In a nearly unanimous vote on Wednesday, city council approved light-rail transit as its technology of choice for Ottawa’s new rail system.
Downtown Ottawa will be one of the first neighbourhoods in the city to have the train running through it, says Alain Mercier, the city’s general-manager for transit services.
The official plan for Ottawa’s transit tunnel shows two stations located directly in Centretown, with one expected near Bay and Albert streets and another at O’Connor and Queen streets. Two more are expected to border the neighbourhood from the east and west.
Light-rail transit is the technology best suited to Ottawa because it works well for both high volume downtown cores as well as lower volume suburbs, says Mercier
It also has “less impact on the urban fabric” of the city, because it can be more integrated with other traffic, he says.
The light-rail trains will have low floors to maximize accessibility, overhead wires to provide electricity and an automated operating system that will maximize train efficiency during peak periods, says Mercier.
City staff chose light rail over five other types: monorail, automated guideway transit, heavy rail, light metro, and metro. Many of these rail technologies are used in other Canadian cities, says Mercier, such as the light metro systems that are used in Montreal and Toronto.
The runner-up to light rail was light metro. Mercier says light metro has a raised floor and is usually powered by a rail that runs underneath the train.
The initial capital costs for light metro are lower and it has a more efficient carrying capacity, he says, but light rail is still a better choice, because the long-term infrastructure costs would be much lower under this system and a lower carrying capacity can be circumvented by adding more cars onto the trains.
The maximum carrying capacity for light rail is around 20,000 people per hour, according to Mercier, a volume which could become a reality by 2020.When choosing the rail technology, staff also looked at how the different types fare during Ottawa’s winters, says Mercier.
However, staff found snow storms and frigid temperatures aren’t of significant concern when it comes to developing rail systems, says John Jensen, the city’s director of rail implementation.
Citing examples from across Canada, Jensen says “it’s well proven that LRT systems can operate quite well in a winter climate.”
Snow is easily dealt with by ploughing the tracks and any ice on overhead wires will be scraped off by the train as it moves along, says David Hopper, a technical consultant hired by the city.
Shawn Menard, president of the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association, says light-rail transit “is a quality option” for Ottawa, because it’s less expensive than other rail technologies.
Infrastructure for light metro is more expensive because it requires a fully segregated system, says Mercier, while light-rail transit can operate effectively in both an integrated system where the trains would be on a roadway with other street traffic and in a segregated system where the trains would be separated by barriers or run underground.
Overall, Menard says he is happy about the prospects of decreasing traffic congestion downtown. But Menard adds he is concerned the underground tunnel could decrease the amount of foot traffic on the street level and harm local businesses.