Ottawa's O-Train & Transitway Network Evolution
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 20. 02. 2021
- From its beginning in 1983, the Ottawa Transitway, O-Train (Light Rail) and Gatineau Rapibus network has grown to over 48 stations, spanning 50 kilometres (31 miles). This animated video takes you through the timeline of when new stations were opened, forming the OC Transpo and STO networks that we know today.
đ§ Full construction timeline: drive.google.com/file/d/1fIQg...
Credit: Rodney Chan. Twitter: @_ChanFace ( / _chanface )
đŠ Ask us questions on Twitter: / vanishingunder
âïž Video Criteria:
- Population given is for the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau.
- Future extensions are shown only if a construction tender has been awarded for their completion, at the time of video publication. If a construction tender has been issued for a project not included in the video, feel free to leave a comment, and we'll add it to our list to update.
- If you find an error, feel free to let us know in the comments. Please include links to any sources that will help us correct the error. Note: comments with links might take up to 24 hours to appear due to CZcams anti-spam policies.
đž Image Credits:
All images and video in this video are owned by me.
đŒ Thumbnail image: dwmccorm - www.flickr.com/photos/dwmccor..., CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
đ #OCTranspo #STO
Ottawa Line 1 Confederation Light Rail
Ottawa Line 2 Trillium Line Light Rail
Gatineau Rapibus
Ottawa Transitway
My criteria for inclusion in these videos is that the construction tender has been awarded. As a result, some projects such as Ottawa's Stage 3 LRT, Baseline Transitway, and Gatineau LRT are not shown.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY Phase 2 construction isn't being built by RTG. Phase 3 is still many years from procurement.
Btw, There is no change for the transitway during construction west from Dominion Station to Iris Station. Lincoln Fields, Queensway, and Iris Stations are operational as BRT on the same dedicated transitway until 2025.
Trillium Line is green
Confederation Line is red
Future Lines
Line 3 Yellow
Line 4 Blue
Line 5 Purple
you all prolly dont give a shit but does anybody know a method to get back into an instagram account..?
I somehow lost the account password. I appreciate any assistance you can offer me.
@Jacob Camdyn Instablaster :)
This feel weird. Ottawa is so rarely the focus of CZcams videos.
You could do an evolution of Halifax's rapid transit. "This is Halifax, Nova Scotia." Roll credits.
Ferries, maybe?
And St. John's, even though we're overbudget so much on our new hydroelectric dam to have built an entire subway system :(
Greater Ottawa has 1.2 million people but Iâd Iâve in Halifax any day over this boring fucking place. Jesus , Halifax is beautiful ! Spent a weekend in Ottawa once and couldnât wait to get back to Vancouver
@@user-gj8mn4ce8d The worst capital in the history of mankind.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY Queen Victoria chose Bytown as the Nation's Capital, basically because it was right in the middle of New France and New England.
Really well done. As an Ottawanian I didn't realize how frequently these changes happened. It seemed like the light rail line made such a significant change. I'm hoping there will be more connection to the rest of Orleans and Kanata in the future to reduce the need for bumper to bumper traffic.
Orléans is set for 2024. Kanata comes close in 2025 (just edged at Moodie).
@@mlmielke many thanks. About to move to Orleans so nice to here some support for the new neighbourhood.
As far as I know, when the funding arrives from federal and provincial governments, the next immediate LRT line would be to Barrhaven since itâs the biggest and most populated suburb. City has already done studies and designs are underway for stations and route. If the funding is enough, city will extend LRT to Kanata and hopefully Stittsville.
@@arunveergrewal4346 Kanata is a larger population. Barrhaven has a need to grade separate from VIA. But neither was ever stated as first, and the costs of the extra separations to Barrhaven are higher than extending to Kanata and Stittsville. If there's enough funds for Barrhaven, then there's enough for completing the Kanata-Stittsville alignment. Kanata was the original purpose of the east-west alignment too.
@@arunveergrewal4346 I wonder, i think it would be good to transform the south keys -> hurdman transitway into a rail network. The infrastructure is already there, already designated for bus only access and the land area is certainly enough to service the stops. Moreover, the whole south -> hurdman connection is a decent bit more busy and well prepared for rail development than a barrhaven connection would be
Thanks for the video! Itâs interesting how the transit way was generally opened one station per year instead of all at once.
I love this channel I can't get enough of it. I watch your videos over and over daily. Please keep making more amazing content.
