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spmarshall,

Generally speaking, I share your opinion on Jeanes and his effect on the O-Train. But it was just part of the general haze and backgound noise that defined this project from the start.

I'm confused when the media and the city council uses the words Subway and Underground LRT interchangeably. They are not the same thing obviously. I don't think Ottawa will be getting a subway from O'Brien. It is only an O-Train going underground (if the tunnel thing still exists at the moment).
Click to expand...

This has probably been one of the most ineptly-handled public projects that I can think of. Not only were there poor planning choices all along the way, but the politics surrounding it was painful. As you point out, lazyandrandom, confusion reigned right up to the end with the inability to distinguish between a subway and a tunnel for the train.
 
I agree that this project was doomed by "transit advocates" who were unwilling to see anything built unless it was their exact vision. I'm baffled by why Alex Munter chose to make attacking the O-Train his biggest issue. There was so much else for a lefty candidate like him to run on...
 
Now dead with an expensive funeral to come.


Ottawa council kills light rail project

Backing out of $778-million contract may cost $250 million to $300 million

Last Updated: Thursday, December 14, 2006 | 6:03 PM ET
CBC News

Ottawa will not be getting a new north-south light rail line anytime soon, city council has decided.

Council voted 13-11 Thursday afternoon in favour of scrapping both the original $778-million light rail contract approved by the previous council in July and the shortened, slightly cheaper light rail plan passed last week.

The decision — made less than two hours before a crucial 5 p.m. contract deadline — means the city forgoes $400 million in federal and provincial funding promised for the original plan.

City lawyers have estimated that the decision could also cost the city between $250 million and $300 million in claims from Siemens-PCL/Dufferin, the group of companies contracted to design, build and maintain the rail line through an agreement worth $778.2-million. The city has already spent $65 million on the project.

Council's decision was between three choices:

The original plan, which ran north from Barrhaven and east through downtown to the University of Ottawa and was approved by the previous council in July.

The shortened plan, which ran north from Barrhaven, but stopped at LeBreton Flats, west of downtown, and was expected to cost about $70 million less.

Neither plan.

Earlier in the day, it was revealed that council had only until 5 p.m. ET Thursday to make its crucial decision — not until the start of Dec. 15 as previously thought.

A letter arrived Thursday confirming Ontario would hand over $200 million for the City of Ottawa's light rail transit line if council voted in favour of the original plan.

And Siemens-PCL/Dufferin sent a letter late Wednesday threatening legal action against the city if both plans fell through.

Neither letter swayed council into voting in favour of either existing light rail plan.

Council concluded the vote more than an hour before the deadline.

A vote on the project was being held because the provincial and federal governments said they could not review the revised light rail plan approved by council last week — and confirm $400 million in funding — before the project's contract deadline.

The two higher governments committed $200 million each to the original proposal, but said the revised proposal was different enough to warrant another complete review.

A day before the province sent the letter confirming its commitment to the old plan, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty gave his view about changes to the proposal.

"They're trying to change something on the fly which doesn't readily lend itself to fast changes," he said, adding that the original proposal came out of two years of discussions among three levels of government.

He added that he did not personally favour the revised plan.

"It seems … just to me as a lay person, that making sure our new light rail system moves through the downtown would be important."
 
Wow. So a third of the cost of building the damned thing could go to just to cancelling it.

The next big Ottawa project - the Alta Vista expressway, connecting to Nicholas Street/Queensway to Walkley. Apparently that's still going ahead. (If anyone is interested, the expressway would go south from the interchange, over the Rideau River, through Hurdman Park, behind the hospitals, and through more parks to Walkley Road - the alignment is quite visible in the MapArt map and Google.
 
I agree that this project was doomed by "transit advocates" who were unwilling to see anything built unless it was their exact vision. I'm baffled by why Alex Munter chose to make attacking the O-Train his biggest issue. There was so much else for a lefty candidate like him to run on...
Click to expand...

I agree the plan was not the greatest, but it was a good step, and was pleased that they finally went ahead with a Barrhaven-U of O line via surface routes. It would not solve Ottawa's transit problems (exasperated by the Transitway and all those green express routes making one-run wonders), but it would be a great start.

With "transit advocates" like Jeanes (a man who I once admired, now have little more than scorn for, with pushing for his vision and attacking city staffers and consultants using his P Eng in a different field), who needs transit enemies?

It was telling to see someone like Doucet make not-so-subtle attacks at people like Jeanes and Munter (who I did not get either for his O-Train opposition).
 
Jeanes is quite happy about this outcome. Any significant lawsuit will probably doom any future rail projects. I guess when advocates like Jeanes get wrapped up in their opinions they can loose sight of anything else - like the larger reality surrounding them.
 
