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LRT changing tracks East, west ends of city become priorities: SUN
Fri, November 7, 2008
By DEREK PUDDICOMBE, CITY HALL BUREAU
The city's latest light-rail transit plan might be moving in a different direction.
Based on feedback from a series of public consultations that began in September, city staff are expected to alter the plan, which takes light rail from Riverside South to the Blair Rd. transit station.
About 5,000 people participated in public meetings, wrote to the city or visited the city's website, offering alternatives and suggestions on how to proceed with rapid transit. Many said taking light rail east-west should be the priority.
Coun. Alex Cullen, chairman of the city's transit committee, confirmed staff will be tabling a modified transit plan on Monday.
"What councillors will likely see is a modified east-south proposal that will move up the western corridor earlier than had initially been planned," said Cullen.
Cullen added moving west still hinges on approval from the National Capital Commission to take LRT along the Ottawa River Pkwy.
The Sun has learned staff overseeing the implementation of LRT are also considering changing the plan so light rail doesn't extend beyond the Greenbelt in the short term.
GREENBORO STATION
That means the north-south portion of the light-rail line would end at the Greenboro transit station -- short of Riverside South -- and the east-west portion would go to possibly Westboro from Blair Rd. station.
West-Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry supports the move to get LRT moving east-west.
"This is a good compromise and I feel confident with (staff's) approach," he said. "I'm glad we are dealing with inside the Greenbelt because that's where the ridership is."
Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches has been briefed on the revised plan and said staff are shelving much of the north-south light-rail portion.
"They are proposing an ambitious plan and one that will focus on east-west," said Desroches, who represents residents in Riverside South. "I'm disappointed."
On Monday, staff will recommend to council what part of the plan should be built first and how the rest of the plan should be phased in.
The city's numbers show ridership during peak morning hours from Riverside South is 300, and the same goes for the peak afternoon period. About 18,000 commuters from Orleans take transit downtown in the morning and 17,000 take it home in the afternoon. About 14,000 Kanata commuters take the bus in the morning and 13,200 in the afternoon.
NUMBERS GAME
All-day transit traffic travelling from the east and west to and from downtown is 159,000 riders, compared to 11,800 transit riders travelling downtown and back from Riverside South and Barrhaven.
During the 2006 municipal election, several councillors argued light rail should move east-west first because there was already the demand to justify it. After much debate, council cancelled the $1-billion north-south line and is now facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit launched by Siemens, the company chosen to build the line.
The public's other priorities for the new transit plan include a downtown transit tunnel, more money spent on transit and less on roads, construction of the Strandherd-Armstrong bridge, and that the new transit system be built as soon as possible.
City staff finally going the
City staff finally going the right way with east-west rail plan Going south first dropped in proposal
Randall Denley, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, November 07, 2008
Finally, they have it right. The transit plan city staff will make public Monday recommends light rail east and west, by way of a downtown tunnel. A plan to start with a southern rail line to Riverside South has been dropped, although it was being touted by staff in September.
The new $1.7-billion, 10-year plan will deliver light rail between Blair station in the east and Tunney's Pasture in the west. Ottawa commuters could be riding the train by 2017. The plan also includes $400 million in bus Transitway improvements to complete critical portions of the system.
The new transit plan still faces significant political hurdles. Councillors must approve the plan later this month, and strong support is seen as critical to getting money from the federal and provincial governments. Each of those governments will be expected to contribute nearly $600 million over the next eight to 10 years, triple what they have promised so far.
The decision to go west, not south, is the surprise in the transit proposal. Back in September, deputy city manager Nancy Schepers was leaning toward extending rail to Riverside South, a plan similar to the one council rejected nearly two years ago.
At the time, city staff were concerned that negotiating with the National Capital Commission to run rail along the Ottawa River Parkway could significantly delay the western rail line. Now, staff are telling councillors that strong public support for east-west rail and further analysis of the numbers has caused them to drop the rail line to the south and add the west instead. Staff are confident that they can negotiate a deal with the NCC.
The downtown tunnel, which will cost about $600 million, is the critical piece of the plan. Without it, the city won't be able to add any more commuter bus service by 2017 because of congestion downtown.
The second phase of rail expansion, which can begin as soon as the money is available, will push light rail west to College station at Baseline Road and extend it from Bayview to South Keys, to replace the O-Train. That will cost $1 billion.
That's probably it for rail in the 20-year scope of this plan. Commuters in the suburbs will have to be content with extensions of the bus Transitway. The third phase of the plan offers the possibility of light rail to Riverside South, but only if the population justifies it.
The decision to go east-west is strongly supported by the numbers. It would attract the most riders, five million a year more than the earlier east-south plan. It would also bring in far more fare revenue, easing the subsidy burden on homeowners.
East-west has a 50-per-cent lower capital cost per passenger kilometre. It also generates $90 million a year in operating cost savings because it takes more buses off the street. The east-west plan would remove 90 per cent of buses from Albert and Slater streets, twice as many as east-south.
Environmentally, east-west wins again. Because it relies more on electric rail, it produces nearly 50 per cent more greenhouse-gas reductions. The east-west line also fits within the city's goal of delivering the high-cost rail service inside the Greenbelt, where most of the riders live.
Despite all of that, this new plan is no slam dunk at city council. Councillors have been briefed on the plan and Councillor Maria McRae says "I don't see anybody voting for any of this. Right now, everybody's mad."
The reason, she says, is that no one is getting all of what they want. Councillors from the east and the west want the rail to go farther and everyone wants it to happen faster. Councillors from the south are particularly disappointed because all they get is the construction of the Strandherd-Armstrong bridge and a bus connection to Barrhaven.
The staff plan will be supported by Mayor Larry O'Brien, and his staff are working at getting councillors on side.
Then there is the problem of federal and provincial money. Councillor Peter Hume says "it is not at all clear that we will get $1.7 billion." Both the senior governments want to spend infrastructure money on projects that are ready to go now, Hume says.
We will never know what those governments will support until the city produces a clear and compelling plan that is well-supported by both councillors and the public. We're getting close. The public strongly favours an east-west rail route and city staff have the logical arguments to back it. Staff will have to make those arguments clearly and effectively Monday. Then it's up to councillors to get over their short-term thinking and concern that there won't be any rail built in time for their next election campaign. Councillors must remember that the goal is to build a durable system that will serve Ottawans for decades to come.
Contact Randall Denley at 613-596-3756 or by e-mail, rdenley /at/ thecitizen.canwest.com
ALMOST half of the €752m
ALMOST half of the €752m spent on the Dublin Port Tunnel went on legal fees, underground land MB2-632 costs, construction supervisors and environmental reports.
It cost €448m to physically build the tunnel. The Irish Independent has learned that the remaining €304m MB2-633 went on costs including construction supervision, land acquisition, insurances, legal fees, environmental E20-520 reports and and pre-planning investigations.