By Laura Robins, Ottawa Citizen, January 15, 2016
Lansdowne Report Card: FARMERS’ MARKET
Grade: C+
What’s working: The farmers. They’re working really hard and overcoming big obstacles to bring their produce to the city, and setting up attractive stalls in spite of the hassles (like nowhere for them to store things or park nearby.)
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, January 15, 2016
It will soon take OC Transpo riders up to three minutes longer to travel between the west end and downtown Ottawa once another section of the Transitway closes Sunday, forcing hundreds of buses onto Scott and Albert streets.
All eastbound buses will be diverted off the Transitway at Merton Street to new bus-only lanes on Scott and Albert streets. Westbound buses will now enter the Transitway at Merton, where a new set of traffic signals has been installed.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, January 15, 2016
Game days are the best time to see Lansdowne Park as its most enthusiastic cheerleaders want it to be seen — a buzzing hive of activity where thousands of Ottawa RedBlacks fans converge, packing the bars and restaurants to scarf down burgers and beer before taking their seats in TD Place stadium.
And there was perhaps no better game in the team’s sophomore season than the Nov. 22 CFL eastern conference final against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, which the RedBlacks clinched in the dying minutes thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime catch by receiver Greg Ellingson.
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, January 14, 2016
The city’s expanded winter cycling network could use a bit more tweaking, activists say.
City council last year decided to double the amount of bike lanes, cycle tracks and multi-use pathways cleared during winter months, bringing the network to 40 km and connecting the downtown core to Westboro, Dow’s Lake and Manor Park.
But implementation has been rocky since the snow arrived in earnest with a major snowstorm on Dec. 29.
By Erin McCracken, Ottawa Community News, January 14, 2016
The future Tremblay light-rail transit station is taking shape and once open, passengers arriving at the nearby Via Rail station will be able to hop on LRT and arrive downtown within minutes, officials said.
The LRT station will function as “an intermodal link” between Via’s intercity rail service and the city’s light-rapid transit system, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, president and chief executive of Via Rail Canada, said during a press conference at the Tremblay Road Via station on Jan. 13.
The Tremblay LRT connection “will bring Canadians to the nation’s parliament within seven minutes,” he said. “So it’s a great day for Via Rail and it’s a great day for Canada.”
By Dani-elle Dubé, Ottawa Sun, January 14, 2016
A group of citizens is holding the Liberal government accountable over the "broken" National Energy Board (NEB) pipeline by serving Environment Minister Catherine McKenna with a people's injunction Thursday.
The injunction was served to McKenna at her constituency office at 107 Catherine St. at 10 a.m. and gives the federal government until Jan. 18 to stop the NEB's reviews of TransCanada's Energy East and Kinder Morgan's Trans-Mountain projects.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, January 14, 2016
It will soon take OC Transpo riders up to three minutes longer to travel between the west end and downtown Ottawa once another section of the Transitway closes Sunday, forcing hundreds of buses onto Scott and Albert streets.
All eastbound buses will be diverted off the Transitway at Merton Street to new bus-only lanes on Scott and Albert streets. Westbound buses will now enter the Transitway at Merton, where a new set of traffic signals has been installed.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, January 14, 2016
Having given up hope that The Ottawa Hospital will talk to its neighbours about its plans to rebuild its Civic campus on the Experimental Farm, Coun. Riley Brockington is pressing the federal government to stop carving up the property.
Even the city has designs on some of the precious land, he says.
“I’m not looking for national-park status, because this is a national research-slash-agricultural station,” says the River councillor, whose ward includes the farm. “But it needs some form of protection.”
By Alison Sandor, CFRA News, January 13, 2016
It was all smiles and laughter Wednesday morning at the Ottawa Train Station as the City reconfirmed light rail construction is on time and on budget.
Excavation work at the Tremblay Station is already completed and officials donned hard hats to get a closer look at construction work, for the station, which will include covered east and westbound platforms with in-floor heat tracing to prevent ice and snow accumulation.
(...)
However, there is still the outstanding matter of the Airport and Trim Road spurs. The City would like to see both those extensions added to the line in time for opening in 2018, but Watson said they would need the province and the federal government to foot the bill.
By Andrew Seymour, Ottawa Citizen, January 13, 2016
The death of a 66-year-old man on an electric scooter who was run over by a truck after he was “doored” in the ByWard Market on Monday is a tragic reminder about the dangers cyclists and those on e-bikes face, says an Ottawa safe cycling group.
Ottawa police said the man was riding his scooter northbound on Cumberland Street at about 4:30 p.m. when the driver of a Toyota that had just parked along the curb swung open his door. The man on the e-bike collided with the door and was then thrown off his scooter, where he landed in front of a northbound pickup truck.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, January 13, 2016
National Capital Commission work crews have begun preparing the ice on the Rideau Canal Skateway, but it’s still too early to say when the world largest skating rink will open.
For the first time this winter, NCC crews were on the canal ice Tuesday night, removing the fresh snow and flooding the ice, said spokeswoman Jasmine Leduc. At this point, she said, “It’s all done manually, because the ice is still not thick enough for heavier equipment.”
By Paul McCooey, Ottawa Citizen, January 13, 2016
If you are planning to take public transit between now and Monday you better load your Presto card by the end of the day Wednesday.
Presto — the electronic fare payment system used in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa — confirmed it is planning to upgrade its central operating system over the weekend and therefore the Presto website will be unavailable from Friday to Monday.