LRT launches today: Everything you need to know

By CTV News Ottawa, September 14, 2019

The O-Train Confederation Line is set to open to the public on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 2 p.m. Here is what you need to know if you plan on riding the trains.

Where does the Confederation Line go?

The Confederation Line runs 12.5 kilometres from Blair Station in the east to Tunney’s Pasture in the west, including a 2.5 kilometre tunnel through the downtown core. According to OC Transpo, it takes about 25 minutes to ride the line from end to end. Trains can reach a speed of up to 80 km/h.

In total, there are 13 stations: Blair, Cyrville, St-Laurent, Tremblay, Hurdman, Lees, uOttawa, Rideau, Parliament, Lyon, Pimisi, Bayview and Tunney’s Pasture.

The Confederation Line also connects to the O-Train Trillium Line at Bayview Station.

Hours of the Confederation Line

The LRT system will not run 24/7.

 

Park and Ride woes in new LRT system

By CTV News Ottawa, September 12, 2019

Prospective LRT riders at Blair Station's park and ride have a long walk to the station if they’re lucky enough to hold a parking pass.

The city admits there will be some growing pains as part of the new light rail setup. Some commuters remain optimistic; while others are skeptical the system is convenient for those parking their cars, hoping to ride the rails.

“Especially in the winter, it's a long walk, it's a long walk,” said Chris Ojala “Very small and there's no park and ride at the Gloucester centre.”

LRT up and running in Ottawa

By CBC News Ottawa, September 14, 2019

The time has finally arrived, and today, so will the trains.

After years of planning, construction and multiple missed deadlines, Ottawa's $2.1-billion Confederation Line will finally welcome its first paying LRT riders this afternoon.

Before the public starts pouring through the gates, however, Mayor Jim Watson was joined by representatives from the provincial and federal governments at Tunney's Pasture station for the official launch.

Adam: Enjoy Ottawa's new LRT – but think of what might have been

By Mohamed Adam, Ottawa Citizen, September 13, 2019

Ottawa will make a little bit of history Saturday as LRT finally rolls into town – 10 years late. Yes, 10 years, not 17 months, late.

There’s no doubt this marks a significant turning point in Ottawa’s drive to become a major league city. Still, as we celebrate this milestone, think of where we might be today if politics had not intervened in 2006 to derail the north-south LRT that was set to open in 2009. We killed a 29-kilometre, $880-million LRT from Barrhaven to University of Ottawa, for a $2.1-billion, 12.5-km line that goes from Tunney’s Pasture to Blair Road. We lost a decade and got a shorter, more expensive line, albeit with a tunnel. Not what you’d consider value for money.

If we had stuck with the original north-south plan, as we should have, Ottawa would have been so far ahead we would really be talking about transformative public transit today. We would not be debating the Trillium expansion because it would already be reality. Barrhaven would already have LRT. Most likely Kanata would have one as well – not a “maybe in another few years.” Kanata would have been part of the east-west rail to Orléans which was to follow north-south. The city would have had the 10 years it devoted to the Confederation Line to build east-west. There is no reason why federal and provincial governments would not have funded it, given they are funding the $3.6-billion Stage 2 LRT.

Katimivik Road reopens after water main repairs

By Luke Carroll, Ottawa Citizen, September 13, 2019 A busy Kanata street reopened Friday night after repairs to a broken water main.

The incident was reported at 5:45 p.m. at the corner of Katimavik Road and Peary Way.

Katimavik Road is closed to traffic from Eagleson Road to Castlefrank Road, for an undetermined amount of time. 

City seeking redress as west end garbage woes pile up

By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, September 11, 2019

West Ottawa residents whose garbage and recycling has been sitting at the curb for days awaiting pickup should soon get some relief, the city is promising.

"We're doing everything humanly possible to ensure that service gets respectable again. We're throwing everything we have at it," pledged Kevin Wylie, the city's general manager of public works, on Wednesday.

People living in Bay ward, Kanata, Stittsville and the city's rural west end began complaining in June that Waste Management, the company contracted to pick up curbside waste in those neighbourhoods, was falling behind.

More electric vehicle charging stations could be coming to Smiths Falls

By Mallory Dey, InsideOttawaValley, September 10, 2019 Do you suffer from road range anxiety and aren’t sure if you’ll make it to your destination while driving an electric vehicle? A solution could soon be coming your way. During the Sept. 9 committee of the whole meeting of Smiths Falls town council, Chief Administrative Officer Malcolm Morris, brought to council the idea of having electric vehicle charging stations within the town. Morris wants to authorize staff to issue a letter of intent to Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to partner for the provision of up to three Level 2 charging stations within the town.

