One important point here - Ottawa's "O-Train" is actually diesel-electric (the
very "hybrid" technology Winnipeg Transit decided it didn't want) and thus
there are no electrical infrastructure costs. It runs on existing CN trackage
that the City of Ottawa bought (so it
is very much like the Letellier Sub which the City of Winnipeg owns, but they'd
have to run
new track from Jubilee to downtown
The O-Train IS LRT, which means you'd have to build platforms to allow
handicapped access at each stop or station.
Basically, they bought the trains and that was it. Good deal for Ottawa, and it
has worked well, though in a limited fashion. Two trains would not be enough to
run U of M service at
anything more than 30 minute intervals
Two, I think Katz' real goal is to try and pry more money out of the senior
governments which he of course would switch to other projects. He's done it
before, and it worked. His other goal is to foul up the existing project so
that the funding already committed for the
second phase by the senior governments can be used for more of his pet
projects. This no
doubt is annoying both to the point where they may just decide to build it
themselves and
convert Winnipeg Transit into a regional transit authority
