[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I really don't think our councillors really understood what the end result of various decisions was going to be.

This isn't really an excuse. It's their job to know and debate the various options.

Also, they were willing to campaign on and cancel the previous plan. So I'm not sure they are all that ignorant or innocent.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

The experts were giving bad advice and the mayor alone was setting the budget.

It wasn't the experts that told them to run the first plan through the downtown core in mixed traffic. And it wasn't the experts that told them to build a metro with trams. Ottawa politicians got fixated on LRT and then decided they had to ram a round peg into a square hole.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I don't believe that suburban voters had a pro-car agenda per se. They were seduced with low tax increases, which is easy to fall prey to. They were not told of the implications regarding transit.

Ottawa voters must just be dumber and more gullible than elsewhere than. Because if the same cuts were proposed in any major GTA municipality most of the council would have lost their seats at the next election. Or....maybe the voters in Ottawa just don't care about transit. And given the politicians they elect, I don't think that's a stretch to say. Ottawa's current mayor somehow cares less about transit than Rob Ford did in Toronto. That's quite an accomplishment.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Now everything is spiralling downward, and the opening of Phase 2, will be that much worse. I almost cry when I hear the commercials from the Provincial Conservatives patting themselves on the back for the biggest transit 'expansion' in North America. I guess Ottawa is not in Ontario.

Ottawa got billions from the provincial and federal governments and driven by their suburban mindset they prioritized reaching as much of suburbia as possible over building a high quality service. Nobody is going to want to put in more money until Ottawa demonstrates substantial ridership after Stage 2. Throwing good money after bad, would be highly irresponsible. Especially, when it costs them nothing to wait and see how Stage 2 pans out.

Personally, I don't think investing more into Ottawa rail transit makes sense until Stage 2 is complete, the future of HFR (and possible integration into Fallowfield and Tremblay) is known and Ottawa shows some willingness to provide a feeder service that grows ridership.