All Aboard O-Train Fans

Welcome to O-Train Fans, for Ottawa's rail enthusiasts. The arrival of the Confederation Line LRT in the city is a monumental moment in Ottawa's history. While we have been well served by the bus rapid transit service, 'The Transitway', it has long past reached its capacity limit. For years, crowded buses slowly pass through many intersections and bus stops during peak hours each weekday. Bottlenecks that can extend across the entire transit network are often felt as a result. A solution needed to be found, and it is the Confederation Line LRT. 

The Confederation Line solves many of the public transit issues with its downtown tunnel, a dedicated right of way for transit to pass unimpeded by surface traffic, thus ensuring quick and reliable service through the busy and crowded downtown core. The tunnel also brings with it three underground stations, located at Rideau (Rideau Centre), Parliament (O'Connor and Queen) and Lyon (Lyon and Queen). These stations and tunnel, found deep underneath the surface create a new way to travel to and from downtown Ottawa. 

As the system is being built in the already existing Transitway, the other stations locations should already be familiar, and are being completely rebuilt to transition from bus rapid transit to service the new train.

With even more expansion planned to open over the next 5 years, the city is moving full stride towards a complete change of how people travel. Light rail transit has been a long time coming, and we experienced our first taste of it back in 2001 with the opening of the original O-Train line, now renamed the Trillium Line, or Line 2. By 2023, there will be around 60km of transit by rail in the city and over 40 stations, including a connection to the Ottawa Airport.

These are exciting times, and the first big moments are only months away with an expected opening in November of the Confederation Line.

As the months get closer, we will be posting updates frequently to this blog, highlighting construction progress and showing plenty of photos as construction comes to a close.

Our site was just launched at the beginning of August. We will be doing several 'photo safaris' to capture all the greatness of this amazing new transit network, and help enlighten everyone to its unique features, stations, trains, architecture and design. Content is currently limited but we intend to grow quickly. Of course, the biggest content update will occur once the Confederation Line opens sometime in November. Stick with us, it's going to be an amazing ride on the rails.