Transit throwback: The bumpy ride to Ottawa's 'new' north-south LRT
As opening day approaches, here's a look back at what might have been
North-south light rail in Ottawa.
It's a dream that's more than 20 years old, a project killed then resurrected.
Now, eight new stations are built and five stations dating back to former mayor Bob Chiarelli's 2001 pilot project have been updated. Sixteen kilometres of extra track have been laid. Seven Stadler trains — off-the-shelf diesel models from Switzerland and not an Ottawa innovation like their electric Alstom counterparts on Line 1 — have undergone months of testing and scored well.
OC Transpo said Friday the Trillium Line will reopen to the public in stages starting Monday, Jan. 6. It won't run seven days a week until at least February.
People will be able to board an O-Train Line 2 on the edge of Riverside South or near Findlay Creek, travel through the Carleton University campus and hook up with the existing LRT at Bayview. Or, they can get off at South Keys and take a side trip to the EY Centre for a trade show, or ride on to the airport on the new Line 4.
But as the city marks this big expansion of rail to its fast-growing southern suburbs, it's worth reflecting on the project's long history.
A version of this OC Transpo rail line that might have opened about 15 years ago and taken toddlers to swimming lessons will instead open in time to take those same residents to university classes.
2006 plan fell in tight vote
The inaugural ride next month, which is bound to see smiles and speeches, will take place just over 18 years after a charged council meeting on Dec. 14, 2006, that changed the trajectory of transit in Ottawa.
Led by former mayor Larry O'Brien, elected just weeks before, city council voted 13-11 to "press the reset button" on the north-south light rail project championed by his predecessor, Bob Chiarelli, who had finished a distant third in that fall's mayoral race behind O'Brien and Alex Munter.
"What's frustrating is it was [a difference of] one vote," remarks Coun. Steve Desroches, the only current member of Ottawa city council who was at the table in 2006. Back then, he was a new councillor elected to a new ward to represent the new community of Riverside South, where he's lived since 2002.
Desroches still runs into other residents who moved into the community in its early days — he calls them the "pioneers of Riverside South" — when the community was supposed to grow densely around a mass transit line.
"They really had the view that they were going to get one car and rely on the train to get to work," says Desroches. "And that balloon burst with a really poor political decision — I will say that to my final days."
What's new is old
Today's north-south route looks similar to the maps shared 20 years ago for the original dream, only this line is shorter and has fewer stations. It follows a lot of the same old rail corridor.
In the mid-2000s, the original plan was for an electric train to travel from Barrhaven down Chapman Mills Drive, over a much-needed bridge to Riverside South, then on to Bayview and downtown. Trains would have travelled above ground on Albert and Slater streets like streetcars — animations showed trains mingling with traffic and cyclists — before reaching the final station at the University of Ottawa.
Old television news stories from that period show a different generation of decision-makers discussing sums of money that seem small now. After all, the City of Ottawa ended up signing a $2.1-billion contract to build the Confederation Line trunk and tunnel that opened in 2019, and the price tag for the Stage 2 extensions east, west and south has risen to nearly $5 billion.
Back in May 2004, however, then premier Dalton McGuinty joined Chiarelli and federal Liberal MP David Pratt to announce "the largest intergovernmental infrastructure commitment in the history of our city": $200 million from each level of government for a total of $600 million. By summer 2006, when the city approved a contract with Siemens-PCL/Dufferin, the price had risen well above $700 million and people were debating if the plan was worth it.
David Jeanes has advocated for transit for years and can easily recall the debate in detail. He was part of a "Get it Right" coalition of concerned citizens and businesses. At the time, transit capacity downtown Ottawa was maxed out.
"There was just no space on Albert and Slater for the hundreds of buses that they were trying to push through there in the rush hour," he remembers.
Downtown businesses opposed the idea of adding light rail trains to compete with cars and buses on congested streets. Many argued a north-south train wouldn't fix the traffic problems, and an east-west train was needed.
"Fix it, don't nix it," argued mayoral candidate Munter at the time. He proposed the city shorten the north-south project and use the savings to start east-west. O'Brien said he would cancel the project.
