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If the arrival this year of light rail transit announces that Ottawa has finally reached the status of a full-fledged city, it’s funny how its trains can turn otherwise full-grown men into little boys.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” admitted an excited Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson as he readied to board a car Wednesday for the first “civilian” test-run of the system.
“I’ve been down in the tunnel a couple of times and I’ve tried the simulator, but this is my first time actually riding the LRT.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot about LRT at city council, and it’s nice to actually ride the rails.”
The interior of one of Ottawa’s new LRT cars in the unfinished Tremblay station.
Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley, meanwhile, whose uncle worked for the Canadian National Railway for 35 years, confessed he wished he’d brought his train whistle. “It would have been a lot of fun,” he said. “I do love trains.”
Another councillor at Wednesday’s unveiling, Cumberland’s Stephen Blais, who chairs the city’s transit commission, also admitted his love of trains.
“I’ve actually been looking around to see if we can get a model train of this model of Alstom Citadis vehicle. There are some toy companies that have other versions of it decked out in other transit agencies’ colours. I’m just waiting for them to come out with the OC Transpo colour scheme version.”
The mayor and councillors were joined for the journey by Mayors-for-the-day Madison Richmire, from AY Jackson Secondary School in Kanata, and Jackson Millenor, from St. Peter Catholic High School in Orléans.
Shortly after the call of “all aboard!” was sounded, car No. 1117 glided out of the Tremblay Station for its inaugural 20-minute round trip.
The interior of one of Ottawa’s new LRT cars.
Admittedly, the $10-million car did not quite hurtle on Wednesday. According to Rob Saumure, one of the car’s two operators, the area is still a construction zone, so the speed was kept to 25 km/h in the four stations it visited — Tremblay, Hurdman, Lees and uOttawa — and only 35 km/h on the open rails, a far cry from the top speed of 100 km/h that it’s expected to reach on other sections of the system.
But it was smooth, quiet, bright and clean, with comfortable-enough seats and large windows. It also had that new-car smell, while many of the car’s 120 seats remained, for the time being at least, wrapped in plastic — “like my grandmother had on her couch when she bought a new one,” Watson said.
It’s expected that the LRT system will be operational by Nov. 2, with public access beginning later that month.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” admitted an excited Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson as he readied to board a car Wednesday for the first “civilian” test-run of the system.
“I’ve been down in the tunnel a couple of times and I’ve tried the simulator, but this is my first time actually riding the LRT.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot about LRT at city council, and it’s nice to actually ride the rails.”
The interior of one of Ottawa’s new LRT cars in the unfinished Tremblay station.
Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley, meanwhile, whose uncle worked for the Canadian National Railway for 35 years, confessed he wished he’d brought his train whistle. “It would have been a lot of fun,” he said. “I do love trains.”
Another councillor at Wednesday’s unveiling, Cumberland’s Stephen Blais, who chairs the city’s transit commission, also admitted his love of trains.
“I’ve actually been looking around to see if we can get a model train of this model of Alstom Citadis vehicle. There are some toy companies that have other versions of it decked out in other transit agencies’ colours. I’m just waiting for them to come out with the OC Transpo colour scheme version.”
The mayor and councillors were joined for the journey by Mayors-for-the-day Madison Richmire, from AY Jackson Secondary School in Kanata, and Jackson Millenor, from St. Peter Catholic High School in Orléans.
Shortly after the call of “all aboard!” was sounded, car No. 1117 glided out of the Tremblay Station for its inaugural 20-minute round trip.
The interior of one of Ottawa’s new LRT cars.
Admittedly, the $10-million car did not quite hurtle on Wednesday. According to Rob Saumure, one of the car’s two operators, the area is still a construction zone, so the speed was kept to 25 km/h in the four stations it visited — Tremblay, Hurdman, Lees and uOttawa — and only 35 km/h on the open rails, a far cry from the top speed of 100 km/h that it’s expected to reach on other sections of the system.
But it was smooth, quiet, bright and clean, with comfortable-enough seats and large windows. It also had that new-car smell, while many of the car’s 120 seats remained, for the time being at least, wrapped in plastic — “like my grandmother had on her couch when she bought a new one,” Watson said.
It’s expected that the LRT system will be operational by Nov. 2, with public access beginning later that month.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
