I wanted to share a positive experience with transit. In the last week I had a trip planned and I wanted to try taking transit and see if it would work. I had a flight at 2:25PM to Montreal and I live a short distance away from Tunny’s. My wife dropped me off at Tunny’s and I took the train and got to the airport in ~50 minutes without any issues.
Now this isn’t the fastest (Driving would have only taken ~20 minutes), but man did it feel great to be able to take the train all the way there. It was a very comfortable and smooth ride. I just wanted to share the positive news to let people know its viable and possible.
If there was higher frequency on line 2, I suspect the commute time would have been closer to ~35-40 minutes, make it even more competitive with driving. I’m hopeful for the future of transit in the city :)
I lived near Bayview for a long time. Taking the 97 to/from the airport was perfect.
I’m glad the OTrain is filling that void.
Yeah, sometimes my wife and colleagues don’t understand me taking transit (I’m in the Vancouver area). But it’s hop on an express bus to a Skytrain station and take that train all they way downtown or to the airport.
You get to chill and watch the scenery, or read a book, or catchup on work email. And never deal with parking. I find it relaxing.
Ottawa has a few extensions to Line 1 in progress, which is very exciting!
Since the OTrain has had a few unfortunate events during its first few years, they have been very careful to ensure there would be as little room to screw the Line 2 opening up as possible. I do think the tracks are straight enough that it could be faster, but I also noticed how smooth the ride on the FLIRT was.
It’s because line 2 still has sections of single track. So the trains can’t go any faster or they would have to wait longer at stations while waiting for the track to clear.