I remember biking the entire O-train line before rail was laid. The tunnel under Dows Lake was... difficult. Kanata, a place of 56000 people is finally getting a tease of LRT about 24 years after the first line opened.
Why was the tunnel difficult? There's a smooth concrete walkway all along the east side. Not a lot of lights, though.
@@wizardsuth Under the lake now? Cool. At the time before the track was laid, there was no walkway, no lights, and was curved. Thus in the middle, it was nearly pitch black. You couldn't see either end!
Serving Canada's National Capital region with great transit since 1983
Bravo Zach! I actually spent half of last term on a report of the o-train, hits v close to home đ
I love your videos! Thank you for making them! Do Kitchener/Waterloo too please : )
This was a really informative video. Thanks for this.
The transitway station at Laurier was named "MacKenzie King". It was located at the south end of the Rideau Centre, while the new Rideau LRT station is located at its north end.
No, Mackenzie King was a separate stop from Laurier when it was just the Transitway. It still continues to operate for some local routes, and as the STO connection at Rideau Centre.
Nice video!! I was wondering if you could cover the history of transit operations in York Region before it merged into YRT? I think that would be interesting to find out!
It's not really fair to call it light rail though. It's completely grade seperated, so its basically a normal subway system with slightly smaller trains
Cool channel. Ottawa has a cool lrt. Can you do a video about Seattle? Their expansion plans are pretty intense!
Fun fact: Ottawaâs Transitway and O-Train were featured in the Canadian kids show Mighty Machines in the episode Buses, Subways And Trains, along with Torontoâs subway and streetcars and the Go Train!
Hey great video! i just found out myself that there was a greenboro transitway that lasted a total of 5 years, just thought id add ont to it. thanks
Nice one
Great!! I love Ottawa, looking foward to come there once again and try the confederation line.
No plans for light rail in Gatineau?
Greetings from Brazil!
There is: an LRT that reaches Aylmer with a branch too, both connecting to Lyon Station downtown.
I ride the train to work every morning and I can confirm Rideau station smells like shit! The smell is offensive. At least one person who works there reported they lost their sense of smell while working at Rideau station.
The train smells like shit also đ€ą
did they put bathrooms in each stations ? if not that's pretty normal and should have been expected.
@@flaklognon6274 Only a few stations, but none in the tunnel stations. Rideau is connected to the shopping centre which has restrooms.
@@mlmielke o well should have listened to experts that wanted them in, sure the ROI and usage per 100k is low but if you get them you have a shot at getting compared to hk,shanghai,singapore instead of new york (getting compared to NY subway is a bad thing for those of you who haven't travelled much)
@@flaklognon6274 The density in Ottawa is quite a lot different in Ottawa vs. those places. Enough density to support the system, whatever grade it is, is usually always the #1 criteria for success; metro systems (especially with tunnel and tunnel station expenses) typically require a lot of density that Ottawa doesn't have, and won't for quite awhile.
Ottawa is a beautiful City
What I like about Ottawa is that if you're over 65 the buses are free on Wednesday and Sunday.
Nice train!
Hey, do you know what softare you use for your maps? I'd love to know cause I want to make some of my own!
For videos I just use PowerPoint, but I use Inkscape for static maps
@@VanishingUnderground Ok Thanks!
I went to Ottawa's O-train and got on the red line & it was so good I can get from Tunny's passenger to Blair under 20 minutes đ
The transitway also had stops downtown at Metcalfe, Bank, and Bay Streets along Albert(Westbound) and Slater (Eastbound) Streets.
This is not very accurate. You only included dedicated roads. The transitway also included the dedicated lanes downtown, Orleans, Barhaven and Kanata. Also should of noted RapiBus is fully independent.
I mean that's more about scope than accuracy. He went over the main transitway and trains. Doesn't seem like individual bus routes are part of these breakdowns. Still well done.
Yeah actually I'm seeing now that there is several parts missing.
Especially on line 2, ottowas train based lines can hardly be described as light rail- the trillium is like a European style regional Rail and line one is a super grade seperated line, and in many ways it's designed like a metro, however, since it uses tram trains there has been many issues with it, from the lighter doors breaking and causing delays, to devastating derailments.i hope the new lines choose better trains, (seems like it may happen because the trillium line just got really nice new stadtler flirts
Fyi, Smyth is actually pronounced "Smite" and not "Smith", not that it matters :p
As someone who knows the history of the area, the generally used pronunciation is incorrect. The proper pronunciation is indeed 'Smith' . Smyth Road honours Lt. Col. William Smyth, originally spelt Smith. The pronunciation was improperly changed by newcomers.
actually it is called smythe ... long y ... not smite ... how do I know it was named after a relation ...
