: STO explains why buses alter route, Aug. 3.
Letters, Ottawa Citizen, Aug 7, 2007

Reading Tony Cote’s column on why Société de Transport de l’Outaouais
buses often divert from their routes really hit home because I have
also experienced these abrupt route changes when taking STO buses from
Gatineau to Ottawa. With Wednesday’s tragic collapse of an expressway
bridge in Minneapolis and then Gatineau’s refusal to consider a
light-rail link with Ottawa, important truths are staring us in the
face.

Why do STO buses change routes across the Ottawa River? Let’s be clear:
it’s to maintain schedules along the congested King Edward, Rideau,
Wellington corridor that they use. It was never designed to handle the
dozens of peak-hour STO buses that use it. Will the planned
$100-million investment in Rapibus by Gatineau improve matters? No, it
can’t, because the Rapibus busways will end near Les Terrasses de la
Chaudière and not provide any additional capacity across the Ottawa
River or in Ottawa.

The Rapibus project has received no attention in Ottawa to date. For it
to make any sense, it must link with lightrail transit service across
the Prince of Wales railway bridge to a location near the Lac Leamy
casino, as proposed by Friends of the O-Train and the mayor’s task
force on transportation. And yet, inexplicably, Gatineau doesn’t want
to even talk about it.

The tragedy in Minneapolis, coupled with last year’s roadbridge
collapse in Laval, remove the veil. We’re faced with a transportation
infrastructure crisis, with our excessive reliance on roads, cars, and
trucks a major part of the problem. Add in the agreed need to reduce
greenhouse-gas emissions and improve air quality, and the message for
residents and governments in Ottawa and Gatineau is blunt and clear:
The O-Train light-rail transit service must be extended quickly across
the Prince of Wales railway bridge into Gatineau, and the STO bus
network oriented around this service.

And as for the much-discussed new bridge across the Ottawa River, let’s
focus on using and maintaining the six we already have, including the
Prince of Wales railway bridge, currently unused for either freight or
transit less than a mile from Parliament Hill.

DAVID GLADSTONE, Ottawa, Founder, Friends of the O-Train