Confederation Line West LRT Extension (Stage 2) [Tunney's to Baseline/Moodie] | U/C

[Richard Eade]

Part of the old Queensway Station structure is being removed. The work is being done over four weekends to minimize disruption to transit. During those weekends, the buses will not be able to travel on the Transitway under the 417. Therefore, buses will use Carling and Woodroffe to go between Lincoln Fields and Baseline stations. The upcoming weekend (Mar. 3-6) is the final scheduled weekend for this detour.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by RegionalRoad31

Thanks. I tried a test run on a 75 from Tunneys last weekend and it skipped the Iris stop entirely, went straight from Lincoln Fields to Baseline. Driver told me that was a temporary measure for the weekend only. Am I correct in my understanding that transitway Iris station will remain in use for the major routes, or is it a temporary stop on Woodroffe @ Iris for the next few years?

I think it will remain in use for the major routes, but maybe double-check with the Stage 2 team. They are usually quite responsive with email questions.

[sseguin]

O-Train Snapshot Update - Westboro to Algonquin/Bayshore Station - March 1, 2023

Work continues to expand the O-Train network in the East, West and South of Ottawa, in a project called Stage 2 LRT. Progress is quite noticeable throughout the network, as stations, tracks and the necessary infrastructure is getting built.

This video provides a snapshot update of the current progress seen on the Western Extension of O-Train Line 1/3, which will extend service West of Tunney's Pasture station to Algonquin and Moodie.

Stations seen in this video include Westboro, Kichi Sibi, Sherbourne, New Orchard, Lincoln Fields, Iris, Algonquin, Queensview, Pinecrest and Bayshore.

• Video Link

[AuxTown]

Awesome update. Of course the progress is slow in big projects like this but this is the first time that the entire line really appears to be progressing. They still seem way too far behind schedule on the Westboro-Lincoln Fields section but I hope the crews will move over from the east section once it is completed to speed things up. Thanks for posting!

[OTSkyline]

Weird, they must be prioritizing some stations over others (probably the biggest or most complex first) since it seems like Algonquin and Lincoln Fields are almost complete while others like Westboro where the trench already existed have seen barely any progress.

Surprising to see how little has been done at Bayshore too.

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Weird, they must be prioritizing some stations over others (probably the biggest or most complex first) since it seems like Algonquin and Lincoln Fields are almost complete while others like Westboro where the trench already existed have seen barely any progress.

Surprising to see how little has been done at Bayshore too.

Is the plan to put trains on the line in the far west end at the Moodie yards, and then run testing to Lincoln Fields and Algonquin over the next 2 years?

[sseguin]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Weird, they must be prioritizing some stations over others (probably the biggest or most complex first) since it seems like Algonquin and Lincoln Fields are almost complete while others like Westboro where the trench already existed have seen barely any progress.

Surprising to see how little has been done at Bayshore too.

Westboro station was just demolished in the last couple months, which was part of the plan, so we should see more action there start ramping up this spring / summer.

[AuxTown]

Saw that Queensway station demolition is well on it's way. No more red bus stations along the 417 anymore!

[J.OT13]

• Video Link

[lrt's friend]

Drove out to Carleton Place today, and saw the ongoing uglification of the western entrance of our city, ie the Moodie maintenance facility.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Drove out to Carleton Place today, and saw the ongoing uglification of the western entrance of our city, ie the Moodie maintenance facility.

No doubt it is ugly, but to be fair, it is much worse westbound (when you are leaving the city) than it is eastbound, so the "uglification of the western entrance of our city" is a bit overblown (more like the uglification of the western exit from our city).

Having said that, I hope infrastructure art funding can go towards painting murals on the maintenance facility. The large, white walls will make a wonderful canvas. Without official art, it will likely be a prime target for graffiti.

[Kitchissippi]

Or, the facades facing the highway could have been (or could be later) a great demonstration for using 3D printed concrete panels.

• Video Link

(source)

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Drove out to Carleton Place today, and saw the ongoing uglification of the western entrance of our city, ie the Moodie maintenance facility.

