Ottawa councillors see light rail at the end of tunnel plans

Ottawa's councillors got a peek at potential plans for the city's light rail transit tunnel Wednesday.

City staff presented their recommendations for the location of thetunnel, which it said could include four underground stations.

Those future underground subway stations could be:

• Downtown West Albert Street, between Lyon and Bay streets.
• Downtown East Queen Street near O'Connor Street.
• Rideau Station near intersection of Wellington and Elgin streets.
• Campus Station Nicholas Street, near the University of Ottawa.

The light rail project is expected to have 13 stations in total and run between Tunney's Pasture and Blair Road.

During the presentation, staff also recommended some platform designs to help the city's transit users access light rail along the three-kilometre tunnel.

Councillors said they hoped that getting their hands on the preliminary plans would help them secure the money to finally fund the tunnel project, which is expected to cost about $600 million.

"We want to demonstrate not only to our citizens, but to the federal government, the extent to which the City of Ottawa is committed to this project and we are committed to this project," said Alex Cullen, the councillor for Bay Ward.

Peter Hume, the councillor for Alta Vista-Canterbury-Riverview, said council is optimistic about getting funding for the project.

Councillors have been working on forging a partnership with the provincial government, he said, by meeting with provincial officials several times over the last three months.

He also said they've been talking to the federal government's infrastructure branch, "and we're making good progress."

Ottawa residents get to give their reaction to the plans in June after councillors have approved the recommendations.

If the plans are accepted, the city said construction could begin in 2012.