Ottawa council gives green light to rail project

Ottawa council has approved an expansion to the city's light rail transit systemat a cost of more than $700 million.

The project, which was approved Wednesday night in a 14-7 vote, will give the city a functioning north-south train line within about three years.

In a surprise move, Coun. Rainer Bloess,who a day before berated fellow councillors for suggestingthe decision be put off until after an election,voted against the project.

Bloess recently travelled at his own expense to Texas to look at Houston's light railroad, and returned with glowing reports.

He didn't explain why he voted against the project.

Much less surprising was the position taken by one of the leading candidates in the mayor's race.

Former councillor Alex Munter opposes the plan and says he wants to see an east-west line instead.

"The mayor today tried to stifle any debate, because everyone knows that the heart of this plan will not work. It does not plan for the future. It is obsolete," he said.

Munter says that if he's elected mayor, he would cancel the contract and return to the drawing board.

There would be huge financial costs to doing that, said Mayor Bob Chiarelli.

"I don't think any mayor would be prepared to impose about a $400-per-household penalty fee to cancel the project," he said.

LRT nearly 30 km

The plan would see a 29.7-kilometre, 23-station LRT line run from the University of Ottawa in the north to Barrhaven in the southwest, snaking through many neighbourhoods.

It incorporates an existing five-station, eight-kilometre O-Train line from Greenboro to Bayview. That older section will close for two years as part of construction, scheduled to begin in the fall and end in 2009.

The LRT line will use existing CPR rail lines and rights-of-way, plus parts of an old busway, and will share the street with cars and pedestrian traffic for a short stretch downtown.

The new line will be electrically powered, rather than using the diesel units now operating on the O-Train.

Ottawa transit officials also hope to add an East-West LRT line from Orleans to Kanata, and another line from Carling Avenue to Rideau-Montreal in future years.