General OC Transpo and Ottawa transit news

[Shane]

Share your news and findings here, changes, new routes, modifications, etc.

[Shane]

Posted August 15, 2018 by the City of Ottawa

OC Transpo paper bus tickets will no longer have value or be exchangeable toward new fare products after Friday, August 31.

Customers who still have expired bus tickets are encouraged to visit one of the four OC Transpo Customer Service Centres to trade them in at face value toward e-purse or a monthly pass on their Presto card. Tickets have not been sold since November 30, 2017.

Customers can pay for their bus or train ride using Presto or cash. There are more than 70 locations where customers can load their Presto card. Cards can also be loaded at prestocard.ca. When O-Train Line 1, the Confederation Line, opens, all light-rail stations will have ticket machines for customer convenience.

[Rob]

I remember a long time ago, when "The Ticket" was something like $0.70 or 0.75 cents.

While it is interesting to see it finally be removed and replaced by a generally better option, it was nice to have a couple in your wallet as backup.

I won't miss the 2 tickets to ride as an adult thing. I'm sure that got alot of people over the years.

[reecemartin]

Lil video I made showing the explosive growth of rapid transit in Ottawa-Gatineau:
 

 

[Shane]

Nice video. I agree, if Gatineau does build their LRT and it enters Ottawa via Bayview (one of the most ideal connection points), it would make for quite the integrated transit system. Time will tell, their plan is only preliminary, and the recent announcement was mainly to state their preferred technology (LRT over bus) and routing path. 2026 is a long way off too.

[Charlie]

The whole Prince of Wales bridge situation has become a whole lot more complicated now with 3 different groups wanting to use it: OC Transpo, the STO or whoever will operate the Gatineau LRT and, last by not least, MOOSE rail. Depending on the type of train that Gatineau what’s to use, they might require significant changes to the bridge, like electrifiying it. It’s even gotten more complicated by the end of my paragraph.

[Roger1818]

17 hours ago, reecemartin said:

Lil video I made showing the explosive growth of rapid transit in Ottawa-Gatineau:

 

Nice job, though you forgot to include Stage 3.  It may not be happen as soon as the Gatineau LRT, but it is further along in the design process as the EA for Kanata/Stitsville extension is complete and the EA for the Barrhaven extension is underway (though it is pretty easy to predict what route it will use).

[Shane]

3 minutes ago, Roger1818 said:

Should we create a separate thread for this?

Good idea, I'll open a new thread for the Gatineau Transit news.

[Rob]

Just saw you shared on Twitter that the tunnel stations will have cellular reception and service, provided by Telus. With an agreement with Bell and Rogers, those providers will have it too. Here is the article. It states that other providers could offer service if they form an agreement with Telus.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/city-hall-blog-city-reaches-agreement-for-cell-service-in-the-lrt-tunnel

A bit of old news but good news nonetheless.

[occheetos]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/city-hall-blog-city-reaches-agreement-for-cell-service-in-the-lrt-tunnel

There will be cell service in the tunnel! (Provided by TELUS). Hopefully other carriers sign on.

[Shane]

Please note : The discussion on commuter rail and MOOSE has moved to a separate topic.

 

[Shane]

The Fall Scheduling starts today (September 2, 2018). Full details on the OC Transpo website. Most changes are to improve service in certain areas while continuing to realign routes for LRT opening in a few months.

http://www.octranspo.com/ready4rail/fall_service_starts_sept_2

Incidentally, today is the 2 month countdown to the Revenue Service Availability Date for Rideau Transit Group. So no doubt we should have some more news on how things are going in the near future as to how the handover to the city is looking to meet that date.

[Shane]

Many of the construction hoardings along Queen Street have come down or have been reduced in size. Specifically around Lyon Station, at the entrance at corner of Queen and Lyon and the Podium Building, the wood walls are gone, and you can actually walk up to the windows and doors if you are feeling bold.

The interlock stones along the section of Queen from O'Connor to Bank is nearing completion. The final section between Lyon and Kent looks nearly ready to install the interlock stones as well.

While it may not open as soon as we had hoped, there are signs of the surface work coming to a close in the very near future. I believe the section of Queen between O'Connor and Metcalfe will probably be the last one to finish as it is currently under heavy work.

I'll try to get some pictures today or tomorrow to do an updated Downtown Snapshot blog post.

[reecemartin]

Since the Transitway is getting replaced I thought it was good to do a flyover to remember what a great system we built!

[Shane]

Another great video Reece. Thank you.

I agree, the Transitway was well built and designed. In general it operates very well, but the only flaw was the downtown core couldn't handle the eventual loads and traffic after the decades of use. The tunnel was the next logical progression once the city had grown to that size.

Will definitely be a new experience once the LRT opens downtown and later on once it reaches from east to west. Several sections are particularly interesting, of note the old Baseline station how the buses would circle around when entering, and the old Hurdman station with the famous 4 way stop. And the express ramps into and out of Blair station.

It may have not been perfect, but it had many more good points than bad ones that's for sure.