Urbandale puts light rail back on the table
Proposal priced at $1.1 billion, including pair of tunnels running under Canal

Jean-Franois Bertrand, Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Light rail could be making a comeback after an unsolicited new rail plan stole the agenda at the joint transportation and transit committee Wednesday.

The plan was submitted by an Ottawa development company, the Urbandale Corporation, which commissioned a consultant, Morrison Renfrew, to put it together. Working by himself, Mr. Renfrew did the work in three weeks.

"Your concept, which leaves a door open to an East-West connection is unique," said Mayor Larry O'Brien at the meeting.

At the heart of the project is a pair of downtown tunnels, starting at Bronson Avenue, going under the Rideau Canal and ending just south of the University of Ottawa. Light rail and bus transit would then use the same section of transitway. The electric train would stop at Hurdman station for transfers and end its course at the Via Rail station.

To save a year of construction and $20 million, the current single-track tunnel under Dow's Lake would be kept and a signalling system would control the trains. At the southern end, the train would turn west at Armstrong and end its run at River Road. Buses would take commuters over a future bridge connecting with Strandherd Avenue, on the other side of the river.

The cost of the project is estimated at $1.1 billion, including the tunnels.

The mayor noted that the proposed connectivity to regional transit was intriguing and that the project "potentially avoids litigation" with Siemens if it were given this alternative project to build. The company is suing the city over the cancellation of the light rail project last December.

Councillors showed more enthusiasm for the plan than they did for the one put forward by the Friends of the O-Train in January or for the plan submitted by the Mayor's Task Force last June.

Councillor Diane Deans said the Urbandale light rail proposal "addresses the key issues: it has a tunnel downtown, is affordable, connects to regional transit and to East-West transit"

Ms. Deans said she was also impressed by the reaction of the mayor, who didn't close the door and recognized the merit of the proposal.

Councillor Clive Doucet, a long-time light rail supporter, also endorsed the plan.

"I like it. It's practical, it will work. We can do it," he said.

Nancy Schepers, the deputy city manager responsible for planning, transit and environment, said that Urbandale's estimate of a completion of the project within five years was too optimistic.

"It will take time," she said.

The committee asked the planning staff to consider the high-level proposal and report with their comments in October.

Meanwhile, the councillors' interest in a revived light rail plan forced them to defer the approval of short-term transit projects worth $350 million. Before the Urbandale plan came along, the joint transportation and transit committee members had been planning to spend the meeting deciding how to spend the $612 million it was no longer going to spend after council killed the city's light rail plan 10 months ago.

The projects they had planned to look at yesterday would be paid for using money the federal and provincial governments gave the city for the original light rail plan. These projects would be contingent on successful negotiations with the province and the federal governments to redirect the funds toward other transit initiatives.

Committee members, however, did give the go-ahead to some of the projects, such as the West Transitway extension from Bayshore to Moodie Drive and from Woodroffe to Bayshore, and the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge and its associated roadwork. They also approved $46 million to buy new buses in 2009, $15 million for smart cards, $60 million for a new bus garage and $5 million in road improvement, mostly on Slater and Albert Streets.

The joint committee also went against staff recommendations and decided to proceed with some environmental assessments now rather than in the spring.

Councillors fast-tracked the environmental assessment of a downtown transit tunnel. An umbrella organization called the Downtown Coalition was recognized as a stakeholder and will sit on a technical advisory committee. Staff recommended the cancellation of the Rideau-Montreal Corridor Light Rail Transit environmental assessment study. But the committee reinstated it, because of the pending redevelopment of CFB Rockcliffe and the 12,000 future residents of that new community.

As well, a study that will look into the interprovincial transit integration is no longer deferred. Staff had recommended postponing the study, but councillors noted that Gatineau's Rapibus transitway, now under way with Quebec provincial funding, will increase the number of Outaouais buses using downtown Ottawa streets. Gatineau Mayor Marc Bureau earlier this week urged council to bring the study back.

© Ottawa Citizen 2007