By Kitchessippi Times, September 4, 2019
As the city prepares to update its official plan, Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper sat down with KT to talk about the issues that must be addressed in producing Ottawa’s next major planning blueprint. Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:
KT: Let’s start with the hottest topic of the day: the Confederation Line is set to start running on Sept. 14. What are your thoughts as light rail is set to arrive?
JL: The key will be to make sure that we don’t put it into service until we’re absolutely confident that it’s going to be reliable. It’s really critical to me that once we launch the train that it be reliable. I want to make sure that I’m clear: I have absolutely no doubt that the train is going to be safe. The city and the mayor are not going to rush a train into service if there is any risk to public safety. We’re going to have bus service running in parallel for … a few months. But once you start getting people used to getting off the bus at Tunney’s Pasture and getting on the train to go downtown, we don’t want to interrupt that on any kind of unpredictable basis. Once we put the train in service, it’s got to be reliable.
https://kitchissippi.com/2019/09/04/jeff-leiper-im-nervous-about-how-thoughtful-were-going-to-be-about-intensification/