Canadian Railroads > All Aboard, Ottawa's LRT

Saturday September 14, 2019 was an historic day here in Ottawa, on this day, a 6 year in the making LRT Confederation Line opened.

The day started at 10:00 AM  with celebrations, speeches and finally a ride over the new LRT system from the west end terminal at Tunney's Pasture to Blair station, 12.5 km to the east for the 500 invited guests. 

1: Free parking was available in the federal government's complex next to Tunney Pasture station.  Some of the ephemera being dished out by OC Transpo.

2: The big red "O" is OC Transpo's symbol at all the stations across the system.  Hopefully, it does not end up being a big "owe" like Montrealers had to pay for 30 years after staging the 1976 Summer Olympics.

3: Let us compare the two openings.  Ottawa in colour, CPR Craigellachie in b&w.  Ottawa- 7.76 miles vs CPR 3000 miles.  Ottawa $2.1 billion vs $650 million 2019 dollars plus 25 million acres of land. Opening day    festivities, Ottawa by invite only vs CPR "anyone could come if they paid the fare to Craigallachie" as per Van Horne.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/19 19:57 by moonliter.

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4: 10:17 AM the first train of invited guest departs Tunney's Pasture for Blair.

5: Three minutes later the 2nd train of invited guest headed east.

6: While waiting for the trains to return there was this great display to view.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/19 19:36 by moonliter.

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7: The film of Ottawa's streetcars was fabulous, it must have been shot using a tripod, no shaking, beautiful pan shots, would have made the Video of the Day had Trainorders been around in the late fifties!

8: The happiest man in Ottawa, Mayor Jim Watson, it all worked.

9: Then next two happiest guys in Ottawa, Teddy Dong & yours truly, Gerry Gaugl. At the head of the line.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/19 19:37 by moonliter.

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10: The first trains for the public was to be all over the system at 14:00.  The gate the Teddy & I were standing in front of opened at 13:41, doors closed at 13:45 and we were rolling through the crossovers by 13:47.

11: The first meet with a westbound train.  It was empty as were the next two. We did pick-up people at Bayview and Pimisi.

12: View of the Peace Tower and downtown Ottawa from Bayview station.

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13: West portal on the 2.5km tunnel under downtown Ottawa.

14: Daylight again on the east side of downtown Ottawa as our train appoaches Tremblay once known as Train.  This is Ottawa's downtown VIA station stop.

15: The end of the line, Blair station. The Transitway heads east to Orleans and will for the next five years or so.

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16: When we returned to Tunney's Pasture the party was still rocking.

17: OC Owl and friends.

18: Tunney's Pasture station viewed from Scott Street.  Hopefully I'll be able to post an update five years from now when Phase 2 is completed.  Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

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Thanks for the photos. That is quite an investment. I hope they did their homework correctly.

Thanks for a thorough opening day report! Was it generally well attended? Overall, doesn't look like alot of folks around.
 

Yes I though that there would be larger crowds but the attendance was good but not crazy.  The next day I had to use the system for real (not for fun as I did on Saturday) and  there was moderate traffic.  The big test was Monday morning and the system passed.  The return commute presented problems, not with the train but with the transfer to buses.  Peak hour trains will dump 300 people a time at the end points, the loading of buses seems to slow things down on the home-bound commute.  I'm sure that there will be few few adjustment over the next couple of months.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

Nice document, Gerry. The old home-town has changed.
Fred