Tickets for Ottawa’s light rail money train have been sent out and if the federal and provincial government want to hop aboard it’s going to cost them around $610 million each.
Yesterday, Mayor Larry O’Brien officially asked Federal Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird and his provincial counterparts, George Smitherman and Jim Bradley, to confirm their support for the first phase of the city’s $3.2-billion rapid transit network.?
The cost of the $1.83 billion first phase, which includes the downtown tunnel, tracks from Blair Station to Tunney’s Pasture and a major new transfer station at Algonquin College, is expected to be split three ways between the federal, provincial and city governments coming to $610 million each.?
Sending the letters is only the beginning of formally securing funds to build the project.?
The city still needs to develop the business cases and other paperwork required to make application for the federal government’s Building Canada Fund and other suitable funding programs.?
However, Transit Committee chairman Alex Cullen said the responses from both levels of government have been encouraging. The city is hoping to see memoranda of understanding covering the amounts and timing of contributions signed before the summer, he said.
“The idea is to get these agreements in place and then start the money rolling and then we can start building,” Cullen said.
The city is in the process of conducting environmental assessments for the downtown tunnel. Once those are completed and the funds are secure, it will be a short step before they start digging.
Expansion budget
To cover its share, the city has budgeted $2.1 billion for rapid transit expansion in its long-range financial plan. However, they will also consider other sources, like federal and provincial gas taxes, development charges, and future allocations from the capital budget.