We need more Clive Doucets, less David Jeanes.


Ottawa may lose electric light rail for good: mayor
Councillors, Barrhaven residents disappointed by decision
Last Updated: Friday, December 15, 2006 | 12:05 PM ET
CBC News

Mayor Larry O'Brien says he is launching a six-month review of mass transit in Ottawa, and electric light rail may not be part of the city's future at all.

O'Brien voted Thursday — along with 12 city councillors — to kill both possible proposals for a north-south light rail line running from Barrhaven toward downtown Ottawa.

That means the city forgoes for now $400 million in federal and provincial funding originally committed to the project, and must also back out of a contract with the companies slated to design, build and maintain the rail line.

But in an interview with CBC after the vote, O'Brien said the decision was the right one for the city.

'Anyone can sue anyone in today's world.'-Mayor Larry O'Brien

He added that voters spoke out against the light rail project when they chose a mayor and council opposed to it.

"Forty-seven per cent of the people said that they wanted a different definition of mass transit and we gave that to them today," he said, "and we'll take six months now to identify what that really means."
Continue Article

O'Brien insisted the federal and provincial funding remains on the table for Ottawa's transportation projects, but as of Friday morning, that had not been verified by the higher governments themselves.
O'Brien unfazed by threat of legal action

Nor was O'Brien worried about legal action from Siemens-PCL/Dufferin, whose $778.2-million light rail contract with the city was approved by the previous city council in July. The group sent a letter Wednesday informing the city that it "will pursue any and all legal actions" if the city scrapped the deal. Company officials refused to comment after council's decision was announced.

But city staff earlier in the day estimated that the companies' claim would likely be $250 million to $300 million.

When asked about the threat, O'Brien responded, "Anyone can sue anyone in today's world."

He added that most lawsuits are settled out of court for a fraction of the amount in the original claim, and it's in the Siemens consortium's best interests to keep a good working relationship with the city "because we have a big need for mass transit."

City staff say it will take at least four years to hammer out another major transit plan.
Decision 'so colossally stupid': councillor

O'Brien's outlook was in sharp contrast to that of city councillors Diane Deans (Ward 10, Gloucester-Southgate) and Clive Doucet (Ward 17, Capital), two of the 11 councillors who voted to go ahead with the line and ended up on the losing side of the decision.

Doucet said the outcome was "devastating."

"It's nine years for me of work," he said. "Our new vision for Ottawa has just gone down the drain. And it's so colossally stupid it's hard to put into words."

Deans agreed.

'Our new vision for Ottawa has just gone down the drain. And it's so colossally stupid it's hard to put into words.'—Coun. Clive Doucet

"It achieves nothing except great big, colossal legal bills for the taxpayers in Ottawa," she said, adding that Thursday was one of the city's "darkest days."
Barrhaven residents disappointed

Meanwhile, many residents of Barrhaven in Ottawa's south end were similarly disappointed with the news.

Kathleen Currie, who works for the Canadian Forces, said the rail line would have cut her commute time.

"I am very disappointed because I work downtown in Ottawa and I was looking forward to using the light rail," she said.

Michelle Hope, who works in Barrhaven, said right now it can take more than an hour to take the bus downtown from the expanding community.

"There's so many people in Barrhaven and it's growing every day so we need something like that [light rail] so people can get around."

But even some Barrhaven residents, such as Anne Deschamps, thought council's decision was the right one.

"To spend that amount of money on north-south seems like a lot to me," said Deschamps, who says she rarely leaves Barrhaven and wouldn't have used the line.

"I think east-west [transit] needs a lot more consideration than it's been given."
 
Anyone can sue anyone in today's world.'-Mayor Larry O'Brien
Click to expand...

Mayor O'Brien's next magic act after making the O-Train vanish: make the next big tax hike go bye-bye without cutting services.

Good luck, Lar.
 
A national capital city that can't get a modest LRT project off the ground certainly doesn't send positive vibes to other Canadian cities looking towards Ottawa for transit money.
 
So this means GO isn't going to buy the old O-trains? A dark day in transit for both Ottawa and the GTA.
 
this could actually be good news, if Baird is pressurised as Environment Minister for killing a transit project in a previous job the Tories might be forced into shovelling more money into transit to show they actually like it (though not the o-train, Harper hates admitting he's wrong).

However, with our luck all the money will go to the subway to Sorbara... ahem... Vaughan Corporate Centre.
 
^Baird had mentioned that the money was still available for transit.

Since the rail plan was infected with politics, one can assume that Baird's decision had something to do with satisfying some of his constituency and their dislike for the O-Train, and an effort to remove the mayor (a liberal) from office.
 
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