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Ottawa Transit Developments

I live near the Trillium Line and it has been obvious for some time that the project is way behind. It is a shame that it has been so badly managed that service on the original portion of the line cannot be resumed in a reasonable timeframe. The whole project is so poorly future proofed that another protracted shutdown at some point in the future is inevitable and demonstrates bad planning in the name of short term cost savings
 
I live near the Trillium Line and it has been obvious for some time that the project is way behind. It is a shame that it has been so badly managed that service on the original portion of the line cannot be resumed in a reasonable timeframe. The whole project is so poorly future proofed that another protracted shutdown at some point in the future is inevitable and demonstrates bad planning in the name of short term cost savings
To be fair the system has had very little issues the past 3 weeks there was 4 delays.
 
To be fair the system has had very little issues the past 3 weeks there was 4 delays.
My comment and the previous comment relate to the Trillium Line (Line 2) which has been closed entirely since May 2020. You are talking about the Confederation Line (Line 1), which is a completely different subject.
 
My comment and the previous comment relate to the Trillium Line (Line 2) which has been closed entirely since May 2020. You are talking about the Confederation Line (Line 1), which is a completely different subject.
That is a supply issue more then anything with the Trillium Line.
 
The Trillium Line has been a disaster since the botched expansion in 2014 and it shows no sign of getting better. Whoever signed off on that one should have swung.
 
The Trillium Line has been a disaster since the botched expansion in 2014 and it shows no sign of getting better. Whoever signed off on that one should have swung.
That seems a bit hyperbolic..

Sure it didn't end up reaching the target headways, but it was performing fine and was carrying more passengers than had been projected.
 
Don't agree. They were supposed to cut headways from 15 to 8 minutes. They spent twice the money the original line cost, ran random service for a few months, then settled on 12 minutes. There used to be 2 vehicles doing the route in 12 minutes providing 4 trips an hour, then 4 vehicles travelling the route in about 16 for 5 trips per hour at twice the operating cost. The average wait was reduced by a couple of minutes and the average trip length increased by the same. For 50 million dollars. Then they scrapped the original vehicles that could have run several years longer. Great value for money.
 
Don't agree. They were supposed to cut headways from 15 to 8 minutes. They spent twice the money the original line cost, ran random service for a few months, then settled on 12 minutes. There used to be 2 vehicles doing the route in 12 minutes providing 4 trips an hour, then 4 vehicles travelling the route in about 16 for 5 trips per hour at twice the operating cost. The average wait was reduced by a couple of minutes and the average trip length increased by the same. For 50 million dollars. Then they scrapped the original vehicles that could have run several years longer. Great value for money.
It still boosted capacity which the Trillium Line desperately needed (and still needs). Its true it wasn't a great project, but it still was a net benefit rather than a net positive.
 
It still boosted capacity which the Trillium Line desperately needed (and still needs). Its true it wasn't a great project, but it still was a net benefit rather than a net positive.
The problem is that the line needs to be shut down for very long periods (months to years) to perform any sort of upgrade. They have said that to improve frequency modestly to 10 minutes requires replacement of the Walkley overpass. But there are further complications. Because Walkley Station is being designed as a side station, it will need to be completely rebuilt to accommodate a second track. Yet another lengthy shutdown is inevitable. We simply have a poorly designed line that has not been futureproofed. I am not sure how you gain public confidence if we keep needing to shut down the line every few years. We gained ridership when both Line 1 and 2 were opened at the same time, but that lasted a mere 6 months.
 
The problem is that the line needs to be shut down for very long periods (months to years) to perform any sort of upgrade. They have said that to improve frequency modestly to 10 minutes requires replacement of the Walkley overpass. But there are further complications. Because Walkley Station is being designed as a side station, it will need to be completely rebuilt to accommodate a second track. Yet another lengthy shutdown is inevitable. We simply have a poorly designed line that has not been futureproofed. I am not sure how you gain public confidence if we keep needing to shut down the line every few years. We gained ridership when both Line 1 and 2 were opened at the same time, but that lasted a mere 6 months.
I doubt we're going to need to shutdown the line for that. GO is currently double tracking both the Stouffville and Barrie Lines while rebuilding a lot of the stations, which also involved turning single side platform station to dual platform side platform stations with overpasses and underpasses, and with minimal service disruption. As such, adding a 2nd platform to Walkley won't require year long shutdowns. What the current set of shutdowns is going to is major station rebuilds and platform extensions, such as the brand new underpass at Carleton -> widening it 3x, and massive platform extensions. While it might've been possible to do some of these upgrades while the service was running, they would've took MUCH longer or would've been far more expensive.

For everything that isn't being done in this round of upgrades, they are mostly stuff that shouldn't require multiple-year shutdowns. This includes: Building a second bridge over the VIA rail corridor, building a second bridge over the Rideau River, double tracking the section between Carleton and Walkley, and adding a second platform to Walkley and potentially Greenboro (although the latter is really dependent on execution). The only upgrades that may require additional closures would be twinning the dow's lake tunnel including prepping it for eventual electrification, and possibly twinning the trench north of that, including the 2nd platform at Dow's Lake, the former of which probably should've been done in this recent shutdown but oh well.
 

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