Dear Editor,

Will the light-rail transit system to be approved by Ottawa council actually work? My principal concern is what will happen at the main "choke point" downtown. At peak hours Albert/Slater streets are loaded with a nearly continuous line of buses.

Transit authorities have told us that the system simply can't take any more. Yet the proposal calls for adding surface light-rail cars (trams if you
will) to the mix while removing relatively few of the buses which use those streets. Computer simulations show that the mix will work but only barely. There is no margin for error. A relatively small perturbation (a couple of fire trucks, say) could bring the entire system to a sudden halt. The only way of adding working transit capacity downtown is through grade-separation. We are told that we can't afford tunnels now, but we will need them in 15 to 25 years. A senior engineer, experienced in large tunneling projects (including subways), has estimated that the option might cost as much as $345 million, including stations. If we tunnel, we don't need the downtown surface leg
- $120 million, or the surface "embellishments" - $10 Million.

Property owners have said that they would contribute to the costs of the stations. No discussions have occurred, so I will assume 50 per cent of the "value uplift" of the downtown buildings - $150 million. The underground version could stop at Elgin Street for now, excluding the Rideau Centre and Ottawa University, for total savings of $26.5 million. The result is a system running from Barrhaven to Elgin Street, with twin tunnels in the downtown, for $38.5 million more than currently proposed. There are no bottlenecks. In fact, it alleviates the congestion which now exists which the proposed system does not. A tunnel option is needed now and is affordable. It will ensure that the system will function as intended and that a future council won't have to decide to cover the costs of "fixing" what we refused to do right the first time.

JACQUES LEGENDRE,
Ottawa Councillor, Rideau-Rockcliffe