O-Train expansion moving ahead

O-Train expansion moving ahead
Kanata North council notes

The O-Train has operated successfully since its introduction as a pilot project in 2001. The Bombardier Talent diesel-powered trains operate seven days a week in an eight-kilometre corridor between the Greenboro and Bayview Transitway stations. It is now one of the city’s most important public transit links for those traveling north and south. Each of the three trains has surpassed one million kilometres of service, and the O-Train’s historical passenger count is quickly approaching 10 million.

The O-Train pilot project’s initial ridership target was 5,100 to 6,400 customer trips per day. Actual ridership has now reached more than 12,000 customer trips per day. The growing ridership, along with the need to enhance non-transit way service corridors during the east-west light rail transit (LRT) construction, highlights the need to increase the frequency and capacity of the O-Train service and will reduce the need to add buses for the short time the LRT is under construction.

Council has approved increasing the frequency of the O-Train from Bayview to Greenboro from every 15 minutes to an eight minute headway. This requires the construction of more passing lanes and the purchase of 8 new trains. The expanded service will be operational in September 2014. 

In the fall, the transit commission will receive a further report on the possible extension through the Greenbelt to serve Riverside South. I support that move since it will provide service at a fraction of the cost of running electric LRT on that corridor, freeing up funds to expand the planned LRT further to the east and west. At the time of the approval of the Transportation Master Plan in 2008 I had presented the Wilkinson Option which extended the O-Train to Leitrim. Although not accepted at that time, it is now being accepted as the way to go.

I am also inquiring about the possibility of running an O-Train type of service from Kanata. By rebuilding a connection that used to connect to the O-Train line, a rail service could run along the line that passes through Kanata Lakes. The track would need to be upgraded to make that happen.

As part of the city’s smart energy program, the Public Works Department is undertaking a pilot project to replace the street light heads with LED luminaries, which have a significantly longer lamp life than high pressure sodium or metal halide lights, as well as providing significant energy savings.

The city is converting the 47 existing street lights on Goldridge Drive and Stikine Drive to LED lamps. The existing street light fixtures have an available LED retro fit kit that converts the light source without changing the look thus preserving the character of the neighbourhood. The proposed LED lighting will maintain the existing light levels and will provide the added benefit of “instant on lighting” – no warm up period is required as with the existing fixtures to achieve full light capacity. With regard to safety, LED’s white light source provides for improved facial recognition and colour rendering.  The preliminarily calculations indicate there will be a 33 per cent energy savings by retrofitting these fixtures to LED lamps.