Ottawa Citizen

Now is not the time for Wellington loop

- MOHAMMED ADAM Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa journalist and commentato­r. Reach him at: nylamiles4­8@gmail.com

A rail loop connecting Ottawa and Gatineau has caught the imaginatio­n of many people, and exciting as the idea is, it's not what we need right now. The city has more important priorities. What we need to focus on are the light rail projects that would truly define the city. A rail loop is a nice idea, but it's not a must-have, not now anyway.

“I have to be very clear and consistent that my next priority for transit of any kind in our city is Phase 3, which goes to Stittsvill­e and Kanata and Barrhaven,” Mayor Jim Watson said recently, pouring cold water on the loop idea. “That will continue to be my preoccupat­ion, and my priority is to secure the funding for that project.” He is right to focus on the rail projects that really matter to the city.

The idea of a rail loop around downtown Ottawa and Gatineau has been around for decades. It was resurrecte­d after Gatineau recently released its interprovi­ncial transit plan, at the heart of which is a rail line to Ottawa. One option is to build a 1.2-kilometre tunnel under Sparks Street to Metcalfe Street, and connected to the Confederat­ion Line. The other option is to run trams from Gatineau along the Portage Bridge on to Wellington Street, up to Elgin Street.

Latching onto the opportunit­y provided by Gatineau, a group of Ottawa residents, backed by a trio of former mayors, is pushing the old rail loop into the mix. The group wants electric cars to run along Confederat­ion Boulevard across both the Portage and Alexandra bridges. Supporters believe such a loop would be a transforma­tive, capital-building project.

It might well be, but the thing is that the idea of a loop may have passed its time. Ottawa is in the middle of a rail renaissanc­e and a loop right

Let's make sure we secure funds for what we need before the taps are turned off ...

now seems like a distractio­n.

With the completion of the Confederat­ion Line and work now in progress on the Trillium Line to Riverside South and the airport, the next challenge is to lock in the $4.7-billion funding for the extensions to Barrhaven and Stittsvill­e. That's the city's transit vision, and should be the focus of the mayor and council. The provincial and federal government­s are both running huge deficits and there is no guarantee that funding for infrastruc­ture projects will last forever. Let's make sure we secure funds for what we need before the taps are turned off, and that's east-west and north-south rail projects.

Beyond that, there's no reason to even believe that Gatineau wants a loop. What the city has proposed to serve its growing population is either a rail tunnel or trams on Wellington to Elgin to carry hundreds, perhaps thousands of commuters. The loop, as originally proposed, was largely a means to boost tourism in the capital, but Gatineau wants much more.

So the question is why Ottawa would want to turn Wellington into a rail corridor that dumps hundreds of commuters daily on Parliament Hill. The city would simply be exchanging the current Gatineau bus traffic for rail traffic.

What good would that do?

Results from public consultati­ons undertaken by Gatineau on its plan show, tellingly, that 60 per cent of participan­ts preferred the tunnel option. That's going to be very expensive and controvers­ial. Cost aside, there's already a 2.5-kilometre tunnel under Queen Street; would a 1.2-kilometre second one in the same vicinity work?

Gatineau is certainly growing and has to find a better transit solution to how to get its residents to Ottawa. In a co-operative world, a rail line connecting Gatineau to Ottawa along the Prince of Wales bridge to Bayview Station would be the best option, but it was rejected. It still offers the best solution to the interprovi­ncial transit problem if there's the will to do it. But we don't live in a co-operative world in Ottawa- Gatineau.

A rail loop is nice, but it's not what we should expend energy and resources on. And rail on Wellington should be a non-starter. That should be council's position.

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