Lmao, I guess this what Ottawa gets for not having much of an industrial base and forcing almost 50% of its pop to drive through "greenspace" to get to the rest of the city.....

Your driving on a f@#&ing highway, The blight is the damn thing you're using to leave the city not some white building.

[GoTrans]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

Lmao, I guess this what Ottawa gets for not having much of an industrial base and forcing almost 50% of its pop to drive through "greenspace" to get to the rest of the city.....

Your driving on a f@#&ing highway, The blight is the damn thing you're using to leave the city not some white building.

Agreed

[GeoNerd]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Drove out to Carleton Place today, and saw the ongoing uglification of the western entrance of our city, ie the Moodie maintenance facility.

Be careful what you say on here about those big ugly white sheds. This is a very suburban forum. They are quite defensive about their value engineered, econo-boxes, with zero architectural value.

[GeoNerd]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

Lmao, I guess this what Ottawa gets for not having much of an industrial base and forcing almost 50% of its pop to drive through "greenspace" to get to the rest of the city.....

Your driving on a f@#&ing highway, The blight is the damn thing you're using to leave the city not some white building.

Textbook red herring: "Well you're on a freeway which I find ugly, so nothing around you should matter."

What a backwards argument. If that is the logic we are going to use, then just bulldoze anything built off a highway, major street, railroad, etc.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by GeoNerd

Textbook red herring: "Well you're on a freeway which I find ugly, so nothing around you should matter."

What a backwards argument. If that is the logic we are going to use, then just bulldoze anything built off a highway, major street, railroad, etc.

Thank you for your reasonable response.

Oddly enough, we got into a discussion as we drove out to Carleton Place.

First, is there any public transit between Ottawa and Carleton Place? I don't think so.

Are we paying attention to what is happening in these fringe towns at all? Again, I don't think so. There is a lot of development happening out there and it is not all McMansions on acre lots. There are a lot of townhouses being built.

Despite the 'freeway which I find ugly' comment from the original response, what alternative is there? And if a highway is necessary, is it a good thing to destroy the view as we are entering the city, when thousands of visitors to our city enter this way?

The comment was made as we drove on how the scenic view of the Equestrian Park has now been blocked by these ugly new maintenance buildings and a hydro substation (which really stood out to me). This all seems to be part of the 'cheap' implementation of light rail. How scenic views as you come over the hill towards the city have been blighted and how light rail should have run to Eagleson, one station beyond where a maintenance facility could have been placed in a much less scenic location, while providing a much better connection to Kanata.

Why is it that our light rail plans seem to either go one station too short (Moodie instead of Eagleson, Limebank instead of River Road) or one station too far (Trim instead of Place d'Orleans)? It seems that politics has been interfering too much in wise planning this critical infrastructure.

I also commented as we drove, how some sort of train service to Carleton Place with its seemingly explosive growth would be a wise investment. No, not very expensive LRT but a cheap O-Train Phase 1 service, that we seemed to have forgotten how this was built on the cheap and how effective it could be.

[Jay31]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Thank you for your reasonable response.

Oddly enough, we got into a discussion as we drove out to Carleton Place.

First, is there any public transit between Ottawa and Carleton Place? I don't think so.

Are we paying attention to what is happening in these fringe towns at all? Again, I don't think so. There is a lot of development happening out there and it is not all McMansions on acre lots. There are a lot of townhouses being built.

Despite the 'freeway which I find ugly' comment from the original response, what alternative is there? And if a highway is necessary, is it a good thing to destroy the view as we are entering the city, when thousands of visitors to our city enter this way?

The comment was made as we drove on how the scenic view of the Equestrian Park has now been blocked by these ugly new maintenance buildings and a hydro substation (which really stood out to me). This all seems to be part of the 'cheap' implementation of light rail. How scenic views as you come over the hill towards the city have been blighted and how light rail should have run to Eagleson, one station beyond where a maintenance facility could have been placed in a much less scenic location, while providing a much better connection to Kanata.

