Ottawa is Officially Screwed

More criticism of Ottawa LRT from Officially Screwed. From the article:
it will, in effect, be a streetcar style which will:

A) put enormous stress on the already burdened power grid,
B) open up the possibility to a power failure stranding thousands of people, including the possibility of being stuck under Dow’s Lake.
C) take more power which comes from coal fired and nuclear produced electricity costing $20M per km of track when the diesel electric option would have cost $4M per km. - Read More

Ottawa LRT Leader rebuffed

Over at Ottawa LRT there's a document posted that totally pulls apart a memo by Réjean Chartrand, telling councillors that disaster will strike the city if it doesn't approve the LRT Project.

Also take a look at the Ridership Analysis, which shows a mere 1090 net new (peak-hour) riders will bestow the new LRT system. This is HARDLY A DENT in the the 67000 new riders needed to achieve the city's 30% modal split goal. I'd expect more BANG for my tax dollar, for a $1Billion system.

Chartrand has bent the truth and outright lied to council (methinks intentionally) regarding the content of this study in order to get the project approved for the Mayor.

LRT gets the green light by a vote of 14-8

Terry Kilrea noted of the proceedings today:
"They were like students cramming for an exam with their line of last minute questioning. Now they're all hoping they did the right thing and that they graduate in November."

Here's how they voted on the $1Billion project :

Bob Monette — Yes Jan Harder — Yes Eli El-Chantiry — Yes Janet Stavinga — Yes Diane Deans — Yes Georges Bedard — Yes Diane Homles — Yes Shawn Little — Yes Maria McRae — Yes Clive Doucet — Yes Peter Hume — Yes Rob Jellett — Yes Doug Thompson — Yes Bob Chiarelli — Yes

Ranier Bloess — No Jacques Legendre — No Peggy Feltmate — No Alex Cullen — No Rick Chiarelli — No Michel Belmare — No Glenn Brooks — No Gord Hunter — No

The amendments which passed:
- exclude Lester Station
- include South Keys station
- bring station designs back to Transportation Committee and Council for approval.
- preclude eastward extensions into Sandy Hill, beyond Cumberland
- refer the question of extension to Hurdman back to Transportation Committee
- build the west Transitway Pinecrest to Bayshore.
- negotiate parking lot sharing at Barrhaven Town Centre
- the contract will be placed on the public record
- the contract will be open to revision by mutual agreement
- community working groups to be set up in affected wards (Somerset, Hintonburg, etc.)

Up for public process:
- the addendum EA for the U of O
- the heritage district consultations for the U of O
- the Hurdman question at Transportation Committee
- Public consultation on the O-Train replacement transit service
- review of the issues of the maintenance yard selection with community and interest groups
- the Interprovincial Transit Study
- The East West LRT EA report
- public review of the other two bidders' designs
- station designs at Transportation Committee
- Quarterly project report (in October)

Open Letter: North-South LRT: the 1.6% Solution

Little-Known City Ridership Study Shows the Proposed $800+ Million Project Will, at Best, Only Get 900 Cars Off The Road.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce evidence and analysis that would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the proposed North-South LRT project contains fundamental planning flaws, important data omissions and significant misrepresentations. A reasonable person would further conclude that the current plan is neither an efficient nor effective means of contributing to Council’s goal of achieving 30% of all vehicle commuters traveling by public transit. All evidence used to support these conclusions will come entirely from the City’s official planning documents.

View the PDF here: Open Letter - NS LRT Proposal July 10 2006.pdf