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Ottawa Transit Developments

drum118 said:
Some places in NA have a 2 seat ride while in Europe it can be 1-3 depending where the rider is coming from, but mainly 1-2. Many Europe airports are service by Intercity rail that require travelers to use transit and then transfer to rail. Denver has transit rail to its airport

Edinburgh, Barcelona, Zurich, Hamburg, Nice, Paris, London, Copenhagen that I have been to had regular transit service to the airport by rail from the city center. The old Berlin airport had rail with a long walk from the station to the airport. A few others places had transit buses, or required a higher fare to get to the airport like NA..

Don't see Line 2 been extended to the downtown, but never know.
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It may actually turn out that it becomes a two seat ride without anything changing. As Lebreton fills out with the new Sens arena, shops, restaurants, hotels etc it's going to a be a main tourist area of Ottawa on par with the Byward Market, much more so then the rather dull central district of government offices.

ncc-ccn.gc.ca

LeBreton Flats Master Concept Plan

Every day, we work to build an inspiring capital that is a source of pride for all Canadians.
ncc-ccn.gc.ca ncc-ccn.gc.ca
 
I'm happy this day finally came for Ottawa residences, but my goodness have they screwed their transit system in the future by making so many compromises that could've been avoided has they put a bit more money up front. Unfortunately now they'll have to live with these mistakes forever.

Line 1 is perpetually screwed by the Citadis vehicles, Line 2 is screwed by the continued single tracked portions, and Line 4 is screwed by being a stubway constricted by limited vehicle length. It's really quite sad to see in a way.
 
Great! It will be interesting to see where OC ridership numbers go with this 40% expansion. And I like to keep in mind that it is transit+zoning that brings results!
 
KevinT said:
Nice to see it, but ugh, that hammering diesel noise... :(

(Yes, I know, there are valid reasons why they couldn't electrify it.)
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Not electrifying is a mistake, but not doubling track the line is even a greater mistake, considering how long the line was close.. The RR's need to get into the 20th century thinking that electrifying is the way to go and it has no impact on them considering they only use the line at night.

Have yet to rider Alstom DMU's, but have ridden Stadler DMU's in Europe. All DMU's even Bombardier ones all have noise at various levels
 
drum118 said:
Not electrifying is a mistake, but not doubling track the line is even a greater mistake, considering how long the line was close.. The RR's need to get into the 20th century thinking that electrifying is the way to go and it has no impact on them considering they only use the line at night.

Have yet to rider Alstom DMU's, but have ridden Stadler DMU's in Europe. All DMU's even Bombardier ones all have noise at various levels
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Would you say the entire line needs to be double tracked before considering electrification?
 
Bojaxs said:
Would you say the entire line needs to be double tracked before considering electrification?
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Certainly the row needs to be in a "long term" configuration before any OCS is constructed. Other wise there will be rework.

And working around energised OCS to add a second track would result in low construction productivity and higher cost.

So, yes, I would finish the double track first.

And remember - dirty diesel trains that take people out of cars are fundamentally strong carbon wins. Electrifying those trains is just gravy. Let's keep our eye on the prize and not fixate on having nice things.

- Paul
 
PS - not being close to the original planning - why was it necessary to build the airport section as a stub rather than planning an interleaved line that allowed airport passengers to come all the way to the main LRT? That seems to easy to achieve, and far more marketable.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
PS - not being close to the original planning - why was it necessary to build the airport section as a stub rather than planning an interleaved line that allowed airport passengers to come all the way to the main LRT? That seems to easy to achieve, and far more marketable.
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Wow, I just looked at a map.

Are Line 2 and Line 4 the same technology?
 
I Agree with Paul @crs1026 that you need to double track now for DMU's so it be easier to electrify down the road. It should happen years ago before the extension happen.

I always thought the airport line was an interline thing, not a stub line. It defeat the idea providing good service to those who want to travel by transit to/from the airport. Don't know how long a rider has to wait to make a transfer to either line nor the protection for the rider from the weather doing so, especially this time of the year.

Any thought of taking line east requires either building a tunnel for the trail or a bridge for the elevated section to the north that will have to do a sweeping curve to go underground and duplicate existing service at a huge cost. It is possible once the line is electrify and using the same equipment as line 1 that line 2 could interchange with line 1with some operation issues, mostly, it only needs to be one car long. It will reduce the headway from where it interline takes place to the end of the line in the east.

@nfitz, Line 2 is using Stadler equipment and line 4 using Alston equipment that are both DMU's with Stadler being longer. Alston replaced Bombardier equipment for line 2 before the expansion and stand to be corrected on it.
 
crs1026 said:
PS - not being close to the original planning - why was it necessary to build the airport section as a stub rather than planning an interleaved line that allowed airport passengers to come all the way to the main LRT? That seems to easy to achieve, and far more marketable.

- Paul
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Ans: Single track sections. Line 4 *could* operate all the way to Bayview, but it would half the freqency from 12 to 24 minutes for points south of South Keys station on both branches. So, for now they decided that Line 4 terminates at South Keys, though in the future they could change their mind.

The other issue is that the Line 4 platforms are only 45m long versus 90m on Line 2. The LINTs on Line 4 can (and do) run on Line 2, but the FLIRTs can only be used on Line 2.

The biggest limiting factor on frequency is a single track part under Walkley Rd. They didn't want to rebuild the road bridge on this contract, but they do plan on replacing the Walkley Rd overpass at some point in the future. That would allow double tracking through Walkley station. At that point they could increase the frequency to 8 minutes or so, and allow Line 4 to run through to Bayview
 
The two airport spur stations are half length. The FLIRTs would have to open only half the doors, which would be fun operationally. When and if more double tracking occurs, a frequency of 10 or 7.5 minutes might bring full airport service to Bayview into play.
 
Rode out to YOW to start a holiday this afternoon. Mostly positives. The transfers at Corso Italia (from bus) and South Keys were very smooth and the trip, while not fast, is easy and comfortable. Ridership on line 2 is already good even in early afternoon. My airport train had 8 pax, in line with what I expected. However it's day 2 and minus 8; I expect trains in tourist season will be fuller.

I took me about 65 mins from central Ottawa, not bad for regular fare but 3 to 4 times what an Uber would take, at maybe 1/6 the cost. Fair enough. The weak link is going to be any bus connection required. I narrowly missed 2 buses running in a platoon, and then waited close to 20 minutes while the Transit app fed me a mix of accurate and fantasy information, to the extent I didn't know whether waiting was worthwhile. OC Transpo seems to be getting better at running trains but is nowhere near running its bus system with any competence at all.
 
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At least it does look like Airport Station was designed with the thought of full length platforms in mind, given the wide pillars

Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-3-48-47-PM.png
 
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