Ottawa Rapid Transit Network developments

[lrt's friend]

An interesting thing that I noticed in the transit report. The requirement for extension of LRT to Barrhaven, Orleans and Kanata, has nothing to do with overall community density or population, but instead it is based only on the density of the town centres. There is also a great variation in the size of the Town Centres defined for each suburb, which will greatly affect how quickly the required density can be achieved. It seems to me that this requirement is rather arbitrary, and assumes that demand for light rail will not be affected by the overall population of the community. It also seems to me that we are getting into another chicken and eggs debate. Light rail demands density, but light rail can be a tool to create density. In fact, the lack of light rail may prevent the required density from evolving. It is also interesting that this same argument is not being applied to Riverside South, where the same analysis is not being performed. I do agree that the circumstances and transportation requirements are different in Riverside South, but one has to wonder whether this town centre density requirement is really more about reducing expectations for light rail in Barrhaven, Kanata, and Orleans because the city simply cannot afford to extend service there. Of course, LRT to Barrhaven Town Centre is clearly affordable based on the specs of the cancelled project. Light rail through Baseline Station is going to be a very expensive proposition given the missing links in the Transitway. We already have an enormous price estimate for a very short section of Transitway just south of Baseline Station, a price per km similar to building the downtown tunnel.