LISTEN TO TODAY'S SPACING RADIO PODCAST Sometimes exploring a city means just shutting your eyes and listening. In this soundscape, Spacing producer Mieke Anderson takes you underground into the Glasgow subway system. Affectionately known as "the Clockwork Orange" because of its orange subway cars and circular route, Glasgow's underground dates back to 1896 making it the third oldest in the world. Recently, the city was considering shutting down parts of the system ...

In the midst of the ongoing debate about the future of Light Rail Transit it Ottawa it can be easy to forget that we've now had LRT rolling through our city for nine years thanks to the O-Train "pilot project" launched along an old CP rail corridor in 2001. That's getting a little long in the tooth for a test run, which seems to be why the City has announced a 5-week haitus in service this summer so that "lifecycle maintenance" can be carried out to carriages and track. The shut-down starts this Monday, the 12th, and the train will be replaced with a special service for the duration. As  a pilot project running along a largely out-of-sight length of track with limited integration with the rest of the transit system, the O-Train has been  derided as the "train to nowhere". Yet when Carleton U is in session -- and that is pretty much year around nowadays -- the ridership is up around 10,000 per day, twice what the estimates projected.

Editor's note: The following post originally appeared in Public Transit in Ottawa; it is published here by the author's consent. On Tuesday evening, I stopped in to the public consultation on the National Capital Commission (NCC)-led interprovincial transit study. Attended by about 30-40 people (at least when I was there, from 6-7 p.m.), the consultation represents the fourth step in the overall process, the results of which will help the strategy team come up with a recommendation for integration of the national capital region's transit infrastructure--in short, better connecting Gatineau with Ottawa through public transit.

Editor's note: Many commentators have noted that the decision by Mayor O'Brien to run again in this fall's municipal elections means that he can campaign by claiming two significant achievements: spearheading the decision to build an East-West LRT that includes a downtown tunnel, and backing the proposal to redevelop Lansdowne Park. So far, the two major projects have been presented as "stand alone"; here Spacing Ottawa contributor Dwight Williams suggests a way to link them. In the months since the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) brought forth their proposal for redeveloping Lansdowne Park, ...

Public Transit in Ottawa's Peter Raaymakers has previewed the four main types of station  platform  for Ottawa's proposed new subway. The artist's conceptions were recently displayed for public inspection at the main library on Metcalfe Street. Raaymakers comes out in favour of the "Centre Platform" option shown above; for images of the other three designs, along with useful commentary on the process, check the PTIO post here.

Editor's note: Peter Raaymakers is the executive director of the Public Transit in Ottawa portal (TransitOttawa.ca), and tries to encourage constructive discussion on transit in the city on that site. He is also the managing editor of the Journal of Public Transit in Ottawa, the community-reviewed journal on pressing transit issues in the city. The City of Ottawa has been anxiously waiting for months to hear what John Baird announced yesterday: A federal pledge to share the costs of the city's light-rail transit plan. Not a full share of the cost, mind you; ...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599" caption="Light well, Outrement Station, Montréal Metro"][/caption] As rail-starved Ottawans wait for the latest attempt at light-rail transit to creep slowly towards completion, one question remains unanswered: who will design the stations? Admittedly, this has little to do with the actual nuts and bolts of the proposed system, or to do with the all-important dilemma that is funding its construction, but it is an important question nevertheless. After all, this system will be used by tens of thousands of people every day, so it seems only logical that stations should be pleasant and interesting places to wait for a train, right? The current Transitway system seems to be the antithesis of this philosophy. Right now, stations range from dank and unpleasant (St. Laurent), to utilitarian (the majority, like Hurdman and Lincoln Fields), to mildly pleasing (Dominion comes to mind). Transitway stations betray their 80s heritage at a glance: concrete abounds, and the ubiquitous red tubing and glass that makes up nearly every shelter quickly becomes depressing and repetitive.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="579" caption="Is it all just pie in the sky without the feds?"][/caption] Editor's note: the following article was written by Peter Raaymakers,  Executive Director of  Transit Ottawa. It originally appeared on the Public Transit in Ottawa website. ___________ The City of Ottawa is still waiting to hear the federal government announce their intentions to match (or hopefully exceed) the provincial $600M funding pledge for the city's $2.1B light-rail transit plan. Queen's Park made its pledge back in December, and the general understanding was that a similar announcement from Federal ...