Ottawa will be home to a far-reaching, 19-station light rail transit system in 10 years if the plan unveiled by Mayor Jim Watson Wednesday morning gets the government cash it needs.
Hundreds packed council chambers, some standing along the glass wall in Andrew S. Haydon Hall, to hear Watson’s much-awaited Transportation Master Plan speech.
Although cyclists, pedestrians, and roads form a large chunk of the plan, Watson’s focus was “Stage 2,” which stretches light rail out in a t-shape across the city.
He said Stage 2 would expand LRT service to stations at Bayshore and Baseline in the west, Bowesville in the south, and Place d’Orléans in the east.
The city will also be bolstering O-Train service, with a new proposed station on Gladstone Avenue.
He said the second phase of the plan will actually mean less construction chaos for Centretown and a more vibrant downtown.
“You’ll see more people having easier access from the suburbs to get downtown to work, to go out for dinner, to go to a play,” he said.
Watson said light rail is the “most important, powerful, smart tool” the city has in creating growth.
Businesses can comfortably settle in around the proposed transit system, because light rail routes – unlike bus routes – don’t change over time.
“We need to get ahead of growth,” he said.
He said city council decided to forego plans to slowly expand the public transit system because it’s more efficient – and less expensive in the long-run – to build everything at once.
He said the proposed plan gives the “biggest bang for taxpayers buck,” stressing that it “won’t overpromise and under-deliver.”
He said that after allotting $2.1 billion to the Confederation Line, the city has another $3 billion it can put toward transit expansion until 2031.
The wider web of light rail proposed in his speech would cost no more than $2.5 billion to build, Watson said.
But two thirds of that cash would need to come from the provincial and federal governments, he said, with each chipping in nearly $1 billion.
If they don’t deliver, the proposed project won’t be finished until 2031.
He said the transportation plan won’t overburden taxpayers, though.
Watson promised that taxes will be limited to a 2.5 per cent tax increase and that transit fares will match inflation rates.
The city isn’t going to rely on funding from higher levels of government to expand the Transitway, however.
Watson said $500 million of municipal money will connect places such as Cité Collégiale and Kanata to the light rail system via rapid bus lines.
He called the second phase a “rally point” for all levels of government and residents, comparing the project to the birth of the Transitway, a legacy project of former mayor Haydon.
Watson assured his audience that Stage 2 was subject to a “very, very rigorous” affordability test that’s the first of its kind.
He said the city changed the way it estimates costs this time around by adding more substantial contingencies, such as “placing an affordability lens on the planning choices right from the beginning,” and “assuming the highest cost scenario” to run the new transit system once built.
“Rather than build a model that counts on future success, we will aim for better, but not count on better,” he said.
He also stressed that his team didn’t shift the balance of investment money for transit away from Ottawa’s roads.
The city will take a “pragmatic and integrated approach” to building more “complete” streets, he said, by making older avenues pedestrian and cyclist-friendly where possible.
He said the plan aims to widen many of the city’s traffic arteries, such as Merivale, Fallowfield, and Greenbank roads to eliminate bottlenecking at rush hour.
The Airport Parkway will also grow with the help of a separated taxi lane.
In addition, the transportation plan budgets for new pedestrian bridges, such as one between Donald Street and Somerset Street.
Watson presented the full details of the proposed plan to the joint transportation committee and commission Wednesday afternoon.