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andrewpmk said:
As for the issue of walking outside in the cold, could they consider building underground foot tunnels? Not sure if it would be possible to link them to existing buildings easily, but one could at least build a network of foot tunnels under the roads to get people closer to their destination. It would surely be easier than adding an extra station (which would be overkill given the station spacing).
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Actually, Ottawa has a by-law stating that all new buildings in the downtown (this was passed in like the 70s) must have a way to connect to the surrounding buildings via 2nd floor walkways. It hasn't really been used yet, but all buildings are built with that in mind.

Take Minto Place for example, it has a 2 floor concourse.

And as for my Eglinton comment, I was referring mainly to the central portion. I realize that in many ways this is more of a rapid transit line than Eglinton will be. However, there are portions of the Transitway that interact with regular traffic, just in dedicated lanes.
 
I should specify on that, every office building. Hotels and the like I believe were exempt from it. World Exchange Plaza and Place de Ville also have multi-storey concourses.
 
sorry to go off topic but I believe this pertains to how successful the LRT plan will be. I heard from a friend of mine that Ottawa had a height limit in the downtown area. I can only imagine that this would be, because when the capital was planned, it was planned in a manner that would emphasize the government buildings, much like Washington D.C. Can anyone confirm this or not for me? because I was told that no building can be built higher than the peace tower. Sorry if this sounds ignorant I jsut don't visit Ottawa very oftn so I would not know if there ARE buildgins already in place that are taller than the peace tower, but pictures I've seen and of what I remember from visiting, the buildings are pretty low for the most-part. If this were the case it would really restrict the development potential for some of the stations planned for the LRT line, one that comes to mind is LeBreton.

Thanks in advance.
 
Province kicks in $600M for Ottawa's light rail project


THE OTTAWA CITIZENDECEMBER 18, 2009 11:27 AMBE THE FIRST TO POST A COMMENT


STORYPHOTOS ( 1 )



Breaking News from the Ottawa Citizen
Photograph by: The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — The provincial government is contributing $600 million toward the city's $2.1-billion transit expansion project, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced in a news conference Friday morning.

"This is the single largest transit infrastructure investment Ontario has made in Ottawa's history," McGuinty said "It will help get people out of their cars and into clean, efficient public transit. I am confident that the city will be prudent as they decide what is best for Ottawa."

The province had been seen as the biggest stumbling block in a plan to build a rail line from Tunney's Pasture to Blair Road, including a 3.2-kilometre tunnel under downtown, and extend Transitway bus service into more suburbs, but now the city's focus will turn to the federal government to try to get the provincial funding matched.

The $2.1-billion plan is part of a much larger, $6.6-billion transit plan meant to serve the city's transit needs into the 2030s, including much more rail running in all directions out of downtown.

More to come.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
 
There was a height restriction until some point in the 70s. But most of Ottawa's high-rise construction was before the change and from what I've read NIMBYs tend to oppose anything over 20 stories so you still don't see a whole lot that is tall by our standards.

And when you're visiting from Toronto, where condos over 40 stories are now commonplace, it's only natural that the buildings in a much smaller city like Ottawa are going to seem a little stubby.
 
thank you! and also pertaining to the announcement of provincial funding, even if Ottawa did match the $600M how would the other $900M be funded for the project? I think Dallton is giving them bait so that they eventually tone down the magnitude of the project and build something more to his liking.
 
The politicking going on here is all quite convoluted.

Wednesday, transit committee votes to move forward with a $2.1 bn first phase.

Friday, the province surprises by announcing money--50% more than had been committed in the past, so nobody can really call them "cheap"--but ultimately it's a figure that doesn't seem to be indexed by any kind of usual proportion (66%, 50%, 33%...) to the proposal Ottawa has on the table.

What's crossed my mind has been all the talk from several posters here that Ontario agreed to fully fund much of Transit City in a kneejerk fashion, and that Giambrone/Miller had been "aiming low" by proposing LRT. I won't name names, but if I had a dollar for every time I read an "If they'd planned for subways, the province would have paid for subways" post I'd be able to build my own, modest, non-grade separated transit system.

It's clear on a dollars-per-rider basis, Ottawa has put a far more pricey dream to paper than Toronto displayed for TC. And it seems that provincial generosity seems to scale accordingly. The message seems to be that if you want to get bumped up to business class, you pay the difference yourself.
 
Platform 27 said:
The politicking going on here is all quite convoluted.

Wednesday, transit committee votes to move forward with a $2.1 bn first phase.

Friday, the province surprises by announcing money--50% more than had been committed in the past, so nobody can really call them "cheap"--but ultimately it's a figure that doesn't seem to be indexed by any kind of usual proportion (66%, 50%, 33%...) to the proposal Ottawa has on the table.

