I'm so so glad you're invited to these events. I would be absolutely in the dark about transit in Canada without you, so thank you for that!

As much as I like the cynical tones of other transit-oriented, anti-car KZfaqrs, your positive outlook on things even as maligned as the o-train (Ottawa native here) is really refreshing. I'm still holding out hope the city turns the market into a car free zone though.

Your comment comparing the new length of the O-Train system to the Montreal metro really puts into scale the amount of work and the quality of transit for the future system. Great video and a great way to keep track of work progression.

Ottawa's urban landscape is baffling to me, coming from Montreal. With Montreal there's pockets of density, surrounded by medium density that stretches to the suburbs, gradually trailing off. Ottawa just sticks a 16 storey tower in the middle of a strip mall.

I’m a transit operator. I’ve been with the organization for 12 years! I wish I knew you were in town, I’m a huge fan of your videos! :)

I've lived in Orleans most of my life and I'm happy that one day people will be able to take the train downtown! Thanks for another great video!! I've been watching the construction for years!

It makes me so happy to see a transit expansion in North America actually going up in a decent time frame and for not insanely huge amounts of money. This is how it should be for ALL of North America. I think Ottawa will be pointed at as another example of transit expansion done RIGHT!

Really appreciate the coverage of the expansion! I live near the Eastern expansion and it's been a blast watching it go up so fast. Can't wait for the day I can see trains running out my back window!

1. That linear park was originally a streetcar right-of-way. 2. Cycling infrastructure is impressive considering that Ottawa only started building it in 2011 (though the NCC built some in the 1980s), and in 2015 the city built the first modern cycle track on Churchill Avenue. When I left Ottawa in 2019, cycling infrastructure was much more noticeable, but still a long way to go.

Can't wait until you're covering the finished product. Hope to see a review of Phase 3 and beyond plans, and what you would add or do differently (putting DMUs on the west CN line to Kanata/Arnprior seems obvious to me).

Thanks for such a positive take on all of this. I live in Ottawa and used the transit system my whole working life. Unfortunately I only got to use the LRT from fall 2019 until March 2020, when my company started working from home. I retired in 2021. I used to drive to Eagleson Park & Ride (my preferred park and ride because of number of connecting buses), bus to Tunney's and then take the LRT to Parliament station which brought me right inside my building. It really did make the trip quicker for me and I enjoyed taking the train. Once it is extended to Moodie in the west, I plan to spend a day taking the different routes that will be operational. As you mentioned, we also have an amazing amount of bike/walking paths in the City.

This video is awesome! I’m an exchange student from Germany and at the beginning i thought it would be similar to my experiences in the us (which were awful), but the expansions are awesome and I think when i’m gonna come back in a couple years, it’s hopefully gonna be even better. ❤️

You mentioned the culverts and such, but as one of the many sub trades on the project, from my side the shocking number is the elevators and escalators! I am working on the contract for both sections and we have 97 units going in total, 89 elevators and 8 escalators!

Can we all just appreciate the amount of effort Ottawa is commiting JUST TO DIVERT THE TRANSIT WAY TO CONVER IT TO RAIL? THE ORANGE SUBWAY LINE IN BOSTON DIDNT EVEN GET ANY TEMPORARY BUS LANES ON THE TEMPORARY SHUTTLE SERVICE WHEN IT WAS SUSPENDED

Thank-you Reece for the great summary. I am glad you pointed out the cost savings... and TOTALLY GRADE SEPARATED, hello. Cheers

You said "the 174". People always make fun of us from Los Angeles for saying "the 405" and "the 101". Love it!

Ottawa is a great city. Im from Melbourne Australia, but studied at University there for 6 months and loved it. It is definitely a North American city, but it still felt quite ‘human’ I guess, and not empty downtown etc like so many other North American cities. I think the new transit system will make that even better, making the downtown more vibrant. One thing it definitely does need though is better connectivity to Gatineau. I think they should extend autoroute 50 across the river (to join the 417 and thus providing a freeway standard road crossing/downtown bypass) and at the same time use the bridge as a train crossing as well, extending the network there. Would make it much easier for trucks to bypass the city (there are so many trucks on king Edward ave) and providing better connectivity to the airport for those living in Quebec. I would love to be a transit planner with the city of Ottawa!

