New $2B transit plan on track to council(Thursday, November 22, 2007 by Ottawa Business Journal Staff) -- The city of Ottawa's transit and transportation committees made a surprise decision to push an ambitious new $2-billion transit plan to council next week, approving a motion to look more closely at a proposal which includes a downtown subway. The two committees had been planning to discuss a short-term strategy for the Ottawa transit system at Wednesday's joint meeting, with the long-term plan only expected to be determined next year at the earliest. However, city politicians passed the proposal to extend the light-rail system south into Riverside South and east towards Cumberland, and to connect the two O-Train lines with a downtown subway line. As well, the plan calls for the completion of the bus transitway from downtown to Kanata and Stittsville and an extension of the transitway towards Barrhaven. The long-term plan is expected to take up to eight years before becoming operational. The city is planning to ask the federal and provincial governments for $200 million each, which was committed to the earlier $1-billion proposal for an extended north-south O-Train line that was derailed last year. In the short term, the city is expecting to work on improving and extending the bus transitway system until the full plan can be implemented. -- 30-- |