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Ottawa Transit Developments

Allandale25 said:
$1B from province for Ottawa's LRT phase 2 in question
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[...]
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Months later, no cash
But several months later, the province's review of the LRT Phase 2 funding does not seem to be completed.

In response to further questions from CBC, the Ontario Treasury Board stated again that "all projects approved by the government must represent the best use of public funds to go forward."

Also, the statement pointed out that Ottawa received $37 million in gas tax funding last month to help provide public transit services. The Ministry of Transportation could also not provide any assurances that the $1 billion for the second phase of LRT was headed this way. [...]
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/funding-for-lrt2-not-confirmed-1.5008971?cmp=rss

I'm just shocked, so shocked I tell you...

If Ford keeps his word, I'll be even more shocked. He has a record to maintain...
 
The money to fund Ford's tax cuts and to balance the budget has to come from somewhere. Transit projects are very vulnerable as they don't affect current public service jobs.

If phase 2 does not go ahead, the city of Ottawa is screwed. Phase 1 is a minimal system and does not offer a lot to commuters.

In the post Bill Davis era, Conservatives have had a reputation of screwing cities. Ottawa voters were already very leery of Doug Ford. If he reneges, expect the PCs to get even fewer votes in the next election in Ottawa.
 
Nice to see 2 elevators for all levels

I have a major issue how the elevators, stairs and escalator as how they connect to the platform. They reduce space on the platform, as well allowing riders to get by riders on the platform. A safety issue to me.


Egan: LRT, the train to someday, looks to miss third deadline | Ottawa Citizen
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/c...train-to-someday-looks-to-miss-third-deadline
 
drum118 said:
Nice to see 2 elevators for all levels

I have a major issue how the elevators, stairs and escalator as how they connect to the platform. They reduce space on the platform, as well allowing riders to get by riders on the platform. A safety issue to me.


Egan: LRT, the train to someday, looks to miss third deadline | Ottawa Citizen
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/c...train-to-someday-looks-to-miss-third-deadline
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Lyon seems to be the most akwardly laid out at the platform level. Not sure why they did that. Parliament and Rideau aren't quite as constrained
 
It's very difficult to find competent builders of public transit in Canada. This line should have opened a year ago. It doesn't bode well for Toronto's LRT lines either. The Eglinton line for example, I predict will be at least 1 year late in opening.
 
lead82 said:
It's very difficult to find competent builders of public transit in Canada. This line should have opened a year ago. It doesn't bode well for Toronto's LRT lines either. The Eglinton line for example, I predict will be at least 1 year late in opening.
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In all fairness though, far more projects of this nature are late than on-time.
 
lead82 said:
It's very difficult to find competent builders of public transit in Canada. This line should have opened a year ago. It doesn't bode well for Toronto's LRT lines either. The Eglinton line for example, I predict will be at least 1 year late in opening.
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To be fair here, this was a very complex project. I don't think a BRT to LRT conversion of this magnitude has been done anywhere. And the requirement to have a full conversion on day one is a pretty demanding requirement. That's a demand for some extremely high operating reliability. Add to that, complex construction environment, like the soil conditions in Ottawa. The neighbourhood near University of Ottawa is called "Sandy Hill" for a reason.

For a municipality of less than 1 million to take on a $2 billion tunnelled LRT was always ambitious. Hiccups were to be expected. They are actually doing better than expected. The equivalent in the GTA would be Mississauga building a fully segregated, grade-separated, tunnelled LRT with ridership on par with the SRT on day one, and paying for one third of the costs and 100% of the cost risks.
 
Fair point. Then the dates should be set more realistically with enough buffer to compensate for most hiccups. Right now the media is not really reporting what are the issues or when a realistic date of the opening can be. By this far a stage in the project the confidence to project an opening date should be fairly high. Or there is a major problem that should be disclosed to the public.
 
lead82 said:
Fair point. Then the dates should be set more realistically with enough buffer to compensate for most hiccups. Right now the media is not really reporting what are the issues or when a realistic date of the opening can be. By this far a stage in the project the confidence to project an opening date should be fairly high. Or there is a major problem that should be disclosed to the public.
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But the dates were realistic, if maybe a tad optimistic, upon the launch of the project. The original schedule didn't take into account - nor could they have expected - that they'd have to deal with two sinkholes and a tunneling machine which failed after two-thirds of its drive.

Recall that the first official delay to the project at the City end was given as a "freebie" to the consortium due to dealing with the sinkholes.

Dan
 
The biggest problem now is that the contractor, RTG won't give realistic dates. When the first delay happened, RTG said "August", and the city balked at that knowing there was no way they'd make it, and set it at November thinking that would be enough padding to RTG's unrealistic August date. Then RTG missed that date by a longshot, and the city actually came up with the date as the end of March since RTG wasn't providing any info. Now this week, RTG says "we're still on track", even though the city believes the probability of hitting the March 31st is now 0.

In terms of the Crosstown, the contractor has already told Metrolinx "no way we're going to make that date", even going to the point of launching a lawsuit, at least they're being more honest, but in T.O.'s case it's Metrolinx that's being unrealistic.
 
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