Ottawa has another opportunity to re-use the seldom used cross-town rail line to develop another lost-cost single track service. It could link the high tech Kanata business park with thousands of jobs with Greenboro Station (and possibly even further east with a potential connection into Ottawa's VIA station), crossing most of the city, and other rapid transit lines and establishing a service that cannot be provided efficiently today. This was long proposed but fell off the radar to prioritize the enormous cost of the Confederation Line.It was quite a bargain, that line. Cost something like 21 million to build. Peanuts even in 2001 dollars.
I was hoping it would spur more transit agencies to consider using disused rail lines as transit, but its not always that easy. This abandoned line happened to be quite close to many points of interest.
The only other lines like this that I can think of are in California, with the San Diego Sprinter, and the SMART train north of San Francisco.
The Ion LRT does use a portion of the Waterloo Spur, but not exclusively.
The city is currently considering the purchase of that corridor (the section that it doesn't already own). Whether it's used will largely depend on what the 2022 TMP says.This was long proposed but fell off the radar to prioritize the enormous cost of the Confederation Line.
The Trillium Line has now been closed for about a week and work has already begun. Chunks of rail have already been removed between Gladstone and Carling, namely.
The city is publishing regular updates like they did for the Confederation Line:
And an update on the Airport link, including a 3D render video
Calgary's people mover is barely planned out so completion by 2021 is unlikely., Bizzare nobody thought of originally extending the exsisting Blue line to the airport considering it already runs on southern airport lands.So by 2021 the number of Canadian cities with rapid transit to their airports will be:
1. Toronto
2. Montreal (REM)
3. Vancouver
4. Ottawa
5. Calgary (via a people mover)
Any else i'm missing?
It'll be run by two trains going back and forth between South Keys and the airport every 12 minutes with the passing track being located through Uplands station (a pretty long one too which stretches over the Airport Parkway). Unless a train breaks down, I can't see any reason why they'd need two tracks at the airport station. In that sense, it's more like the Canada Line station at YVR.^ I'm still kind of surprised it's not going to be two tracks at the airport like it is for UP Express at Pearson. But I guess they've run the calculations.
By 2022*So by 2021 the number of Canadian cities with rapid transit to their airports will be:
Calgary's people mover is barely planned out so completion by 2021 is unlikely., Bizzare nobody thought of originally extending the exsisting Blue line to the airport considering it already runs on southern airport lands.
I admit I know nothing about Calgary's People Mover, but the Trillium Line isn't set to re-open until 2022 which is what I was trying to note ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Calgary's People Mover is by no means a done deal right now AFAIK. Not construction start date much less a finish date.
Heres some more info on it: https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-airport-rail-transit-line-proposal-june-2019I admit I know nothing about Calgary's People Mover, but the Trillium Line isn't set to re-open until 2022 which is what I was trying to note ¯\_(ツ)_/¯