Transit throwback: The bumpy ride to Ottawa's 'new' north-south LRT
As opening day arrives, here's a look back at what might have been
Kate Porter · CBC News · Posted: Dec 06, 2024 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours ago
North-south light rail in Ottawa.
It's a dream that's more than 20 years old, a project killed then resurrected.
Now, eight new stations are built and five stations dating back to former mayor Bob Chiarelli's 2001 pilot project have been updated. Sixteen kilometres of extra track have been laid. Seven Stadler trains — off-the-shelf
diesel models from Switzerland and not an
Ottawa innovation like their electric Alstom counterparts on Line 1 — have undergone months of testing and
scored well.
Today, OC Transpo is expected to announce when the Trillium Line will reopen to the public.
People will be able to board an O-Train Line 2 on the edge of Riverside South or near Findlay Creek, travel through the Carleton University campus and hook up with the existing LRT at Bayview. Or, they can get off at South Keys and take a side trip to the EY Centre for a trade show, or ride on to the airport on the new Line 4.
But as the city marks this big expansion of rail to its fast-growing southern suburbs, it's worth reflecting on the project's long history.
A version of this OC Transpo rail line that might have opened about 15 years ago and taken toddlers to swimming lessons will instead open in time to take those same residents to university classes.
2006 plan fell in tight vote
The inaugural ride this month, which is bound to see smiles and speeches, will take place almost exactly 18 years after a charged council meeting on Dec. 14, 2006, that changed the trajectory of transit in Ottawa.
Led by former mayor Larry O'Brien, elected just weeks before, city council
voted 13-11 to "press the reset button" on the north-south light rail project championed by his predecessor, Bob Chiarelli, who had finished a distant third in that fall's mayoral race behind O'Brien and Alex Munter.
"What's frustrating is it was [a difference of] one vote," remarks Coun. Steve Desroches, the only current member of Ottawa city council who was at the table in 2006. Back then, he was a new councillor elected to a new ward to represent the new community of Riverside South, where he's lived since 2002.
Desroches still runs into other residents who moved into the community in its early days — he calls them the "pioneers of Riverside South" — when the community was supposed to grow densely around a mass transit line.
"They really had the view that they were going to get one car and rely on the train to get to work," says Desroches. "And that balloon burst with a really poor political decision — I will say that to my final days."
What's new is old
Today's north-south route looks similar to the maps shared 20 years ago for the original dream, only this line is shorter and has fewer stations. It follows a lot of the same old rail corridor.
In the mid-2000s, the original plan was for an electric train to travel from Barrhaven down Chapman Mills Drive, over a much-needed bridge to Riverside South, then on to Bayview and downtown. Trains would have travelled above ground on Albert and Slater streets like streetcars — animations showed trains mingling with traffic and cyclists — before reaching the final station at the University of Ottawa.
Old television news stories from that period show a different generation of decision-makers discussing sums of money that seem small now. After all, the City of Ottawa ended up signing
a $2.1-billion contract to build the Confederation Line trunk and tunnel that
opened in 2019, and the price tag for the Stage 2 extensions
east, west and south has risen to
nearly $5 billion.
Back in May 2004, however, then premier Dalton McGuinty joined Chiarelli and federal Liberal MP David Pratt to announce "the largest intergovernmental infrastructure commitment in the history of our city": $200 million from each level of government for a total of $600 million. By summer 2006, when the city approved a contract with Siemens-PCL/Dufferin, the price had
risen well above $700 million and people were debating if the plan was worth it.
David Jeanes has advocated for transit for years and can easily recall the debate in detail. He was part of a "Get it Right" coalition of concerned citizens and businesses. At the time, transit capacity downtown Ottawa was maxed out.
"There was just no space on Albert and Slater for the hundreds of buses that they were trying to push through there in the rush hour," he remembers.
Downtown businesses opposed the idea of adding light rail trains to compete with cars and buses on congested streets. Many argued a north-south train wouldn't fix the traffic problems, and an east-west train was needed.
"Fix it, don't nix it," argued mayoral candidate Munter at the time. He proposed the city shorten the north-south project and use the savings to start east-west. O'Brien said he would cancel the project.
More debate swirled about whether the light rail contract truly had to be finalized by Oct. 15, in the middle of an election, or if an extension could push it to a new council.
An important twist came when John Baird, then president of the Treasury Board and MP for Ottawa–West Nepean, said he had reviewed the contract and the
federal government's $200 million would flow only after a new city council gave its approval. Critics accused Baird of interfering in a local election, and he would later
defend his decision before a House of Commons committee.
As the city's newly elected mayor, O'Brien presided over more drama in the first weeks of the council term that December. Council approved a
quickly modified plan that would have stopped the line at LeBreton Flats and removed the contentious downtown portion, only to pull the plug completely the following week as the contract was about to expire.
Cancelling came at a cost. Siemens
sued for $177 million, and the city
settled in 2009 for $37 million.
Slower growth for Riverside South
Riverside South resident Lynn Vanasse, who bought her home 20 years ago, says she wanted the rail project because it would have brought a new bridge between Barrhaven and Riverside South. Back then, she took the scenic route north to Hunt Club Road or south to Manotick to cross to Barrhaven for groceries or swimming lessons.
"I used to joke it would be easier to take a canoe across the river, and quicker," Vanasse remembers.
The Vimy Memorial Bridge would open, but not until 2014. It has no rail on it, and even a possible bus rapid-transit connection from Limebank Station to Barrhaven is not coming any time soon.
The light rail cancellation "stunted" how Riverside South grew so that it wasn't built around transit, says Desroches.
"Developers in this community chose to wait until the train was operational or the train really was going to happen," the councillor says. "You know, once burned, twice shy."
