By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, June 22, 2020
Removing all car traffic from a portion of Wellington Street in front of the Parliament Buildings is one of the options in the City of Gatineau’s plans to run a tramway into downtown Ottawa.
Gatineau and its public transit agency, Société de transport de l’Outaouais (STO), is weighing two scenarios of running a LRT-light train service between the Portage Bridge and Elgin Street: building a train tunnel under Sparks Street ending at O’Connor Street, or building rail on the surface of Wellington Street through to Elgin Street.
STO and the City of Ottawa announced the options in May and additional information released ahead of a public consultation that began Monday revealed the no-car scenario on Wellington Street between Bank Street and Elgin Street.
The study is examining how to best weave a rail service from west Gatineau, through that city’s downtown, over the Portage Bridge and into downtown Ottawa. Eventually, the study will come to a preferred route that will hopefully solve the long-standing question of how rail systems in Ottawa and Gatineau can be linked up. There are no cost estimates or timelines yet.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/gatineaus-tram-dreams-consider-removing-car-traffic-from-in-front-of-parliament/wcm/a5306be4-c7e6-45cb-bd60-7a771e8aefae/