Ottawa LRT

[Canard]

Lazy twitter update:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lots of <a href="https://twitter.com/Alstom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Alstom</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CITADIS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CITADIS</a> Spirit LRV's spotted at the Belfast Yards for Ottawa's new Light Rail system. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OttLRT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OttLRT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnTrack2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnTrack2018</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OCTranspo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OCTranspo</a> <a href="https://t.co/962PRx7iJy">pic.twitter.com/962PRx7iJy</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/929832983430918146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2017</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I noticed that it looks like the covered yard is expanding - assuming this is for a fleet expansion in advance of Stage 2. <a href="https://t.co/UKmENWQkFc">pic.twitter.com/UKmENWQkFc</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/929833215862460416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2017</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Amazing stations along the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OttLRT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OttLRT</a> route - reminds me more of an automated light metro (like Copenhagen), than it does LRT. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnTrack2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnTrack2018</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OCTranspo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OCTranspo</a> <a href="https://t.co/h0RGzZXOpG">pic.twitter.com/h0RGzZXOpG</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/929833567907143681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2017</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/Alstom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Alstom</a>'s new <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CITADIS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CITADIS</a> Spirit LRV's wear the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OCTranspo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OCTranspo</a> livery with pride. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnTrack2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnTrack2018</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LightRail?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LightRail</a> <a href="https://t.co/tyribcDZ9C">pic.twitter.com/tyribcDZ9C</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/929834279160434688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2017</a></blockquote>

(...I wouldn't do this if there was an easier way to upload multiple images.)

[KevinL]

Looks like Ottawa is ahead on trains, but we're ahead on stations/infrastructure...

[Canard]

They have a very long way to go if they're planing on opening next summer!

[Viewfromthe42]

Canard, I would say that some of the station infrastructure is a response to the very suburban hub-and-spoke design of Ottawa's transit system. The station at Blair Road is often shown as being a grandiose station, but indeed it needs to be sizable (and the decades-old structure needed redoing even before LRT needed to be fit in). Dozens of routes flowed through that area to bring people to and from the transitway, and since this is the terminus, it effectively needs LRT as well as all the old bus lines which continue Eastward. The site itself is a bit nightmarish for transit users; the nearest homes are half a kilometer of pedestrian-hostility away. If we considered some of the original LRT documents, suggesting that the real region of influence of a station was a 500m radius, this site would have highway and parking lot gobbling up that entire area and then some.

All that is to say that the structures are almost a red herring. The city of Ottawa's LRT system is shiny and new, but at the moment, the organization of the transit system around it, and of city-building in general, is as painfully inadequate as ever. I'm disgusted that what was once a useful stop near my parents' home, with buses every hour or 45 minutes, half hour during peak times, and a peak time express route, all has fallen away to a two bus out, two bus in schedule for weekdays only, and a more than 1km walk to the nearest transit line of any calibre. We complain in Waterloo Region about how our cycling infrastructure is done so piecemeal, that we will have a golden segregated bike setup in UpTown and so few ways to connect smoothly to and from it, but Ottawa is playing that same "shiny shiny look over here" game orders of magnitude more expensive with how they develop their system and city, still very much about the personal automobile.

[Canard]

Hmm, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side... I was drooling at all the bike infra I saw everywhere as we drove around the city. It seems to change so much every time we visit! I look forward to going back next summer with my bike and spending a day exploring (and riding the LRT, or at least watching it test!)

[Pheidippides]

LRT handover pushed back, city says

"Rideau Transit Group (RTG) is getting extra time to deliver after telling the city that meeting the May 24, 2018, deadline would be risky."

"The new target date has not been announced."

"Before RTG can hand over the system it will have to finish construction on the new LRT stations, finish building all the trains and test the overall system."

[Canard]

Yeah, when I was there a month or so ago, it looked like it was realistically a year out.  Tracks still weren't laid in sections!

[Canard]

Electrical Fire on Ottawa LRT:

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/small-electric...-1.3755366

[Canard]

LRT handover likely running late, transit boss says - CBC

[KevinL]

Is their consortium also responsible for assembling vehicles?

[Pheidippides]

When will government's learn that secrecy is never a good strategy? People either assume you hiding something bad or you are actually hiding something bad and that's going to come out anyway - probably before they want it to.

Just be upfront. Own your mistakes. Focus on solutions. The public is more forgiving than most think - provided they aren't taken for a ride (and for granted) in the process.

[Rainrider22]

When will government's learn that secrecy is never a good strategy? People either assume you hiding something bad or you are actually hiding something bad and that's going to come out anyway - probably before they want it to.

Just be upfront. Own your mistakes. Focus on solutions. The public is more forgiving than most think - provided they aren't taken for a ride (and for granted) in the process.

You sir, are bang on !!

[tomh009]

When will government's learn that secrecy is never a good strategy? People either assume you hiding something bad or you are actually hiding something bad and that's going to come out anyway - probably before they want it to.

Just be upfront. Own your mistakes. Focus on solutions. The public is more forgiving than most think - provided they aren't taken for a ride (and for granted) in the process.

Which secrecy are you referring to?  That they have not yet announced a new date?  Or something else?

[jamincan]

I think it's in the context of Metrolinx not being transparent about its deals with CN/CP.

[Pheidippides]

When will government's learn that secrecy is never a good strategy? People either assume you hiding something bad or you are actually hiding something bad and that's going to come out anyway - probably before they want it to.

Just be upfront. Own your mistakes. Focus on solutions. The public is more forgiving than most think - provided they aren't taken for a ride (and for granted) in the process.

Which secrecy are you referring to?  That they have not yet announced a new date?  Or something else?

Actually it was this line in the article that I was referring:

But even when the consortium does give the city a new date, the public won't find out what it is for weeks.

Manconi and other rail officials said they will update council's finance and economic development committee sometime in the first quarter of this year.

There are two finance committees scheduled during the first three months of this year, on Feb. 6 and March 6.

The consortium is going to tell the city, but the city isn't going to publicize for weeks.


On the other hand the city's general manager of transportation was being a little more straightforward:

"Our assessment — and every indication we have — leads us to believe there's no way they're going to make May 24,"

I'd like to see some of that locally given we are 103 workdays from "late spring" (June 21).