Why is it that our light rail plans seem to either go one station too short (Moodie instead of Eagleson, Limebank instead of River Road) or one station too far (Trim instead of Place d'Orleans)? It seems that politics has been interfering too much in wise planning this critical infrastructure.

I also commented as we drove, how some sort of train service to Carleton Place with its seemingly explosive growth would be a wise investment. No, not very expensive LRT but a cheap O-Train Phase 1 service, that we seemed to have forgotten how this was built on the cheap and how effective it could be.

Politics always influences transit choices - the fact that we're building light rail all the way out to highly distributed Kanata and Barrhaven, rather than prioritizing higher capacity transit in higher density parts of the city full of apartment buildings (for example Carling, Baseline, Montreal Rd) counts as very political to me. I suspect a tram on those arteries would have higher daily ridership at a fraction of the cost, but Kanata and Barrhaven (which may be better served by improved regional bus transit) are seen as priorities for commuters...whether they choose to use it vs their cars is another matter.

While it'd be nice if our highway views were all beautiful, that's not really the case at the fringes of most major cities... think of what it's like driving into Toronto or Montreal. Ottawa is incredibly green as it is sparsely populated with few industrial areas. Complaining about a shed for public transit blocking the view of an equestrian park sounds incredibly NIMBY (ie like a SFH owner complaining about an apartment building)... I am sure the future transit riders would find their view much better if it weren't for the Queensway... but we chose to prioritize turning that potential transit line (it did use to be a train line) into a highway a long time ago.

It's worth noting that substantial expense was put into the tunnel along the Ottawa river to ensure that the train does not negatively impact that view or access to the waterfront (which the NCC has big plans to improve).

[Williamoforange]

Whoops sorry rocketpish

Anyways, I see that the goalpost of what these buildings block has moved, now, there bad because they block barns and a turf soccer field.....

There standard looking industrial buildings next to a highway where such buildings exist in every other city. Phase 2 needed them for the LRT and that was the chosen location, so how about when you're driving down the highway you focus on the driving part.... Not the views that aren't actually blocked.

P.S the buildings would have been built there even if the lrt was run out to eagleson in phase 2....

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Jay31

Politics always influences transit choices - the fact that we're building light rail all the way out to highly distributed Kanata and Barrhaven, rather than prioritizing higher capacity transit in higher density parts of the city full of apartment buildings (for example Carling, Baseline, Montreal Rd) counts as very political to me. I suspect a tram on those arteries would have higher daily ridership at a fraction of the cost, but Kanata and Barrhaven (which may be better served by improved regional bus transit) are seen as priorities for commuters...whether they choose to use it vs their cars is another matter.

While it'd be nice if our highway views were all beautiful, that's not really the case at the fringes of most major cities... think of what it's like driving into Toronto or Montreal. Ottawa is incredibly green as it is sparsely populated with few industrial areas. Complaining about a shed for public transit blocking the view of an equestrian park sounds incredibly NIMBY (ie like a SFH owner complaining about an apartment building)... I am sure the future transit riders would find their view much better if it weren't for the Queensway... but we chose to prioritize turning that potential transit line (it did use to be a train line) into a highway a long time ago.

It's worth noting that substantial expense was put into the tunnel along the Ottawa river to ensure that the train does not negatively impact that view or access to the waterfront (which the NCC has big plans to improve).

I thought our planners were protecting view lines. The view of Ottawa coming over the hill from Kanata is iconic. It is the only place, you see the entire city in front of you. To destroy or damage this view is shameful.

I think it is pretty bad how industrial buildings should take precedence over key viewpoints. This really shows a city in decline. We have absolutely no regard for aesthetics. This has nothing to do with NIMBYism.

So, if we cannot get a key entry way into the city right, how can we expect anything better downtown or anywhere else? This is the capital city of this country and if we are happy greeting visitors with cheap crappy looking sheds, which will age poorly, I hate to think of this city's future.

When this was all planned, this was all about finding a place to put a maintenance yard at the lowest cost, and we will be stuck with this forever. I am ashamed of my city for doing this.