More debate swirled about whether the light rail contract truly had to be finalized by Oct. 15, in the middle of an election, or if an extension could push it to a new council.
An important twist came when John Baird, then president of the Treasury Board and MP for Ottawa–West Nepean, said he had reviewed the contract and the federal government's $200 million would flow only after a new city council gave its approval. Critics accused Baird of interfering in a local election, and he would later defend his decision before a House of Commons committee.
As the city's newly elected mayor, O'Brien presided over more drama in the first weeks of the council term that December. Council approved a quickly modified plan that would have stopped the line at LeBreton Flats and removed the contentious downtown portion, only to pull the plug completely the following week as the contract was about to expire.
Cancelling came at a cost. Siemens sued for $177 million, and the city settled in 2009 for $37 million.
Slower growth for Riverside South
Riverside South resident Lynn Vanasse, who bought her home 20 years ago, says she wanted the rail project because it would have brought a new bridge between Barrhaven and Riverside South. Back then, she took the scenic route north to Hunt Club Road or south to Manotick to cross to Barrhaven for groceries or swimming lessons.
"I used to joke it would be easier to take a canoe across the river, and quicker," Vanasse remembers.
The Vimy Memorial Bridge would open, but not until 2014. It has no rail on it, and even a possible bus rapid-transit connection from Limebank Station to Barrhaven is not coming any time soon.
The light rail cancellation "stunted" how Riverside South grew so that it wasn't built around transit, says Desroches.
"Developers in this community chose to wait until the train was operational or the train really was going to happen," the councillor says. "You know, once burned, twice shy."
Take 2 for Line 2
In 2013, the City of Ottawa put north-south rail back in its master plans. In the intervening years, it had been busy planning what would become the Confederation Line, with its tunnel under the downtown.
Under a council led by Jim Watson, those early plans for a north-south rail extension were more limited. The city said it could only afford to take the train as far south as a park-and-ride in the middle of fields at Bowesville Road.
The line that now jogs over to an extra Limebank Station closer to thousands of homes was only added in 2018, when the province chipped in $50 million and developers Urbandale and Richcraft agreed to an unusual special levy on the tax bills for new homes to raise another $30 million.
"I think that shows you how important that extra extension was," says Desroches.
The airport might not have had an LRT station either.
In 2013, city staff said they didn't want to affect travel times on the main line to the south. They didn't have the money.
The airport line only went ahead after the Ontario Liberals under Kathleen Wynne agreed in 2016 to pay for half of it, and the federal government followed.
SNC-Lavalin's technical score
By 2019, three terms of council had gone by and elected officials approved a new north-south contract with the company then known as SNC-Lavalin. This contract paid $799 million for construction (it's now calculated at $851 million) and another $708 million over 27 years for maintenance and lifecycle costs.
The procurement came under heavy scrutiny after CBC News reported the company won the contract even though its bid failed to score enough points during the technical evaluation.
The city's auditor looked into it and found city staff had followed the procurement process.
Hundreds of documents were made public, showing the evaluation team agreed SNC-Lavalin's technical submission was poor and its proposal should not be considered further. Another round of documents showed it was the proposal's price that mattered most.
Time to ride
Now, after five years of construction, opening day is on the calendar. It's much delayed from its original August 2022 date. Some students at Carleton University finished four-year undergraduate degrees without ever riding a train to campus.
Coun. Desroches is looking ahead and excited that plans are picking up for a new library, district park and development around Limebank station in Riverside South.
Longtime resident Vanasse says she's always expected her area to become a transit-oriented community. The apartments will be helpful for seniors ready to downsize, or older children who are ready to leave the nest.
For his part, transit advocate Jeanes reflects on how the city could have had a cheaper train, without an expensive tunnel. It might also have avoided years of argument, a sinkhole and public inquiry for the construction of the Confederation Line.
Mostly, Jeanes thinks about the LRT system Ottawa might have now if it had stuck to expanding the original O-Train little by little every three or four years.
"If we'd started building in 2006, and gotten it up and running by 2010, we'd already have gone up to Stage 4 by 2024."
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