Quote:
Originally Posted by phil235
Two problems with this. One, can you imagine what downtown would look like if it had multiple versions of the Slater-Albert transit way cutting through it? Not a downtown that would be remotely appealing for any purpose other than receiving large volumes of commuters.
Two, the single-seat, peak period express bus model is horrendously expensive. Sure you could potentially try to recover some of that cost with higher fares, but there is a limit to what you can charge. And by devoting more and more resources to that commuter model, you are depleting the resources you can put towards a comprehensive all-day transit system that makes transit a viable transportation option.
There is a reason (or more accurately, multiple reasons) that no major cities have followed the path that you are suggesting.
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Yes, phil235, I can imagine a bus tunnel under Downtown Ottawa. It is not impossible for buses to run underground, nor to have below-grade bus stations. Ottawa had the St. Laurent Transitway station, as an example. If you don’t think of that as a long enough tunnel – since it only had one station. – then check out Boston’s Silver Line tunnel. (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M95c7SNas4)
I do get the feeling that you are having difficulty imagining Ottawa’s downtown with a bus tunnel. Ottawa was running about 200 buses an hour along Slater. If 150 of those had been put underground, there would have been room to grow the system (up to about 220 buses in the tunnel) before any extra would have needed to be added back to the surface. I doubt that it would have been the disaster that you imply.
That said, your statement about the cost to run single-seat service echoes mine. If OC Transpo had to run 250-275 express buses per hour plus the rest of the bus network, the operating cost would be very high. This is why I said that the decision to convert most of the Transitway to trains was primarily one based on economics, not on having too many buses on Slater and Albert – although the latter is one of the symptoms that prompted a decision to be made.
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