January 9, 2020 • Volume 35, No. 1
Next edition January 23
L’édition de cette semaine à l’intérieur...
LRT, weather dominate the news in 2019
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Fernando and Alzira Diniz ring in the New Year at Caravela Restaurante where they were joined by 40 of their customers for a special New Year’s table d’hote. FRED SHERWIN PHOTO
By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star If the past year can be summed up in a mere acronym it would have to be LRT. No issue dominated the local headlines in 2019 than Ottawa’s highly anticipated and much maligned light rail transit system. In fact, the year ended with the headline, “LRT outage slows travel for New Year’s Eve party crowds”. During the first half of the year, much of the news about LRT centered around the ongoing delays. Deadlines came and went seemingly every other month. When the system finally became operational on Sept. 14, hundreds of people lined up for hours to be among the first riders on the train. During the first few days, the LRT ran relatively trouble-free, thanks in large part to OC Transpo’s decision to continue
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running direct rush hour bus service to and from downtown. But things quickly took a turn for the worse when OC Transpo ended the direct routes on Oct. 6, forcing thousands of commuters to take the train. The result was total chaos. Riders getting off the train at the Blair Transit Station faced long delays waiting to get on bus to take them further east. In response, the city spent millions of dollars putting 40 buses back into service and placing a threemonth freeze on a planned fare increase. Both the buses and the freeze on fares are still in place. Despite the issues with LRT Stage 1, the city is moving full speed ahead with Stage 2. The two major construction contracts were approved earlier in the year and the preliminary engineering work began soon afterwards. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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