2 Ottawa councillors push their own light rail plan

The City of Ottawa could build light rail faster and at a lower cost than the city's current plan by cutting investment in new buses and avoiding the Ottawa River Parkway, according to two city councillors.

Kitchissippi ward Coun. Christine Leadman and Capital ward Coun.Clive Doucet have proposed their own $5.93-billion transit plan, which calls for an immediate extension of the O-train into Gatineau, light rail from Blair to Baseline within five years, and no new funding for buses.

Leadman and Doucet said the city's current transportation master plan, released on Nov. 10, focuses too much on expanding bus-only transitways on the edges of the city and takes too long to implement light rail.

"The harsh reality of the present plan is that most of the councillors on council will have passed away before there's a city-wide electric service," Doucet said whilereleasingthe alternate plan, titled Our Path Forward,at a news conference at the Gladstone Theatreon Monday morning.

The councillors, who represent wards in central Ottawa, said the plan's first priority is to build adowntown tunnel andestablish light rail within the city's greenbelt to relieve downtown congestion.

The second phase of the plan would bring light rail to Kanata, Orleans, Barrhaven and Riverside South within 10 years instead of the 35 yearsas proposed by the city's plan.

Leadman and Doucetsaid they estimated the cost of their plan based on the same key engineering document used by city staff to develop the city'slight rail plan, and it is$1.3 billion cheaper than the city's plan, due to theelimination of new bus investments.

"Holding the line on new buses and focusing all new funding on light rail will speed implementation of rail and improve bus service through reallocation," said their report.

The plan also calls for the east-west line to run along Carling Avenue rather than the Ottawa River Parkway, whichis owned by the National Capital Commission and is suggested as the east-west corridor in the city's own light rail plan.Light rail can be built sooner if the city doesn'thave tonegotiate with the NCC to use the corridor, the report said.

Plantoo expensive: transit chair

Coun. Alex Cullen, chair of the city's transit committee, said he doesn't think the plan is realistic and doesn't believe Leadman's claim that it would be cheaper.

"My colleague has a large mountain to climb to convince city council that this is a better plan. At the face of it, it's far more expensive and far more difficult to do."

He said using Carling Avenue as an east-west corridor would be several times more expensive than using the Ottawa River Parkway and poses some engineering challenges. Expanding light rail to the suburbs within 10 years is unlikely as ridership is too low to gain federal and provincial funding support for that, Cullen said.

In addition,the plan still requires many planning approvals andengineering studies that would cause delays.

Thestaff planproposes light rail linking Tunney's Pasture just west of downtown to Blair station in its first phase, accompanied by expansion of the city's rapid bus transitways.

A second phase would extend light rail south to South Keys and west to Baseline station, and a third phase would connect South Keys to Riverside Town Centre, while extending the city's rapid bus corridors farther.