Great video! Love the channel! The method and tone of talking about transit is excellent and something I look forward too. Keep it up!

I’m so glad you get these inside looks, you deserve it so much and cover projects so well

It sucks that the extension to Moodie Station is delayed for a year! I am optimistic that the opening to Moodie Station will help the communites of Bells Corners & Crystal Bay.

Excellent video as always. You're right - I was totally unaware of this major rail expansion project, and only a few hours from Toronto! I haven't even been to Ottawa since the first section of the rail system there opened, I look forward to riding it during my next visit!

I can't say how many times I've flipped off on the lack of coverage on Ottawa transit development on KZfaq. But sir you have proved me wrong and I can't thank u enough for the amazing video! Please keep talking about Ottawa!

Beautiful project! And I’m so jealous. Because meanwhile here in Montreal, as you undoubtedly heard, the REM E is going through another existential crisis…

This is some amazing infrastructure, especially considering that Ottawa only has a population of 1.5 million for the entire metro area. Picture if Milwaukee had a 60km light metro system for the US comparison.

All I hope is for Ottawa and Gatineau to be connected by train via the Prince of Wales Bridge. The last train it seen was in 1998 (during the initial North-South O-Train construction, which brought ballast cars over from Gatineau) and is a shame that it’s been rusting away ever since. It was even ruled out as the bridge to connect the cities by Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and who has instead insisted to transform the Portage Bridge closer to downtown into a train/car bridge. It should noted that the Prince of Wales Bridge sits a about 150m from the current Bayview station and could easily connect to the Line 2 O-Train if they ever wanted. TL;DR: Ottawa-Gatineau needs another bridge to carry the stupid amount of people which commute in and out everyday.

I'm looking forward to seeing the completion of line two. Things were off to a shaky start in 2019 when they launched this, hopefully things will go better the second time around. There has certainly been mismanagement, including the fact they have intentionally disabled the only rail bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau...

Thanks for the overview! I graduated and moved away from Ottawa before the O-Train was in operation (or perhaps even in the planning stages), alas. I would've loved to have it operating when I was there, would've made getting around so much nicer! Exciting to see how far Ottawa is developing their transit system with these great electric vehicles. :)

Happy for Ottawa folks!! Good job! Will enjoy the biking there next summer.

As an Ottawa resident, the fact that phase 1 keeps breaking down and does not work in extreme cold weather which happens in Ottawa all winter. It would be fair if you informed viewers of the broken wires, the flattened steel wheels, doors that stay open etc.

Can't wait to get onto these LRT trains in my neighbourhood in Ottawa. Its long overdue for the transit users especially with the long commute with the buses during rush hour.

Very nice. Awesome! Great video.

It's great to seeing the updates on the overall scale even with my access to the portion that is essentially in my backyard

Subscribed, good info here

Thank-you for such a hopeful and informative video! As a proud Ottawan, it’s made me more optimistic about the future of this city.

I just moved here from Vancouver and I’m really excited to see this extension in progress.

I love your coverage of these projects, do you have any sources you can share for the budget for these projects? Also: I think a similar system would be a good fit for Winnipeg where we have a bunch of existing CP and CN rail corridors that seem to have some space to spare where light rail could run parallel to create a similar S-bahn style service with radial corridors feeding downtown.

Ooh cool! I saw on Instagram that you were heading to Ottawa

Would you ever do videos on transit projects that almost got built but then were cancelled like the Baltimore red line, 1980s Seattle metro plan (RIP), and Detroit Woodward subway?

It's cool to see the immenseness of this project. I live in Aylmer and have been working from home for two years. Therefore I've missed a lot of work in areas where I spent a lot of time. My dad used to live right across from the Lincoln Fields station. Life outside of work has been pretty car-oriented. However, not having us government drones on the Transitway probably gave Ottawa more room to work. Before Covid, I was on the trains a lot bouncing between my office near Lyon Station, work on a special project at Tunney's Pasture and grad school at Carleton.

