
Ottawa’s O-Train: A Cost-Effective Project (2013) - luu
http://www.cat-bus.com/2013/04/ottawas-o-train-part-ii-a-cost-effective-project/
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jagger27
That's a good one. For those who don't know, the O-Train line was an old
freight line converted into a light rail line. If you ever want a good laugh,
take a look at where the original O-Train line terminates on either end. It
stops juuuuust short of an EXISTING rail bridge to Gatineau (hundreds of
thousands of residents and tons of government jobs) and on the other end
juuuuust short of the international airport. I will never understand why, to
this day, city council isn't talking about where the O-Train can already go.

By all means, they should extend light rail in the other direction, but come
on guys, the rail is already there and we're not using it!

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francislavoie
Actually, Stage 2 of the LRT project will extend the Trillium line down to the
airport.

Crossing over to Gatineau is a very tricky issue though, because the bridge is
in terrible condition and would require major renovation before it could
support traffic again. There's some details here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales_Bridge_(Canada...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales_Bridge_\(Canada\))

~~~
ckdarby
Also, Quebec & Gatineau had a opportunity and picked the rapid bus set up over
it. :(

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icpmacdo
The new line[0] has not been rolled out as well, its a daily discussion
topic[1]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Line)

[1][https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/dx576w/the_lrt_has_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/dx576w/the_lrt_has_successfully_run_24h_without_failure/)

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larnmar
An interesting point is that despite the fact that the train line was already
built and the rolling stock was acquired dirt cheap, the cost was still
significantly higher than a bus.

Poor old buses, unloved by politicians, but usually a far more cost effective
solution to public transport needs than the average multi-billion dollar tram
or train project.

~~~
mehhh
Short of dedicated lanes that are separated with bollards, a bus will be
snarled in traffic at peak hours. Additionally, busses have much lower
carrying capacity and higher operational costs compared to light rail or even
street cars.

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flarg
In England we do have dedicated bus lanes and famously very little room to add
light rail and it works pretty well. Probably a good option for cities and
buses can rerouted and powered by greener energy more easily than rail.

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jlokier
In England here. I wouldn't say the buses work pretty well - journeying on
them tends to make me sick fairly consistently, unlike trains which do not.

I think it is due to the bumpy roads, terrible suspension and polluted air.

The difference is stark enough that I'm happy to go to work at the end of a
train, underground, cycle and/or substantial walking (even in the rain), but
I'm severely put off any job that requires a daily bus. After all, who wants
to feel sick every day.

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francislavoie
Hey, that's from my city! :P

Yeah the O-Train was cheap, but it honestly showed. The stops are few and far
between, and often in the middle of nowhere. I'm in this weird zone where I
can walk for a solid 10 minutes right along the tracks and not encounter a
station. Makes it useless for me.

Ottawa just rolled out its 2nd line a couple months ago, and it's been a bit
of a disaster in terms of costs and technical issues.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Line)

~~~
ckdarby
Some major stops were at South Key's Mall, Carleton University and allowed
boarding on the bus transit way before the LRT.

Isn't useless for the thousand of Carleton students who use it every day.

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calyth2018
It has significant problem when it come to increasing capacity. Because it's
mostly single track, they can't increase the frequency that easily. That leave
it to blasting and twining, which will probably wipe out any saving made by
reusing that freight line. And extending the platform so that they could tack
on more cars when necessary.

Line 2's ridership is pretty pitiful in comparison. Daily ridership is 16900
[1]. SkyTrain does 25000 passenger per hour per direction [2].

Outside of the door problems, we're already seeing capacity problems for Line
1 now. Platform gets full, and it is built for the current configuration, so
you can't add more cars without major construction (read: service
disruptions).

This is what happens when we cheap out on infrastructure. We end up paying
twice, and getting less for the money.

1:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium_Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium_Line)
2: [https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-2017-kevin-
desmond...](https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-2017-kevin-desmond-
canada-line-built-skytrain)

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ghomrassen
It hasn't been a happy time for Ottawa's LRT. They've been scrambling to buy
up buses to take over during LRT shutdowns.

[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/transit-update-
commiss...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/transit-update-commission-
update-november-1.5366134)

