Centretown residents might find it easier to get to work in Gatineau following a new study that is designed to improve transit links between the two cities.
The $1-million study, led by the National Capital Commission in co-operation with the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau and their separate transit systems, will be fully launched within the next month and take at least two years. Its goal is to increase the efficiency between the STO and OC Transpo with a more integrated system.
Ottawa transit committee chair Alex Cullen is hopeful that after the study commuters will see “better service, more reliable service, higher frequency, and more capacity.”
Cullen says the current routes across the river on Rideau and Wellington are at capacity.
“This is a needed study,” he says. “We do know that we do have to look at alternatives. We’re not moving back towards cars but rather better means of using public transit to move people from one side of the river to the other.”
Roughly 60,000 commuters travel back and forth between the two cities for work on a daily basis, most of whom come over from Gatineau to work in downtown Ottawa.
A Statistics Canada report in 2006 said that Ottawa-Gatineau had the lowest number of commuters who drove to work, with more choosing public transit than in most other major Canadian cities.
The first phase of the study will identify the problems with the current system. After that, it will look at trends such as the increase of jobs in the downtown area, which could draw more people to choose transit.
Cullen believes that the current rapid transit plans in the city still have to address the needs of people traveling back and forth between Gatineau and Ottawa. This might include integrating both light rail and downtown tunnel plans into a larger design to cross the Ottawa River.
The STO has already suggested a light rail loop circling both downtown cores. The possibility of creating a second downtown Ottawa tunnel to accommodate buses coming over from Quebec is also being considered, but it would be costly.