I've been having so much fun documenting the expansion over the last 5 years. It's so awesome, I love it 😀 I can't wait for this expansion to be opened! You've done an amazing job summarizing the current state of the project and showing everything 👏 ❤️

Great content, big fan here. When are you going to make a video on the VIA Canadian?

I saw a few articles on RT&S of the expansions facing some problems. But, I hope the problems are overcome and the expansions open and succeed.

I hear 'the guys' every day since 7AM until late evening, since I live around Richmond/Woodroffe. Not easy to make a tunnel through the rocky bed.

Thanks for sharing 👍♐♐♐♐♐♐♐

Wow you went to Place d'Orléans! That was the mall I always went to growing up. I grew up in the east end of Ottawa so much of the first half of your video really strikes home. It is really interesting to see the east end of Stage 2 on the inside given that the previous 95 BRT design was always on the outside of the 174. But that in the long run I think its nicer because then you get the dedicated right of way and the LRT would not have to go up every highway exit as how they built most of those exits in the 174. Also I think you mixed up eastern/western terminus captions in your video. Tunney's Pasture is the west end terminus and Blair is on the east. Also as another error, you labelled the Place d'Orléans station as Orléans station. If they were to name the Place d'Orléans station as Orléans station, that would be very confusing because Covent Glen station is what's running under Orléans Boulevard.

I look forward to taking a train from downtown to the EY Centre. It looks like that will be possible for next September.

Surprised there is transit to Orleans. I used to live in orleans 10 years ago and walk in that bridge every day. I got goosebumps when I saw it haha.

You could do a video about England that isn't London only. Birmingham are currently building a new tram line and extending their existing one on all 3 sides I think? Now that's a transit expansion that people aren't talking about. This video is interesting though 👍

The trench in the west end of the city was excavated from the old Canadian Pacific Railway line. When I was younger I used to see the CPR's Canadian and Dominion on their way across the country to Vancouver.

The last time I visited to Ottawa was in October 2021, but due to the temporary shut down of the LRT I wasn’t able to ride. Reece thanks so much for this amazing update (and motivation to visit the Capital again). Had no idea that Ottawa was this far in their expansion projects AND that there will be additional underground stations . Did you get to sign a sleeper?

When I saw the title I just knew that the topic would be line 7 of Metro de Santiago... Nevertheless I was just really amazed by the video ! Really like it ! 💜

And, amazingly, a portion of the new cut and cover tunnel is running under the old Ottawa Britannia Streetcar line.

Thank you!

I cant wait for line 2 to finish. I can bike to the terminal station and ride downtown without having to drive/ get stuck in traffic/ be miserable :)

It will also be nice for the trim road station being so close to the Petrie island beach. Just hop on the train and go to the beach will be nice. Or you can drive into the city. Go to the beach for a couple hours. Hop on the train to the market and get some food and take the train back to the beach for the afternoon.

This is really cool, especially for how cheap it is considering the costs of most things in the Anglo-world. Though I might contest and say the biggest transit expansion that no one is talking about is probably İstanbul. :) looking forward to your video on that some time this year :)

3:10 yes. That type of transit stops is what I have been thinking what we can do to the 401 at places, rail in the mediums. Yes, they recently added more lanes to certain sections but we will just say they have prepared it nicely for rail transit along the 401. 🤣😉

Last August, I rode the LRT end-to-end and back for the experience and thoroughly enjoyed it. unfortunately, I was looking to go to Carlton and duplicate a shot I took 50 years ago of 1201 exiting the tunnel around there, but the Trillium Line is not currently running. When it works, the LRT is great, but it had more problem after my visit. Been a rail and transit enthusiast for over 60 years and will ride anything under a wire (or Third Rail); but not a foamer.

Are you planning an Otrain update anytime soon?