@@lovehandr um wrong again ... LONG y smythe not smith ... people called him smith cuz they didnt read his name tag properly
how do I know ... I am related.
@@lovehandr If Shakespeare was alive today he would spit on all of us for our english. It doesn't matter what it once was, as English evolves, we stick with the pronunciations most currently used. It's not science where everything is generally rule of law. It's very fluid and flexible.
@@lovehandr Language is a democracy.
Is Rideau station in this video? Where the sewage is leaking down the walls?
if you watched the video, you'd know that yes, it is.
You can someone see water leaking on the wall when you take the elevators inside rideau (the ones next to eb games/tim hortons)
6:20 The Laurier station is sneakily moving!
Great video, although I want to point out a few corrections. Smythe is pronounced as "Sm-eye-th", not Smith, and 2nd, I'm pretty sure (although someone could correct me on this) the SJAM Parkway section has dedicated HOV lanes for the busses.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY But that's ultimately a bit of a pedantic definition, especially for "Bus Rapid Transit" (as opposed to a busway, where it would be a more appropriate definition): the buses on the SJAM operate in what is always free-flowing traffic (not even in HOV lanes), the only traffic signals being those at either end of the segment. That's one of the reasons an actual dedicated busway was never built there: because it wasn't needed to achieve reliable rapid transit operations, and that would tend to apply to the highway shoulder bus lanes as well.
He probably should have used dashed lines for where the BRT operated in highway shoulder bus lanes and maybe dot-dash for the SJAM: if it's free-flowing between stations, it should be considered BRT.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY Which video are you referring to as I don't see a comment by 'asdf asdf' on this video?
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY I was mostly targetting the language, not the visuals. Although the same argument couls be use to argue for removing the Chapman Mills Transitway.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY the section of the transitway that has stops at Beatrice and Nepean Woods. That section is located in the median of Chapman Mills Drive, not in its own dedicated ROW.
It is not Smythe. It is Smyth and the proper pronunciation is Smith. It is rather insulting to the descendants of the Smyth family that the wrong pronunciation has taken over in recent years.
Great job on the video! Ottawaâs transportation is decent but unfortunately the construction of the confederation line was done really half-assed and itâs caused a bunch of problems during the winter and at peak times. Before covid I used to take the bus downtown everyday for school and on several occasions I found myself stuck at Tunneyâs pasture because the LRT stopped working. If youâre interested, a cool video would be a dive into the politics behind the poor construction of the LRT.
Availability of trains (stated as being from emergency braking) and signals on the eastern track segment (which had been the original test track) had been common, but not anymore. But since September, it's completed the scheduled weekday 12,000 service LRV km most days with excellent winter performance. PS: many of the "problems" were software-related, because of the 2009 choice of automated low-floor tram-train LRT technology in a fully grade-segregated alignment, but most are resolved.
Blame contractors I work with them they are bleeding money from the city it's sad.
Here we are with record low ridership and constant outages. What a shame.
What was that line 3? That yellow line. Never heard of it.
itâs the western extension of the confederation line from tunneyâs pasture to moodie.
Ottawa resident here: Small note that Smyth is pronounced "Sm-eye-th", not "Smith".
Great video but i preferred the O-Train Trillium line 2 anyday.
What about Orleans?
The confederation line is weird, as it's designed as a Metro but uses slower, less efficent low floor trams instead of high floor metro trains. They should replace the trains on it and turn it into a full blown metro system. Citidas are trams, and Ottawa could very well benifit from a Tramway that use them. Also the Trillium Line should be turned into an S-Bahn.
The envisioning >10 years ago was branches that may cross intersections at-grade without density justification in our suburbs for a metro vehicle system. That's why the low-floor tram-train choice was made. Yes, requirements have changed since then, so now reports insist extensions must be grade separated.
The citadis trains are by no means slow. The model we have has a designed maximum speed of 100 km/h. Faster than most metros. The train may reach that speed during longer section to Orleans when it's expanded. admittedly their floor space is not as efficient as a high floor train.
I'm surprised the population is 1.2 millions. We just hit 1 million just a couple of years ago.
