Transit 613

Maps, new, and commentary, about public transit, urban planning, transportation, and more.

[transit-613]

Throwback Thursday to the Transitway map of 1997. Lycée Claudel station was still called “Abbey” and there were only two rapid transit routes. There are now eleven routes (2017) including the O-Train, not to mention several new stations. 

[transit-613]

Fantasy Map: 2018 OC Transpo Rapid Transit Map including Confederation O-Train Line.

Credit - OC Transpo’s 2015 Rapid Transit map which I used as my base layer. Go easy on me - all editing was done using Microsoft Paint.

I’ve always wondered how OC Transpo’s Rapid Transit map might look once Ottawa’s Confederation Line light rail begins service in 2018. I took it upon myself to create this map so that I could visualize how the new line will fit into the existing rapid transit system. I’ve numbered the Trillium Line “1” and Confederation Line “2” chronologically by initial service date (I believe this is the standard for most rapid transit systems). In 2018 the numbering system for the Transitway bus lines will likely change, but I find it’s helpful on this map to keep the current numbering system in order to see how the existing lines will integrate with the future light rail system. I’m sure this map would look very different had I started from scratch, but my intention was not to create something new, it was simply to imagine the current map as it would look after incorporating the new service.

Noteworthy edits:

On the original map there are four suburbs: Kanata/Stittsville, Barrhaven, South Keys, and Orleans. All are distinct suburban areas outside of the Greenbelt with the exception of South Keys (as it was previously labeled) which is actually inside of the Greenbelt. For this reason, I moved the shaded area so that South Keys and Greenboro stations are shown inside the central urban area. I also replaced the label for the southeastern suburb to say “Riverside South” which is the correct name. In addition, I changed the colour shading for Barrhaven and Riverside South to distinguish them from Kanata and Orleans, but gave them both the same colour because they are served by the same rapid transit lines, and are considered as one suburban area in the City of Ottawa Official Plan.

I removed the downtown inset because I don’t think it will improve clarity when the number of stations downtown is reduced from four to two and runs along a single alignment (in contrast to the current alignment along two opposite parallel one-way streets).

I would have preferred the consistency of having all of the station labels facing the same direction, but wasn’t able to do this due to the amount of space available on the map, and lack of the appropriate software.

Finally, I’ve made many minor modifications in order to improve accuracy, consistency, and clarity; while trying to stay true to the style and format of the original.

If you’d like to compare it to the most current version of the official map, here is the OC Transpo website www.octranspo.com.