Raylene Lang-Dion, city council candidate for Alta Vista, is expressing deep frustration at the prospect of yet another winter going off the rails for the residents of her ward.
The update provided today by LRT general manager John Manconi to members of the Finance and Economic Development Committee (FEDCO) reporting that Ottawa’s LRT will not be fully in-service until Q1 2019 will have many residents exasperated.
For more than three years, transit users in Alta Vista have endured lengthy, crowded and nonsensical detours around Hurdman Station, as well as interminable eastbound bus gridlock between Bank Street and the University of Ottawa. The experience for drivers using Riverside and Industrial from Hurdman to the 417 during rush hour has been equally difficult as they’ve had to share the road with hundreds of detoured buses.
“Residents of Alta Vista who use public transit to travel to and from downtown have largely lost control of their schedules, arriving late to work, daycare and appointments,” said Lang-Dion. “Where is the accountability for this latest delay? What is the City of Ottawa’s Transit Commission proposing to do to improve the daily commute for Alta Vistans in the interim?” she asked.
For years the mayor and other city officials have responded to residents’ transit concerns by saying it’s short-term pain for long-term train. As Jean Cloutier declared in August 2017: “When the O-Train Confederation Line launches in 2018, customers will be riding a world-class, state-of-the-art light rail transit system that puts customer safety first.”
“Residents are losing confidence in this project. The city can no longer afford to be so flippant,” said Lang-Dion.
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For more information
Bea Vongdouangchanh
media@raylenelangdion.ca
613-299-1807