It's not 1.2 million. The metropolitan area including Gatineau is around 1.3 million. Ottawa proper is indeed just over a million.
LAURIER MOVED!
the flirt line is very beautiful i wish that there was another line like that in athens
Oh so they canceled the branches and instead added separate lines? Interesting đ§.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY That part didn't change. There is a complex service pattern map but in short, some Line 3 trains terminate at Blair during rush hours, and Line 3 becomes a shuttle service to Lincoln Fields after like 11PM. But this has been in place since before they chose to separate the lines. The new lines are frankly just in place to artificially boost the number of lines.
It's still a branch, just not the same operations identifier.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY The thing is, we can, and operation plan does allow for Line 4 to occasionally extend to Bayview. But the single track limits the ability for through train traffic to always provide the service, and the city chose to run the mainline south to Limebank in Riverside South because of the higher peak demand.
@@Absolute_Zero7 It's likely that all PM peak trains will end at Trim, but some AM peak Line 3 trains may end at Blair, as well as after peak (end of time periods) so they can pull trains into the yard. But yes, Line 1 is always from Algonquin to Trim, but Line 3 allows for three operations: Moodie to Lincoln Fields (after 11pm Monday to Thursday), Moodie to Blair (short turn), and Moodie to Trim.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY i feel like if they decided to cut through beside line 2 it would be extremely complicated. Carleton University has a very old tunnel system underneath due to being an old military school, plus tight infrastructure in Dow's Lake would be expensive and dangerous to dig around. The idea of a small train to the airport is more cost affective. Cheers to the design engineers.
What a whole mess of unconnected modes
They're far more connected than this video shows
1:57 bruh they really named a station "Train"
Yes, because it was a BUS rapid transit station then, and the place where you went to ride the train.
Barrhaven centre is nothing more than a break trailer for the drivers lol, marketplace should be the first stop
Ignoring the Transitway stations east of Blair again. The rational doesn't make sense. Place D'Orleans and Trim stations should be included east of Blair.
Jeanne D'Arc should also be included as well
You forgot Terry fox station
Ottawa got their BRT right, but man do their rail lines suck
Itâs funny bc he keeps saying St-Laurent in a French way
So Iâm in decision of whether I want to move to Ottawa or Calgary but hope to use public and bike extensively to cut costs with insurance/gas/maintenance/all-the-other-bullshit. Is this actually going to be viable? Because all I ever read/hear is people shit talking it, and itâs got me reconsidering a lot. Because I would prefer Ottawa of the two, but if itâs transit is a joke compared to Calgary I wonât compromise that.
It depends where youâll be living in Ottawa and where you need to go. The transit is designed as a funnel towards downtown areas and federal workplaces. In the suburbs, transit is badly designed and a 10 minute car trip will usually take 30-40 minutes.
If you need to go anywhere outside your neighborhood besides downtown, itâs best to take a car because itâll require 3-4x times the amount of time and several transfers to reach your destination
Transit in Ottawa is a joke. Pre-Covid, the LRT line was down almost daily. It got to the point where OCTranspo would post "Service is running normal today" on their twitter. I would recommend going to reddit /r/Ottawa and asking people there. Like the other person said, the transit is meant to funnel people in and out of downtown. It depends where you live though but OC transpo busses are constantly late/no show. One of my friends told me that his motivation to finish his degree stemmed from having to use the bus daily, and how he knew that he needed to get a better job to never have to rely on OC Transpo again.
The trains were not designed by people who live in Ottawa. The trains break down from the winter, the switches break down from the winter, the heaters designed to keep the switches warm break down from the winter. The stations are designed to be wind tunnels so it's very very cold.
The only good thing about the LRT is the fact that because it doesn't work most of the time, the city actually doesn't have to pay the builders until it meets a certain percentage of reliability. The city, for this 2.1 billion dollar line, has only paid 3 million dollars. I guess it's great that our taxes haven't gone completely to waste.
You should be going to the city that gives you the most opportunity though, if great transit in Calgary nets you a $50k job, but needing a car in Ottawa nets you a $90k job, you shouldn't throw it all away just to use the bus.
If youâre near downtown, biking is an option. There are several streets with bike lanes and itâs relatively flat. If you are further out then youâll be biking on regular road sidewalks and biking towards downtown could take a while.
