A North-South LRT line will make commuting from Barrhaven easy and efficient, remove many cars from congested local road networks and assist with attracting much needed employment to our community!
OTTAWA. June 13, 2018 – At City Council this morning, Mayor Jim Watson and Councillor Jan Harder will take the first step in laying the groundwork to bring LRT to the rapidly growing community of Barrhaven. With Councillor Harder’s support, Mayor Watson will bring forward a motion seeking Council’s approval to fund the launch of an Environmental Assessment (EA) Study into the future conversion of the Barrhaven Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor to Light Rail Transit (LRT) service. The funding of this EA would bring Barrhaven on par with the Kanata LRT project, which received the results of its EA in April 2018, and the Stage 2 extension to Orléans, where LRT will go as far east as Trim Road by 2022.
The work undertaken as part of this study would assess costs and timelines for implementation, including various options for a staged deployment of LRT. The study would also consider facilities and active transportation infrastructure that will support Barrhaven residents in their use of LRT, such as Park & Ride locations and multi-use pathways. The EA Study is expected to begin in the fall of 2018, and results should be received within 12 to 24 months.
The results of the study will inform the next review of the Transportation Master Plan (TMP), which will take place in the next Term of Council and will determine the order of priority of the City’s future transit investments. This exercise will also enable the City to be ready to benefit from the next rounds of federal and provincial transit investments.
In March 2017, Council had directed City staff to assess at the earliest opportunity the feasibility of this conversion to LRT service, connecting Barrhaven to the O-Train Confederation Line through Algonquin College. The motion introduced today identifies the initial $600,000 required – $336,000 from Development Charges and $234,000 from the Transit Capital Reserve, which will be transferred to the 2018 Rapid Transit EA Studies Account – as the source of funding to begin this initiative.