Soapbox by Corinne Smith
When the O-Train’s maiden voyage launched Ottawa’s light rail service last week, critics took careful notes.
They’ve been practicing for months, taking to task the fumbles and mishaps marking preparations for the O-Train.
First, there was the cost. The OC Transpo pilot project, featuring an eight-kilometre rail with five stops, is running $2.4 million over its $24 million budget.
Then the train was late. Safety concerns and driver training delayed the summer launch, setting it back to last week.
And then there’s the route itself. Dubbed “the train to nowhere” by its opponents, the north-south line that runs from Greenboro to Bayview, they point out, doesn’t service areas hit hardest by traffic.
The congested downtown core is at least a bus ride away from any light rail station, critics say. They are concerned about Kanata and Orleans, suburbs connected to the city only by the Queensway. Will people drive to a light rail station? If they do, how will that help the rush hour east-west artery clog?
Now, critics will turn on the O-Train’s likely growing pains as proof of its “failure.”
Perhaps bus routes will share their ridership with the new light-rail route, instead of increasing public transit use. Maybe the Ottawa winter will tax the trains, hiking maintenance and repair costs.
But when light rail naysayers do the math and conclude that it will fail, they just don’t get it.
They don’t see what the O-Train means to Ottawa, because we’re not used to smart urban planning, public transit that works.
Ottawa’s history shows why we are not used to innovation and imagination. A system of streetcars once connected downtown neighbourhoods until city officials scrapped it over 40 years ago. Later, the city grew, and the Queensway allowing people to live in the suburbs and drive downtown.
With streetcars gone, bus service eventually took to the road. When most OC Transpo riders are asked about bus service today, they would admit the service is checkered, especially during the winter months.
Public bus service is an uphill battle in Ottawa. Heavy snowfall and treacherous driving conditions aren’t kind to bus service. Double-jointed buses ostensibly beef up service, an OC Transpo “service improvement” initiative that puts bigger vehicles on roads already strained by traffic. Road congestion wreaks havoc on bus schedules, leaving bus riders on street corners, cooling their heels as they wait for the bus that is never on time.
With Ottawa’s current public transit system, it’s no wonder people choose to drive.
So when a vision of public transit is spearheaded by a light rail line, Ottawa is entering uncharted waters.
The O-Train marks a new chapter, promising efficient public transit, not just band-aid solutions.
An expanded light rail network will transform Ottawa, providing the means for people to travel in and out of the downtown core without driving, reducing traffic we now accept with resignation.