@@77Redwood Au contraire, the trains have excellent performance in snow and cold. Perception doesn't change facts. And 98% reliability is much better than some Metro systems, proven to complete the scheduled ~12,000 weekday service LRV km most days since September and approach 150,000 LRV km before a disruption (other LRV systems might only reach 70,000 km), proven in snow.
Every city thinks their transit is the worst, especially when they're not accustomed to a major change. I suggest ignoring that and forming your own opinion, as the perception is biased negativity. Ottawa just hasn't been accustomed to a rail system, having been used to the inefficient bus system despite stats saying that we needed a rail-based system since the 1980s. But every issue on the rail line happens on rail systems around the world, just not as often as the initial months... but we knew in 2009 that the issues would show up, given the choice of ATO low-floor tram-train LRT technology in a fully segregated alignment requiring additional software systems integration.
Was I the only person that cringed when he pronounced Smyth as âsmithâ?
No no no no no no no no no if youâre trying to extend a train service you donât just close it in order to extend it donât be stupid
They weren't being stupid, because they weren't just extending it. They were rebuilding all the stations to handle longer trains, and twinning the tracks in multiple parts rather than having a passing track at only one station (Carleton). Far more work than could be done while keeping it open while trying to get it done in a reasonable time. And it managed to be late even with not having to work around live train traffic.
The doors on the train don't even close or open using the buttons which they designed to be used hahaha cmon this is a fail, just admit it... What does it cost to heat the train it's so cold in the tunnels could they have designed a door or at least plastic flaps to keep some heat in?? Just admit it you messed up.
"Pandemic" related, so they say. They are fully capable of this function, but to reduce the touch surfaces they decided to still automate it.
@@mlmielke nope it was like that from the beginning I remember it months before the pandemic
@@justsomeguy1671 The reason now is pandemic-related (only).. but they say they'll consider it for next winter. At first it was all automatic (something about getting people used to the system), then the pandemic made it stay automatic for an indefinite time.
OCtranspo is horrible đ
Ikr
But consistent about it!
Most expensive, inefficient piece of garbage. If you want to know how to do things backwards, visit Ottawa.
I agree that the transitway was very inefficient. It should have been LRT (like Calgary) from the beginning, instead of inefficient buses. Calgary has already proven the price per passenger value by having LRT. Ottawa has proven the high cost of operations giving low value per passenger by having BRT to serve long distance suburbs with 30km deadhead trips just for express buses. The curve buses often have is costing more, more quickly, despite lower capital costs, ending up with billions more in lifecycle dollars than LRT.
you missed a most important fact about the ottawa O train ... rail system ... it doesnt work worth shit ...
It's more reliable than Skytrain. 98% reliability since September; Skytrain has been below 97%, even 95%. Enough dependable coverage is the big part of what makes a system successful. Many lines that have had less uptake than the LRT have seen success when they extended them from their initial range. It absolutely works, and runs ~12,000 LRV km most days, the same as is the weekday schedule and actually delivers more than other similar LRV systems.
@Mitch 1066 Btw, it's actually able to handle 3x as many passengers. But that requires more trains.
The opening of Stage 2 East calls for more capacity to Orléans than Stage 1 started with. The forecast suggests that trains will be between 50% and 60% full from Place d'Orléans, rather than 100%, only reaching 80% at Montréal Road.
I hate OC Transpo in every way
The Otrain is the worst
That's a normal opinion when there's a change from what we're used to. But systems also perform better when there is extended coverage, something that has even been true for systems that have had much less uptake than Ottawa's.
@@mlmielke you obviously were paid to say this or something lol, go to Rideau station and breath the stench and view the yellow brown sewage seeping out of the walls
@@justsomeguy1671 No, I just state facts, even if they contradict popular opinion, that popular opinion designed to fit a narrative that may not be correct and often isn't. It's a fact that compared to similar LRV systems, the Ottawa LRT has achieved much more than what typical LRVs are able to achieve; it's a fact that coverage has been proven to bring greater success. Unfortunately, the LRT was built without the full coverage length; designed to MUST be extended, having been built for Stage 2 and not just Stage 1.
@@justsomeguy1671 I'm fully aware of the "stank" talk at Rideau/Parliament, but it doesn't change the facts I mentioned.
@KISHANTH JEYAMOORTHY That's the bogies because of low-floor vehicles and the City's choice of extra seating on a low-floor tram-train LRT platform. However, the original trains originally only ran at a max speed of 64 km/hr (despite their 120 km/hr top speed), while the Citadis sometimes goes above 80 km/hr.