Citizen 3-part LRT series

Looking at Ottawa's LRT Replacement (not expansion) Project, the Citizen has a 3 part series looking at the $725M project.

In an era of tight budgets, Mr. [Tim] Lane, a self-confessed "skinflint," believes light rail to be the cheaper public transit option. He says the city doesn't have to spend so much.

"For $325 million, the city's share of the north-south project, we could have 80 kilometres of diesel light rail on existing rail corridors in the city. It irks me that we are not using them," he said.

"We had rail before and we let it go. We should be using what we have."

Instead, the city is opting for a more expensive system that runs on urban roads and other corridors that require large investments in bridges and tracks.

Mr. Lane said he fears that the city's approach will make light rail so expensive that it would be difficult to win public support for the east-west line.

"If the idea is to get more people out of cars and into transit, you can do it cheaper and faster than the city is doing," he said.

Read the series here, under Editor's Picks.