It’s nice to see a city expand its rail transit and at a reasonable cost. With what you showed it looks like it will go a long way to improving the existing bus service. It also helps the environment by replacing some of the diesel buses with clean energy efficient rail transit.

Whow! I'm impressed. I was aware that Ottawa was planning a massive rail transit expansion, but wasn't aware that it had been approved let alone that construction was underway and this far advanced. Good video.

Oh man, I absolutely love electric busses. They are not only so much more pleasant as a rider but also for everyone on the outside. A few days ago I was talking to a buddy of mine just standing around on the sidewalk and one of these E-Busses passed by, followed by a BMW i3. We just kept talking, no need to talk louder or anything. Soon after a diesel bus and a few suburban battle tanks passed us and we just stood there in awkward silence until they were finally gone. I'm glad electric busses have become pretty common around here :) Because cities aren't loud. Cars are. ~NJB~

Speaking of transit that no one talks about, have you ever considered covering Tel Aviv’s new metro system?

every time i learn something new i continue to be impressed by how good ottawa seems to be for urbanist related things, and how proactive it is compared to other anglo american places. i have to agree strongly with the sentiment that ottawa's built and natural environments are so _refreshing_ compared to the GTA.

Tunney’s Pasture is at the west end of the Confederation Line, and Blair is at the east end. Your captions have it backwards.

Any updated thoughts on Ottawa's LRT?

I heard the don't run as well underwater lol.

Here in Ottawa, it's so popular to hate on this train right now. Hopefully the next phase can change people's mind about this system, and actually get people fully on board!

I love riding the O-Bahn

While I tend to think that trolley buses are better than battery electric buses because of the lack of a a need for massive batteries, but I can completely get behind non-diesel for comfort.

Outstanding beauty.

you need to talk about Santiago transit (again) and how art and space design can increase quality of life of riders.

I am blown away at how much Ottawa is doing for so little. I wish Toronto would learn a lesson or two and work with some more at-grade, trench, and cut-and cover methods rather than everything having to be bored tunnels. We bored a tunnel to what was recently farmland in the 905 FFS with the Line 1 York-U Vaughn Extension and are tunnelling again through quite low density areas in Scarborough with the Line 2 extension. Moreover the Line 5 extension is supposed to be tunnelled as well through Etobicoke which just seems egregious as there is a massive right of way on Eglinton. At a minimum these could all be a mix of trenched and elevated to keep grade separation and minimize disruption to existing residents. In return they get a rapid transit line. And with these savings Toronto would save enough money to build subways where we actually need it. 1) Extending Line 3 (Ontario Line) west past Exhibition to Parkdale & Roncesvalles and north to Sheppard. 2) Extending Line 6 (Finch West) to Pearson & integrating it with the throughrunning GO/UP service in some sort of transit centre 3) Extending Line 4 (Sheppard) west to Sheppard West (trains could interline to Downsview Park or York U) and east to Scarborough Centre via Agincourt GO 4) Creating more (ideally total) grade separation on Line 5 from Don Mills to Kennedy, to make up for this bad mistake. 5) Convert more streetcar routes into proper tramways, at least starting with King Street - and renumberung the tram lines to fit in to the other rapid transit lines) e.g. could be T-1 / T-2 / T-3 or just follow in sequence but from 10 so they’re all double digit lines. GO Lines should also be numbered (or Lettered) as well to create a more coherent system. Anyways, this video was great, and it made me wish Toronto wasn’t squandering so much money boring tunnels to nowhere.

What a disaster the LRT in Ottawa has been. Years behind, millions over budget. The trains don't even operate in the climate correctly, provincial inquiries into the mismanagement. Lawsuits over the contracts, Ottawa residents left holding the bag on a broken transit system. Buses taken out of commission before the train was even open because it was behind schedule they could no longer upkeep the maintenance as they were planned to be retired. Service has been absolutely HORRIBLE. There is a good chance your bus just doesn't show up, the train gets delayed or shut down. The train has derailed twice in the last year. I want this LRT to be finished and reliable, but we are looking at another year + of that at the minimum.

This train system reminds me of Perth’s.

