There was a bunch of work in that gap in the past couple years, I imagine there's a sewer through there. Looking at the surrounding topography, it's a low spot.

It'll be a mirror for Blair/Innes at the other end of the city.

I'm surprised we haven't seen a proposal to tunnel out and continue across the Alexandra bridge, considering they seem to want to have tracks on the Quebec side of the river further east. I don't think it's particularly feasible, but I would have thought it would come up for discussion by now.

There was a train out late last week, and possibly Sunday morning before Line 1 opened late. This week I have seen an excavator going back and forth a bit.

I think people might be confused between two different crane features; a self-erecting crane, and a luffing jib crane. This is a luffing jib crane, where the boom tilts up to avoid obstacles. There are two others up in Ottawa at Smyth/Riverside right now. A self erecting crane is capable of...

While a bench with a centred armrest is simply hostile, the 1/3-2/3 offset armrest is supposed to allow someone with limited mobility to use both arms to assist them in standing up. It's the current city standard.

There's been 4 double car sets on the line for a couple of weeks, generally two parked at Trim and two at Montreal overnight.

There's a handful in Ottawa: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/need-to-beat-the-heat-this-ottawa-fire-hydrant-is-now-a-water-fountain-1.6557007 https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/city-news/newsroom/im-back-ottawa-and-brand-new-look There's usually one at QED/Fifth.

As you say, the business case calls for a locomotive and a cab car. We've seen ONTC recently purchase some F40PH based NPCUs similar to what Amtrak uses. There would be lots of space in a unit like this to install a HEP generator, eliminating the need for a separate power car while allowing them...

There will be some old VIA locomotives on the market soon, but to some extent it doesn't matter if there are old ones locally, since the market is fairly integrated. ONTC got theirs from NRE, and there's no reason they couldn't go shopping in the US again. Prices are going to be similar no...

The key I see there isn't the revenue, it's the costs. What kind of system is so inefficient that adding another car is barely worth it? What was the staffing ratio? How else could costs be cut? The train consisted of a freight locomotive, power car for HEP, a couple of coaches, and a cafe car...

There's room on the Winchester Sub - CP pulled out the second track this past summer, leaving only a few long sidings. They installed CTC to manage it, and sent the CWR out to improve the MMA/CMQ. If a bypass was needed badly enough, there is room to re-lay that second track, sidings might not...

Yes, a bus would probably provide better service than a train by some metrics for the same amount of money. That doesn't mean they're comparable though. First, the train has significantly better optics than a bus, and while that might be semantics when it comes to LRT vs. bus in an urban...

An important note is that while this might be the first PRESTO equipped agency taking open payments, it is not a PRESTO installation. Ottawa owns their own equipment and already runs a shadow fare system for bus transfers, train tickets, multi-day disposable RFID passes and...

Amtrak Cascades in Washington/Oregon is the other good example, especially where there's a partnership between two states.