In Ottawa, they ran the public transit rail line along an existing freight train line; it went from essentially nowhere, through nowhere, to nowhere. Granted, it ran through Carleton University and I'm sure they provide a large number of passengers, and also near a large government complex on Heron Road (which required a fairly long walk), the rail line didn't get you downtown (needed a transfer) and some of the stations aren't near anything of particular significance.
It has something like 15,000 passengers a day, which isn't a lot - OC Transpo buses serve 500,000ish riders a day.
They want to expand the light rail network to where people will actually take it, since these numbers are unlikely to improve.
An example of what happens when you build a rail line based on conveience rather than ridership. I hope someone brings this up in these open houses. I'd hate to see the NC LRT wind up being useless. Centre Street will cost a lot more but will be a heck of a lot more useful.
|