“My Preference Is Underground” Bank Street O-Train - College Ward Candidate Vilteau Delvas
Former Transport Canada employee and entrepreneur College Ward 8 candidate Vilteau Delvas says “Bank Street is the longest north south corridor in Ottawa and it’s very important we have multiple ways to get to our activities in this city and Bank Street is a very very busy area.”
“Traffic congestion is always likely to be there as it is now if we don’t make the right changes, and having Bank Street O-train is a good idea. My Preference is underground like a proper subway.”
“We need studies done properly with reports giving us the information we need and we need to make sure tax dollars won’t be wasted and spent wisely. We also need transparency in this project and accountability for it to move forward properly.”
“Leaders make informed decisions in a responsible manner. Bank Street is the only road you can take from the south end of the city all the way downtown without getting lost. We need to give respect to Bank Street and recognize it and we need take care of it.”
The Senators hockey team are going to make Bank Street even busier now and all of the traffic lights will make congestion an issue in the core. Plus Lansdowne attracts a lot of people for sports like football and soccer and other entertainment events. If we have O-Train in the core we can eliminate a lot of cars in the downtown while allowing people to enjoy the city. The other issue is Bank St O-Train will attract tourism and help small local business to prosper in the core. I have a business in the city so it helps me understand this issue.”
“Residents in the suburbs will be more likely to use Confederation Line 1 and we need to see the studies on how both Bank Street O-Train and Confederation Line 1 can work together. We have challenges already with O-Train and we are in the process of embracing the system as a city because we have not delivered on time and that’s not good.”
“We need a combination of new improved private public partnership and we need the provincial and federal government involved. We are a capital city of Canada and we are the 2nd most populated city in Ontario after Toronto which we means we need all 3 levels of government working together.”
My preference would be underground because of the cold winters and rain during other times of the year and it helps ensure we won’t disrupt local business and won’t damage residents homes.