Ottawa is nicest city :D

Edmonton’s Valley Line LRT line is probably only weeks away now from being operational

This is giving WMATA Silver Line vibes

So nice to hear someone speak with excitement and positivity regarding the O-Train. I'm also hopeful opening Phase II will coincide with significant improvements to service reliability and rider satisfaction.

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on the extreme delays and corners cut on Boston’s MBTA Green Line Expansion. I was excited to see it open the entire 4 years I was in school in Boston, and now I’ve been in NYC 5 years before it finally opened. And it doesn’t even have fare gates from what I know!

Every time Jean D'Arc is mentioned I remember what Churchill supposedly said upon De Gaulle comparing himself to her - "...and we burnt her"

I live in Ottawa and have followed the progress closely. It is an excellent system (the bugs will be corrected with time) and huge in scale. Our leaders (Jim Watson especially) have done a fantastic job in bringing this to our city and weathering the storms that a project of this size always brings. The electric bus program is rolling out nicely too. Thanks to the thousands of individuals involved in making this vision a reality.

Good to see continued expansion, though the eventual forced transfer to travel between downtown and the airport is unfortunate. Beyond that, in the future it would be good to see a subway under Bank Street, which could perhaps be extended further north across the river ultimately up to Gatineau. When I was last in Ottawa 5 years ago I was impressed with the development and walkability along much of Bank Street, but its narrowness makes transit-only lanes a bit of a challenge. So a subway seems worthwhile. This could serve as the major north/south rapid transit corridor to complement to now existing (and continuing to expand) east/west rapid transit corridor.

Can we do an episode about LRV rails in the Bay Area

way to go Ottawa

I always had the impression the Ottawa LRT project was hugely expensive and over budget. . . but you say it is comparatively quite cheap!

Hey, I don't see Long Branch Mike in the footage - isn't he your sidekick?

It's been a while since I tried the rail lines with my bike around Ottawa, but the one that sticks out is the former CPR line to the east that has VIA property signs that goes to Montréal (M&O?? Montreal and Occidental) Gatineau still has the steam train and CPR Lachute.

The stations on the eastern extension seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Or at least that's what it looked like in the video. Do you think having such stations is a good idea? Will it even attract any ridership on that section of the transit?

Now they need to make the new Ottawa sens arena 30,000 seat capacity.

Plagued with problems from the start. The electric line has been down again for over a week with" bearings issues." We wanted Montreal Metro and got the Springfield Monorail. Also, no park and ride at the final station on south line (Limebank Station) though it will be reliable diesel trains to start. Also my understanding is that passengers going to airport from downtown will have to transfer twice. Not good.

Great video, but is there any reason you don't mention the project name, train line name, city or country in the title or description? It would help accessibility massively if this information was as text and so searchable at a later date or could be used to do further research by copying the text.

i live in Gatineau.

Headways are now 10-12 minutes, trains are slowed through downtown tunnel and most of the tracks east of Lees stations, not to mention them running only half trains. I love public transit but they have made the system so unusable that I’m better off walking or taking an uber in most cases. Not to mention the ridiculously high ticket prices. I hope that the city considers new transit improvements because the O-Train is simply not enough. We deserve more and better mass-transit.

I wonder when they will extend it across the river to Gatineau since a large population live on the other side.

Why did you take the São Paulo Metro Video down? It was very nice and I wanted to rewatch it!

Hey Reece. I was just wondering if you knew why the design decisions were taken to make a tunnel beside the parkway in the west and run the train in the highway median in the east? As an Ottawa resident, the tunnel in the west seems to add cost and it would have been cool to have a surface train adjacent until it hits the Byron tunnel section. In the east, it seems to defeat the benefits of having communal areas around stations and close proximity to residents if they are on overpasses. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Some critics say there is no need for such expansion. Mass transit is the way to go as demonstrated in all major cities. It is expensive but required and will take a long time to pay for. It is worth it in the end.

Cautionary poles

Great Ottawa!! Now Ottawa now get the Federal Government funding to complete the UBC line in Vancouver!!!!