Lessons

A lot has happened with Ottawa’s hybrid light metro/rail system, most of it negative, but most confuse it with the very successful O-Train, which is not light rail at all, rather a regional railway, operating DMU’s.

This is what Rail for the Valley is proposing for the Valley Rail scheme and what the E&N folks should be proposing for returning a passenger service on the presently moribund route.

The province is spending over $16 billion to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km, yet the Rail for the Valley scheme could be in operation for under $2 billion and attract more ridership, simply because it directly services a minimum of 12 major destinations.

Building expensive light metro to win elections is a fools game in the end, sadly the fools are the taxpayers who keep voting for politcans who keep doing the same thing over again, hoping for different results.

From our man in Ottawa.

The following video is Renee Amilcarr’s the head of O.C. Transpo, the LRT Committee and the operator Transit Next report to council on Line 2 and Line 4. 

This live meeting with City council’ Joint Transit and Finance Committee monthly Stage 2 LRT progress report is to announce the final testing, what’s involved and when Line 2 and Line 4 will eventually open. 

The important part is this is the first line extension opening after the 104 points learned from the LRT Inquiry were incorporated. The 98.5% performance standard and THIRD PARTY testing and evaluation are some of the most important points, that are constantly brought up to the listener. The fact that all data good or bad is completely open to the press and public. 

The report is about 50 minutes long (if you want to listen to the whole thing) but it’s the first 8 minutes that are quite telling and offer a stark contrast to SkyTrain’s operations and Translink’s very non public operations data policy. Keep in mind we learned this process the hard way.

Let the Games Begin