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Ottawa Confederation Line LRT (City of Ottawa, U/C)

I found these diagrams online, and from the wording on the documents it looks like they're leaning towards exactly what I favour (grade-separated along Richmond/Byron). They actually specify "if at-grade", which makes me believe that that's an alternative as opposed to the preferred option.

Here are the 3 documents:
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/lrt_west_corridor_ea/images/oh1_db24.pdf
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/lrt_west_corridor_ea/images/oh1_db25.pdf
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/lrt_west_corridor_ea/images/oh1_db23.pdf
 
Eric Darwin "leaked" a detailed look at the western corridor on his blog WestSideAction a few weeks ago http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/western-lrt-part-i/. There seem to be endless combinations and variations of the three main routes. For Richmond/Byron, most of the options involve some at-grade and some underground sections. The Carling routes are similar, but with a lot of elevated running too.

Refreshing to see a team really using their imaginations and really looking at a lot of possibilities in coming up with the best balance of speed, cost, and other factors. As opposed to the way transit is planned in Toronto.
 
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CapitalSeven said:
Eric Darwin "leaked" a detailed look at the western corridor a few weeks ago on his blog WestSideAction a few weeks ago http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/western-lrt-part-i/. There seem to be endless combinations and variations of the three main routes. For Richmond/Byron, most of the options involve some at-grade and some underground sections. The Carling routes are similar, but with a lot of elevated running too.

Refreshing to see a team really using their imaginations and really looking at a lot of possibilities in coming up with the best balance of speed, cost, and other factors. As opposed to the way transit is planned in Toronto.
Click to expand...

Very good summary of the proposal. Thanks for posting this.
 
After reading those presentations in more detail, I particularly like the emphasis that City staff is placing on the fact that these lines are intended to be 'long haul' lines. That means they are focusing on a few different things: speed, grade-separation (to get speed), wider stop spacing (again, to get speed), and nodal development. It's nice to see that they're recognizing that these lines are intended to get people from Point A to Point B quickly, and emphasizing the RAPID part of rapid transit.

They repeat several times that Carling is supposed to get an in-median LRT as part of the supplementary network, and mixing the long-haul needs of the primary line and the local needs of the corridor won't work. If they were to try to cater to both crowds, what you'd end up with is a medium speed line that doesn't cater to local needs very well.

Grade-separate the primary network, and equip it with wider stop spacing, both of which will increase speed and reliability. Then design a secondary network that can have smaller stop spacing and little to no grade-separation to fill in the gaps. Ah, transit planning, the way it SHOULD be done!
 
Komiksulo said:
"A winner chosen by September 2010"???
Click to expand...

Who will be the winner, Doctor?

Tardis.jpg
 
Spot on. Both downtown stations will be on Queen St now instead of one being on Albert St.
 
Mapleson said:
Spot on. Both downtown stations will be on Queen St now instead of one being on Albert St.
Click to expand...

I like these changes. The "cross country" was initially implemented to appease business owners on both Albert and Slater who would be losing the Transitway at their doorsteps. Under that plan, each street got 1 station. Queen Street is the best street in my mind for this: it still goes right through the heart of downtown, it aligns very well with where the Rideau station needs to go, it won't have any effect on the Transitway through downtown during construction, and it allows for shallower stations, which was one of the big complaints of the previous version (some stations were going to be up to 10 storeys underground).
 
The changes are a definate improvement. If a story is 4m, they've knocked 6 storey underground off those two stations (from 10 to 4) and 2 storey off Rideau station (from 6 to 4).

One small issue I have is that they moved those stations closer together, so there is ~280m between the two on Queen Street. I'd have pushed the Downtown East between Metcalfe and O'Connor (not O'Connor and Bank) or Downtown West between Bay and Lyon (not Lyon and Kent). It still gives good coverage of the core, it just leaves some areas with outstanding surface transit needs.
 
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