Weekday service on LRT Lines 2 and 4 launches on Monday, January 6, 2024, serving Carleton University, the Ottawa Airport, Little Italy, South Keys, Riverside South, and more. For now they’ll run Monday-Friday, 6am-12pm, and service will increase to 7 days in the coming weeks.
Line 2 runs north-south from Bayview to Limebank, with 11 stations and capacity for 4,200 customers per hour. Line 4 is a spur line from South Keys to the Airport, with a stop at the E.Y. Centre (Bowesville) on the way. The trains run every 12 minutes from morning to night.
You can already see the development and transformation of our city along this north-south line, and also on the east and west lines that will open next.
The north end of Line 2 is at Bayview, next to Lebreton Flats. There are hundreds of non-profit affordable apartments being built near Corso Italia Station (Gladstone Avenue) on former government land. South Keys is a major transfer station and the big box stores there will be redeveloped into new housing, jobs, and retail over the next decade or two. For Riverside South, this is a game-changer for a community that has been there for a couple decades now, but has never had this level of rapid transit.
The launch is a huge boost for reliability for people who are traveling north-south now by bus. Carleton University students will see a huge difference.
It has been interesting to see people from outside of Ottawa are getting excited about this new infrastructure. I’ve seen rail fans from across North America who get how exciting and important this is for a city. The new lines include 19 kilometers of rail on the main line, and then four kilometers to the airport. We’re the third city in Canada with a rail link to our airport.
It’s a great ride (I got a preview just before Christmas). I encourage residents to try it out and let me know what you think! For more information check out octranspo.com.
