“Tunnel is the best option we shouldn’t have a tramway on Bank Street” Nour Kadri Mayoralty Candidate
“Public rail transit is the issue for our city; we are a capital city of a G7 nation. A Bank Street O-Train Subway from Parliament Station to Billings Bridge Shopping Centre means we are looking after environmental stewardship, social cohesion, and economic growth for our core and our suburbs” says Mayoralty Candidate Nour Kadri.
Nour Kadri is a Professor of Strategic Management & E-Business at the University of Ottawa. He’s also President & CEO of Skyline Health Systems and President of the Canadian Arab Federation. He’s a known community leader whose voice is listened to at all 3 levels government and Ottawa community groups.
What issues are important for the core?
“The businesses on Bank Street suffered and the core has. Those local businesses are the lifeline for our city. I live in Centretown. I know the core of this city. I hear the voices who want Bank Street O-Train. Having a train on Bank resolves traffic issue for the entire core of the city and that helps also helps the suburbs. The residents want their voices are heard, they want to minimize traffic in the core, they want to minimize our carbon footprint, they want fewer bad smells, and less noise. With Lansdowne and Lansdowne 2.0 the traffic and parking issues are very challenging. Bank Street O-Train Subway is an idea that is good for the entire city. Anyone running in this election has to find a way to make it a reality. The Subway Tunnel is the best option, we shouldn’t have a tramway on Bank Street.”
I ask Candidate Kadri what would Bank Street mean for the rest of the Ottawa Gatineau area:
“People will leave there cars at home in the suburbs if they have the right connections and lines in the city core and the viability of that means Bank Street will increase the usability of the entire O-Train network. Gatineau is part of our challenge. The national capital region, the Senators new arena downtown, the RedBlacks in Lansdowne 2.0. There are people who work and live on both sides of the Ottawa river who travel back and forth in our city on a daily basis and its adding more traffic. In 5 years, we are going to pass 1.6 million people. We can’t think in silos and the Bank Street O-Train Subway is going to be another part of the lifeline for our entire city.”
I ask him why it’s an urgent issue for Ottawans:
“With all of the sports teams and entertainment events downtown we need solutions and we better work now helping the populace getting Bank Street resolved because we will have multiple sports teams on the same day and those schedule days will be very busy for everyone all over the city. Plus we are going to have lots of new people living downtown because we have approved a lot of new towers and that is going to make densification an important issue. We need to increase economies of scale, these infrastructure projects are assets for the public, and we need to have them ready ASAP and we need them to be a reliable option because we have lots of rain and lots of cold snow at different times of the year which is why the tunnel is important.”
I asked Candidate Kadri his thoughts on the following statement issued by the University of Ottawa:
[The addition of a new Bank Street O-Train (Tunnel) would help uOttawa dramatically grow our ability to house our students outside of the Sandy Hill area and reduce the strain on that neighbourhood while offering a greater alternative commercial and food experience. Access to the food services on Bank would improve on the current relative food retail shortage in Sandy Hill.]
“I agree with the University. The Transportation link on Bank means we will have more students living in the core, like we see in Montreal or Toronto and Bank Street will become a hub between our 3 universities and Algonquin College. It will be good for the universities in our city and parking is a big challenge that we will be able to deal with properly because lots of people will use the Bank Street O-Train which will free up more parking in the core. Students and families will use the service. People coming in from the suburbs will use our network and that means we will have much higher ridership on Confederation Line 1 and Trillium Line 2.”
For more stories on Bank Street O-Train see links below: