Yesterday I rode Ottawa's long-anticipated and much-delayed light rail system for the first time. I needed to go downtown anyway and since it was a Wednesday, that meant free fare for seniors. So what were my first impressions? Well, let's just say mixed.
First, the good news. I would MUCH rather ride a train than a bus any day. During the testing period, they had been running 2-car trains all the time and I worried that once it was up and running, they might only have enough cars available to do the 2-car thing all day, every day (and evening), regardless of the required capacity. I needn't have worried on that score, and I had a seat each time, although some who boarded later did have to stand. There's still a parallel bus system operating until October 6, so we'll have to see if there's still sufficient capacity on the trains once that stops. I never had to wait more than a couple of minutes for a train, either. I liked the artwork at the stations as well as the little maps of the surrounding neighbourhood. I also like the fact that a number of the stations have public washrooms. Signage was mostly adequate, though could be improved in places. The train ride itself was smooth and quick.
So what's the bad news? My main concerns were with bus-train and train-bus connections and with traffic flow at stations and connections between the station itself and the surrounding vicinity.
We have been reasonably well-served for buses up to now, but we don't live right on the LRT route. We've always had a direct bus to downtown (the #86) and another one (the #88) that takes us through Billings Bridge to Hurdman Station in one direction, and out to Terry Fox (bus) station in Kanata in the other. We still have the #88 bus running as before, but after October 6, the #86 will stop at Tunney's Pasture, meaning that any trip downtown will of necessity be a 2-stage, bus-train process. And frankly, once the bus is at Tunney's Pasture, it's nearly downtown anyway! Perhaps the saving grace is that on our part of the #86 route, there is now also the #89 to Tunney's Pasture, so that during most of the non-rush-hour part of the day, there's still a bus every 15 minutes. Folks who live along Meadowlands Drive or out Colonnade Road way are not so lucky, as they will only have a bus every half-hour. However, the #89's do not seem well-timed for me. Both yesterday and today, as I was coming out of Tunney's Pasture LRT station, a #89 went swooping past me on its way to the bus stop. A bus travels faster than a pedestrian, so of course I didn't catch it and had to wait 15 minutes for the #86.
Which brings me to the traffic flow at Tunneys Pasture Station. You go out of the train station onto Yarrow Drive, an oblong, arena-shaped structure where the buses loop around to their various stops. The people, meanwhile, are fenced off onto a walkway, where they must walk ALL around to the far side of a lengthy oblong to their bus-stop. Mind you, walkways are good. But what's needed is a crosswalk halfway along that oblong so that the slowest-moving traffic - the milling hordes of people - don't suffer the futile frustration of wanting to catch up to the fastest-moving traffic - in this case, the buses. Will it improve once the parallel bus service ceases, so that there are fewer buses there and the distance between train station and bus stop may be a little less? Maybe, though I'm not holding my breath. When one of the Transit Commission members, city councillor Riley Brockington, asked if it might be possible to visit the station during rush hour one day to see the issues first-hand and offer suggestions for improvement, transit boss John Manconi arrogantly told him he wouldn't understand and he should trust the experts and let the system settle. But surely the REAL experts - at least on this aspect of things - are the commuters who use it and rely on it five days a week. That's not rocket science - or even rail science!
A couple of other points here. There's a certain odour apparent in both the stations and the trains. Not what I would have expected, that new-car, new-upholstery smell, but more like an undertone of stale pee. It's not really overpowering or gag-worthy, but neither could it be described as pleasant.
When the train arrives in a station, there are announcements to indicate that the doors are opening or closing. However, it would be really nice if they would do as they do in Toronto (and possibly Montreal?): announce "Doors will open on the right" or "Doors will open on the left". That would be immensely helpful for the vision-impaired but also for anyone not really familiar with the route (which right now is almost everyone, but later would include out-of-towners and anyone who doesn't take the LRT on a regular basis). During the busiest times of day, it's definitely helpful to know which door to queue up at if you want to get out at your destination before the hordes start surging on - or before you're trapped where you are until the next station!
Finally, I'm hoping for better and more thoughtful development around the transit stations in the future. We've heard lots of talk about new housing and intensification in the residential areas. But there are more immediate, short-term issues too. When I got to the eastern end of the LRT, I basically walked out of the station into a parking lot. It wasn't very pedestrian-friendly! It's great to have LRT take you to major shopping and business areas, but when you end up in a sea of big-box stores interspersed with parked cars, that's not ideal. For the downtown stations, I'm actually pleased that they built the tunnel and am hoping for a more vibrant underground (in the literal sense) downtown Ottawa, akin to the PATH in downtown Toronto or the Place Ville Marie area of Montreal. Certainly in the wintertime, it would be great to be more protected from the elements as we go about our day-to-day business. Perhaps there will once again be movie theatres in the World Exchange and Place de Ville?
I hope I'm still around when Phases 2 and 3 of LRT open!
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