Ottawa City Council votes to proceed with LRT plans
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief Despite some voiced misgivings, the Ottawa City Council Jan. 13 voted 19-4 to proceed with preliminary engineering and environmental review of a C$2.1 billion (US$2 billion) light rail transit line for the city. The 7.8-mile, 13-station route would include a 2-mile tunnel under downtown.
The vote came despite continued resistance to the plan, most recently by mayoral candidate Jim Watson who challenged the cost estimates for the project, and suggested the decision should wait pending a post-election makeover of the City Council. But Alex Cullen, chairman of City Council’s transit committee and himself a candidate for mayor, said a new council likely would not change the outcome.
Still to be determined is the amount of available funding from the federal government. Ontario has pledged C$600 million, and per recent commitments to other passenger rail projects, the federal government is expected to match that on a roughly one-to-one basis. Ottawa would be expected to cover the remaining C$900 million under such a scenario.
