With a growing population, shrinking downtown space and rising gas prices, Ottawa’s transit system will continue to grow and light rail is the way to go, officials said yesterday.
“You’re going to see light rail zipping along the Transitway,” said Alex Cullen, chairman of the city’s transit committee.
“It’s going to be modern, fast and efficient,” he said, adding that the Transitway was built to be convertible to light rail.
“I think it’s going to be LRT-based, but the most important part of it is that a subway will be going through the core of the city,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien. “That will ease the traffic going through downtown.”
Dr. Abd El Halim, chairman of Carleton University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, said while the initial cost of building trains is expensive, the relatively low operating cost makes rail transit compulsory.
El Halim said he would like to see light rail starting from the suburbs — Kanata, Orleans, and Manotick — that connect to stations on the outskirts of the city and run buses through the core.
“When you converge into downtown you should not bring a train there. It has a lot of expensive infrastructure and you’ll have to dig underground.”
Cullen believes that increased transit will also preserve the “urban character” of Ottawa. “It allows us to move people without building more roads,” he said.
