Barrhaven, Riverside South councillors make peace with new LRT plan

The city councillors for Ottawa's fast-growing southern suburbs support the design for thebig second stage oflight rail, even if they admit their communities would have been best served by a LRTplan killed over a decade ago.

If full council gives its approvalnext week, city staff plan to ask contractors this spring to bid for billions of dollars worth of construction.

• Stage 2 of Ottawa's LRT to extend farther, construction package to cost more
• Airport CEO asks city for more seamless LRT ride to downtown

Under then-mayor Larry O'Brien, an incomingcity council voted in December 2006 to cancel the $778 million contract with Siemens-PCL/Dufferinto send rail south, which led the city to later pay a $37 million settlement.

A decade later, Riverside South can now anticipateseeing the O-Train arrivein 2021, only it will run on the existing diesel system, not electricity.

However,adiesel train can't negotiate the curves along the corridor in Riverside South set aside years ago for the electric train, and would require the city to build costly under- or overpasses.

Staff say the city can't afford to electrify the Trillium line during Stage 2 that would add anywhere from $300 million to $1 billion onto the $535 million cost ofthe southern expansion.

So, instead of the O-Train serving the neighbourhood directly and travelling on to Barrhavenas in the old plan, the end of the rail line in 2021 will be in a rural field a few kilometres to the east of Riverside South on Bowesville Road. The planis tobuild ahuge park-and-ride lot there that could eventually accommodate 3,100 vehicles.

"We had a good plan, and it got cancelled, and as a result we're having to do these half measures andstop-gap projects in order to accommodate people to use publictransit," said Bruce Lindsay, president of the Riverside South Community Association, who acknowledged the station at Bowesville should alleviatecongestion for commuters.

Bowesvillestation the affordable option, for now

The original north-south route was ideal, agreesMichaelQaqish,councillorforGloucester-SouthNepean, who was not on council in 2006.

"I'm not going to dwell on the past. It is what it is. We are where we are. And this is the best we can do now," he said.

Qaqishthinks the Stage 2 design and procurement plans that gobefore the present-day council on March 8 are affordable and serve his community well enough, without waiting decades for another light rail plan.

Residents of Findlay Creek Ottawa'ssecond-fastest growing neighbourhood according to the recent census will be able to drive to an expanded park-and-ride ata light rail station at Leitrim Road.

The southern terminus at Bowesville, an endpoint that wasdecidedafew years ago,will be served by OC Transpo buses shuttling commuters from Riverside South and will suit residents who live even further south, he added.

"I've had several conversations with staff about this and they'revery confident and optimistic about the ridership we'll see there," said Qaqish of the Bowesville station.

Riverside South is growing eastward, notedQaqish, and its new core will eventually be at Limebankand Earl Armstrong roads,taking it closer to that future O-Train station.

Barrhavencouncillor looks north, not east, for rail tie-in

Meanwhile, Barrhavenis not anticipated to see rail transit for years, which leaves Chapman Mills Drive with land dedicated to tracksthat have yet to materialize, said longtime councillor Jan Harder.

"You do have to move on. You canfeel badly for yourself, but what's the point? It's not going to change that decision that was made and thedirection council went in," said Harder, who voted against cancellingnorth-south light rail in the tight 13-11 vote in 2006.

These days, she's focused on getting her residents onto light rail sooner rather than later, but not eastward over the Strandherd-Armstrong bridge, as was once envisioned.

Instead, she says the most realistic route would see residents connecting to the light rail system to the north, at the future Baseline station at Centrepointe, beside Algonquin College.

Harder wants a dedicated Transitway the entire way from Baseline to Barrhaven there is currently a shortstretch where buses travel on Woodroffe Avenue and shehasa motion going before city council on March 8 askingthat it consider converting the Transitway from buses to rail as early as feasible.

She stresses she's not trying to jump the queue for projects, just asking to speedup studies, as her colleagues did for Orlans and Kanata.

"Let's get it readyand when opportunity knocks,and we have the right formula in place, we can make the decisions we need," said Harder.

Staff from the City of Ottawa will hold a public information session on Stage 2 of the light rail project at Ottawa city hall on March 1, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.