Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel: The good and the Bad

Summary

1. It's not what mayor's task force recommended
2. It won't be here soon enough, and take too long to build
3. It will not replace BRT downtown
4. It will cost so much, no other LRT will get built. This tunnel may not even get built!
5. Downtown merchants were mislead into supporting this.

It was not what the mayor's task force recommended.

They recommended:
1. A fairly shallow pair of bored tubes;
2. Railway-size tunnels so as not to exclude full-sized rolling stock (such as commuter trains from outside the city)
3. Several stations (not just two in the office district);
4. Electrified with overhead contact wire;
5. Must compare tunnel to surface LRT, not to busway
6. Mayor's task force did not recommend we abandon idea of surface LRT, but that we study all possibilities.

It won't be here soon enough, and take too long to build

1. The DOTT is nothing more than a OCTranspo's 'Red Ruse' -- a diversion to delay forever any LRT in Ottawa
2. No extensions to the O-train have been considered, not even a temporary/emergency service to replace the service to Gatineau, until the Chaudiere Bridge is repaired.
3. BRT investment continues, even though there is no business case for the spending, and there is no space downtown for any increase in number of buses. BRT investment is wasted.
4. As demonstrated by the strike, operating costs are out of control, and are soaring. Ratio of 1 driver, 40 passengers is the cause split shifts and scheduling problems. This tunnel proposal will not even attempt to solve this.

This proposal is too expensive
1. alignment is wrong, there are too few stations. This means that the dwell time t each station will have to be much longer than desirable, the whole system will run slowly, and stations will be overcrowded.
2. the tunnel is too deep (due to the wrong alignment), and so the stations are too deep. The deeper they are, the more expensive they are, and the more critical it is that the escalators work. How many escalators do we have at St.Laurent transitway station? How many work?
3. fewer stations mean much longer trips to/from downtown destinations. We can not build an underground "PATH"1 like system overnight, without it people will ride LONG, CROWDED escalators to the surface, where they will walk through unplowed sidewalks, getting covered by slush from the buses that are still running.
4. if we do get an underground "PATH", this will be bad for the downtown street scape and retail economy. Downtown will be an even greater ghost town after 6pm.
5. in peak there will be a lot of people in the two stations. Off peak, there will nobody, and there will be a lot of places to hide. Consider the problems we had with the Rideau Street bus shelters and the Rideau/Conference Centre underpass!
6. imagine how Canada Day is going to work. (compare that to a surface LRT system, which can stop anywhere)
7. operating costs will be much higher, as the tunnel does not get rid of the buses downtown, even in 2031. Removing transit from the street was the reason the downtown businesses wanted a tunnel.
8. this proposal needs to be compared to a surface LRT (EA already completed) solution, such as the Friends of the O-train 2006 solution, which cost $399M!
9. this proposal, like the NS-LRT proposal, is DESIGNED by bus consultants with little rail experience, and is DESIGNED to be an expensive failure.

The system does not go far enough
1. more money spent downtown == less money spent where people live.
2 .Orleans will continue to be a bedroom community, no opportunities for local jobs and reverse commutes.
3. stopping at Blair is wrong. The transit cooridor from Milklennium Place through Blackburn Hamlet should be LRT. It would service the general hospital/CHEO complex (and the Pearly) No more $13/hour parking fees to visit sick friends.
4. if no LRT will run for 10-15 years, and it won't run beyond Blair/Baseline station, will Orleans, Kanata and Barrhaven ever have LRT?