City councillors are clashing over the location of new east-to-west light rail, a part of Ottawa’s $4-billion transit plan passed in May.
Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet, has paid for a radio ad urging the public to consider the benefits of light rail on Carling Avenue.
“Cities are racing to become less carbon dependent, so we can’t wait 15 or 20 years for light rail,” Doucet says.
He says if light rail were to be approved for Carling, construction could start as soon as 18 months from now.
Bay Ward Coun. Alex Cullen, chair of the city’s transportation committee, says it is not practical to install light rail along Carling.
“It does not form part of the city’s new plan and will set us back to square one, for something that would not deliver as much as the current framework.”
He says the plan does not work because the train would not run independently from traffic and on its own level like the O-Train. If the train were to run along Carling, it would slow traffic, says Cullen.
“Show me the studies,” Doucet says in response to Cullen’s claims that the Carling route would run slower. Doucet says the city received a report from the transportation consulting group McCormick Rankin, which says the Carling route would run faster during rush hour than the Ottawa River parkway route that Cullen supports.
The route along the Ottawa River parkway would serve fewer stops and not infringe on traffic, Cullen says.
Doucet calls it the “seagull route” because of its remote location, saying it would not serve a purpose for those between the suburbs and Centretown.
Tim Lane, a transit expert with the Ottawa-based advocacy group Transport 2000, says the group has drawn up plans for three different routes, with Carling being the most “bang for the buck.”
Doucet is hosting a public forum on Nov. 17 at the Gladstone theatre that will include a presentation from Morrison Renfrew, an engineer specializing in light rail who will explain the proposal.
Cullen says city council will meet after Doucet’s forum to discuss the implementation of the plan that was passed in May.
“He seems to be moving on a different track and hasn’t realized council is moving forward to the implementation stage,” Cullen says.
He says the radio ad and public forum are only confusing the public by making it seem like route decisions are still up for debate when they are not.
Doucet says when the plan was accepted in May, the specific routes had not been confirmed, and these November meetings were for that reason.
“If these plans were already agreed upon in May, why are we having these meetings now?” Doucet asks.