A level 2 charging station requires amperage ranging from 16 to 40 amps and can recharge the vehicle in as little as 2.3 hours adding 25 miles of range per hour. A level 1 charging station requires amperage ranging from 12 to 16 amps and can take 8 to 20 hours to fully charge adding four miles of range per hour. And a level 3 requires amperage of 16, 30, 32 or 40 amps depending on what charger is chosen and can take 30 minutes to charge 80 per cent of the vehicle.

Still sneezing? Climate change may prolong allergy season

By Cecilia Sierra-Heredia , Jordan Brubacher and Tim Takaro, InsideOttawaValley, September 12, 2019

Every year, without fail, summer brings changes to our surroundings: more sunlight, heat, greenness and flowers, among many others. For some people, these changes also mean increasing physical discomfort because along with the flowers, trees and grass comes pollen.

(...)Plant flowering depends on many environmental factors, such as humidity or minimum temperature, so it’s hard to pinpoint a national start date for the pollen seasons. It’s more likely that different places will experience pollen seasons that match their particular range of temperatures, flora and other aspects of their geography.

Because pollen concentrations depend so much on the environmental conditions that surround the plant that produces it, many changes in the environment can affect pollen concentrations and pollen seasons.

Climate change is already altering flowering seasons worldwide and in turn, creating longer pollen seasons. The dates that were traditionally considered the start and end of pollen seasons have become obsolete because the seasons are generally starting earlier and ending later.

City looking to spend $500,000 to fix and improve Britannia berm

By Jeff Slack, 1310 News, September 9, 2019

The City of Ottawa is looking at spending $500,000 to improve the Britannia berm following the 2019 spring flood.

A report by city staff says the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority will review and develop a project aimed at protecting existing properties in the area.

(...)The $500,000 will be paid using money from the stormwater improvements and the joint renewal activity.

The plan will be discussed further during the city's environment committee meeting September 17.

What happens if the LRT stops working after opening day?

By Jason White, 1310 News, September 9, 2019

As OC Transpo officials prepare for Saturday's public opening of the Confederation Line, they have multiple backup plans in the event that there's a problem on the line, after the trains enter service.

Last week's 10-hour outage on the western half of the line, through the downtown tunnel, prompted some to wonder what would have happened if the problems occurred after opening day.

(...)If there's a problem with one of the trains, it would be moved to the next station at reduced speed, Manconi said. It would be extremely unlikely that a train would be stranded, unable to be moved to the nearest station platform.

"The thing you don't want is to do evacuations along the rail line," Manconi said. "But I will tell you right now, that is one of the drills we're practicing."

(...)"We don't have thousands of buses waiting around," Manconi said. "People will do what they do in other major metropolitan cities -- they're going to get up, figure out if it's close enough to walk to where they need to get to, grab Uber, bike, walk, taxi, and so forth."

City council sending Waste Management contract to the black bin

By Lesley McKay, StittsvilleCentral, September 8, 2019

Since early Spring 2019 Stittsville residents have been complaining loud and clear about the lack of garbage service being provided by Waste Management (WM) to our community. These complaints, or lack of service, were timely as Waste Management had entered into negotiations with the City for the extension of their contract that ends on May 31, 2020.

Councillor Gower and his office staff have been fielding complaints from residents for six months and constantly communicating directly to the community with updates on delays and new pick-up times on his social media platforms and in person.

Yes, Waste Management had a fire in July resulting in the loss of eight trucks, but when you are a large business, should a back-up plan not be in place for incidents such as this? Bringing in additional trucks or renting vehicles and adding more manpower would have helped to solve the situation.

Today's letters: Bridge safety, cycling safety

By Julie Mercantini and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, September 6, 2019

What’s wrong with sometimes walking your bike?

Re: Letters, Flora Footbridge foolishness, Sept. 4.

I am wondering why some cyclists feel the city has done them wrong if ever there is a street or intersection at which it would be safer to get off and walk their bicycles.

Both ends of the Flora bridge say “Yield to pedestrians.” Maybe they should say “Walk your bicycles on the descent.” Similarly, would it be so wrong for cyclists to walk their bikes at the Laurier and Elgin intersection rather than reconfiguring all intersections so they can ride from door to door?

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