Friends of the O-Train expands transit plan to Kanata, Gatineau

An Ottawa transit advocacy group has released an extended version of the transit plan that caught the attention of Larry O'Brien during the fall election campaign, before hebecame mayor.

The augmented light rail plan from Friends of the O-Train will reach as far as Kanata, Barrhaven, Gatineau and Alta Vista and will cost approximately $731 million over three to seven years, the group said in a news release issued Monday.

The plan includes seven extensions to the group's original plan, which consisted of a six-kilometre electric rail line through Ottawa's downtown core, and a southern addition to the city's existing diesel light rail O-train line.

Each new proposedextension istwo to three kilometres long, willbe added to either the existing diesel O-Train line or the proposed downtown electric light rail,andwill cost $11 million to $66 million to build, the group estimates.

They will go to:

• Alta Vista, serving the Ottawa Hospital's general campus and rehabilitation centre, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).
• Barrhaven.
• Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau.
• March Road in Kanata.
• Ottawa's Via train station.
• The STO (Société de transport de l'Outaouais) bus depot at Tache Boulevard at Terrasse de la Chaudière in Gatineau.
• Tunney's Pasture.

Group spokesman David Jeanes said the city has enough money set aside for the light rail plan that city council cancelled in December to build the core of the Friends of the O-Train plan without matching funds from the federal and provincial governments— provided it doesn't spendthemoney on bus projects, as city council has proposed.

"You can't make the big step that we need now without the critical amount of money that we need to get it started," he said.

'You can't make the big step that we need now without the critical amount of money that we need to get it started.' — David Jeanes, Friends of the O-Train

City council voted last week to discuss during February budget meetings the possibility of using some of its light rail money for rapid bus projects.

In November, while light rail was a controversial election issue, Friends of the O-train released their original plan, which they said would cost about $300 million less than the city's light rail plan at the time, keep the city's current O-train in service and solve its downtown congestion problems.

The $446-million plan would include a downtown electric light rail line running from Bayview to Hurdman stations and a southward extension of the O-Train to Armstrong Road.

At the time, Larry O'Brien said he liked the plan and was interested in discussing it further.

One of the group's co-founders, Harry Gow, was named last week to the mayor's transportation task force, which is to examine Ottawa's future transportation options.

Task force members have been asked not to speak publicly until they submit their report to the mayor in June.