What's crossed my mind has been all the talk from several posters here that Ontario agreed to fully fund much of Transit City in a kneejerk fashion, and that Giambrone/Miller had been "aiming low" by proposing LRT. I won't name names, but if I had a dollar for every time I read an "If they'd planned for subways, the province would have paid for subways" post I'd be able to build my own, modest, non-grade separated transit system.

It's clear on a dollars-per-rider basis, Ottawa has put a far more pricey dream to paper than Toronto displayed for TC. And it seems that provincial generosity seems to scale accordingly. The message seems to be that if you want to get bumped up to business class, you pay the difference yourself.
Click to expand...

While Toronto may have 'aimed low', they also asked for a lot more transit KMs than what Ottawa is asking for. TC is giving LRT to practically every ward in Toronto. This Ottawa plan provides no new transit to areas, only improvements to the core. Considering TC has already had $8B allocated (with $7B to come), $2.1B is a drop in the bucket.

From an Ottawa perspective, Toronto seems to get a disproportionately large portion of the transit funds. Just looking at TC (the $15B portion, not even the entire thing) vs the Ottawa downtown tunnel plan, it's $6000 per person in the city vs $2625 per person. Even just the $8B portion is $3200 per person.
 
BMO said:
sorry to go off topic but I believe this pertains to how successful the LRT plan will be. I heard from a friend of mine that Ottawa had a height limit in the downtown area. I can only imagine that this would be, because when the capital was planned, it was planned in a manner that would emphasize the government buildings, much like Washington D.C. Can anyone confirm this or not for me? because I was told that no building can be built higher than the peace tower. Sorry if this sounds ignorant I jsut don't visit Ottawa very oftn so I would not know if there ARE buildgins already in place that are taller than the peace tower, but pictures I've seen and of what I remember from visiting, the buildings are pretty low for the most-part. If this were the case it would really restrict the development potential for some of the stations planned for the LRT line, one that comes to mind is LeBreton.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
AFAIK the height limits in Ottawa have to do with view cones and being able to see the Peace Tower from certain areas. Essentially the farther you get from Parliament the higher you can go. This is why several downtown buildings are taller, but not by much.

http://www.city.ottawa.on.ca/residents/bylaw/a_z/zoning/parts/pt_17/schedules_en.html

Schedules 11 to 89 show height limits.
 
gweed123 said:
While Toronto may have 'aimed low', they also asked for a lot more transit KMs than what Ottawa is asking for. TC is giving LRT to practically every ward in Toronto. This Ottawa plan provides no new transit to areas, only improvements to the core. Considering TC has already had $8B allocated (with $7B to come), $2.1B is a drop in the bucket.

From an Ottawa perspective, Toronto seems to get a disproportionately large portion of the transit funds. Just looking at TC (the $15B portion, not even the entire thing) vs the Ottawa downtown tunnel plan, it's $6000 per person in the city vs $2625 per person. Even just the $8B portion is $3200 per person.
Click to expand...

Not just that. Ottawa is asking for the equivalent of its DRL. It needs this to keep sustaining transit operations in the city. It's not really expanding much beyond that. Ottawa councillors have refused extensions to the suburbs as long as residents refuse to allow/support increased densification. Some councillors have even spoken out against the attitudes of their own constituents!

There's nothing like that in Toronto. I predict that the province is going to have a nasty fight on its hands for giving Toronto everything and refusing to even pony up 1/3 of the cost for Ottawa. This makes McGuinty look really, really bad from a hometown perspective.
 
I seem to recall a mini scandal back in the 70's when Place de Ville was completed and tower C was higher than specified in the zoning application. Was that not the first time the height limit was violated?
 
kEiThZ said:
Not just that. Ottawa is asking for the equivalent of its DRL. It needs this to keep sustaining transit operations in the city. It's not really expanding much beyond that. Ottawa councillors have refused extensions to the suburbs as long as residents refuse to allow/support increased densification. Some councillors have even spoken out against the attitudes of their own constituents!

There's nothing like that in Toronto. I predict that the province is going to have a nasty fight on its hands for giving Toronto everything and refusing to even pony up 1/3 of the cost for Ottawa. This makes McGuinty look really, really bad from a hometown perspective.
Click to expand...

I guess that's what happens when the most used portion of the entire system is also the one with the least capacity, of course it's going to bottlekneck.
 
If you were there when they were reconstructing the Mackenzie King Bridge, during rush hour the buses would queue all the from Kent, coming from the west end, and Campus, coming from the East. It was absolutely ridiculous.
 
kendrew said:
If you were there when they were reconstructing the Mackenzie King Bridge, during rush hour the buses would queue all the from Kent, coming from the west end, and Campus, coming from the East. It was absolutely ridiculous.
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I can imagine. Just think what the scenario would be now if the downtown section was originally tunnelled. The upgrade to LRT would be going through much easier than it is now. The main reason it wasn't was due to budget contraints, the at-grade downtown section that we have now was Plan B.
 
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