Ottawa LRT Has Scrap-Metal Value
Former city councillor Alex Cullen, we’re here to help:
I have questions if this happens: will Toronto be making decisions about LRT fares & schedules? Will Toronto be making decisions about expanding LRT to Kanata & Barrhaven? Will Ottawa taxpayers be compensated for their $billion investment into LRT? #ottcity #ottLRT #OCTranspo https://t.co/TxT7RNYVNb
— Alex Cullen (@Alex_S_Cullen) February 5, 2025
You lookin’ for answers? I got answers.
Toronto making decisions about fares and schedules? Why yes. I can’t speak to schedules but OC Transpo was the organization that wanted a 120-per-cent increase in senior transit passes. If that’s Ottawa, give me Toronto.
Toronto in charge of putting light rail to Barrhaven and Kanata? Well damn good because under Ottawa’s reign, LRT was never going to get to those two suburbs. The city simply didn’t have the money. No light rail to Barrhaven and Kanata in my lifetime with the city in charge. And lines to those locations are absolutely vital. Ottawa needs a major lobby of Premier Doug Ford to get LRT to Barrhaven and Kanata. Maybe by then light rail might actually work.
Will Ottawa be compensated for the billions is has invested in LRT? Not a chance and that’s good. Light rail in Ottawa is a lemon so who would pay to buy it? Not a soul. Metrolinx would run Ottawa LRT because the premier would tell them to do it. That’s the only way Ottawa gets rid of this rotting piece of yellow citrus fruit. Nobody wants it and nobody wants to pay for the City of Ottawa’s mistakes. If there were value in light rail, someone would buy it. Instead LRT is priceless in a bad way.
Nobody could have run light rail worse than Ottawa. Do a bad job and it costs you big-time on a major infrastructure project. There’s a price to be paid for incompetence and, without question, Ottawa is paying it..
LRT has no dollar value beyond the land and the scrap-meta return.
Ken Gray
For You:
Transpo Buses Get Stuck In The Snow: PATTON
LRT Repeatedly Down In 25-Hour Storm Report
Metrolinx Worse Than Transpo: THE VOTER
Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Let’s face it, Metrolinx certainly couldn’t do any worse.
I say get rid of this gigantic metal noose around our necks and let someone else take over. Clearly, those currently in charge of this nightmare known as LRT shouldn’t be.
The only money Ottawa deserves to receive for the LRT fiasco is whatever Jim Watson still has between his mattresses.
Alex, there are ‘miles to go before we sleep’ (with apologies to poet Robert Frost) on this issue.
As described by Mayor Sutcliffe when the campaign promises were made, OC Transpo would continue to make operating decisions (routes, fares). The province, through its wholly owned subsidiary Metrolinx, would carry the long term maintenance costs (the constant axle replacement program being a major element). With that in mind, I think it is fair to conclude, at least in the short term, that operating control will remain local.
I agree that the details of the final agreement matter, but lets stop encouraging everyone to hyperventilate. Unless of course this is just another effort to swing voters in the direction of your favoured party in the provincial election.
One issue that remains is whether city council will decide to ‘up its game’ and actually oversee OC Transpo to the level expected of them per provincial statutes.
Watson….a true liberal……brings us this useless expensive junk…..then skips off with his huge indexed pension…..and taxpayers are on the hook for the debt
Don’t forget to add a 25% tariff on the scrap metal.
Priceless kosmo k
A good place to start to discover what uploading LRT to Metrolinx would mean is their current relationship with the TTC, Toronto’s equivalent of OC Transpo. (Although I’m sure many people will make the point that OC Transpo has no equal!)
Metrolinx is currently the organization building new infrastructure for the TTC’s system such as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. That line is years behind and way over-budget. They do not operate any transit services in Toronto – that is the purview of the TTC which sets fares and schedules as part of operating the day-to-day services.
That’s not to say, of course, that the province couldn’t set up a different way of running an uploaded LRT for Ottawa. Whether the residents of Ottawa would have any input into what is done and how remains to be seen.