I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station.

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 22:52:26 GMT

zazzoo@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 22:52:26 GMT

@hamishb Probably true. Poilievre's people, I call them. I previously snarked about the land of weaponized flags that loosely follows highway 7 from PP's (former, lol) Carleton riding and cuts a diagonal line through Eastern Ontario and ends around Oshawa. This is home to his most rabid devotees and the path of the proposed Ottawa-Toronto high speed line. So yeah, he's suddenly so concerned about land appropriations for a mass transit service now when he doesn't give a damn about them if it's for an oil pipeline project that benefits on handful of private bank accounts out west.

Sorry, am I ranting? Yes, I think I am.

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 22:52:06 GMT

hamishb@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 22:52:06 GMT

Thanks for the info!

I'm lucky enough to still have family in Ottawa so I always get picked up/dropped off and hadn't realized how close Tremblay is until I checked the satellite view. Just needs a little more canopy.

@zazzoo @human3500

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 22:42:56 GMT

zazzoo@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 22:42:56 GMT

@hamishb @human3500 The engineers already struck underground off the option list. When constructing the subway portion of Line 1 they discovered there's a lot more sand than previously thought mixed in with all that solid Canadian Shield our city's built on.

How the Rideau Street sinkhole opened up critical rifts in LRT deal between city, RTG | CBC News

The Rideau Street sinkhole in 2016 not only delayed construction on Ottawa's troubled Confederation Line, it damaged the relationship between the city and the light rail line's builder so severely that it could haunt passengers for decades to come.

CBC (www.cbc.ca)

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 22:23:29 GMT

hamishb@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 22:23:29 GMT

I get the feeling that the downtown station obsession is a distracting quibble for people who don't really want high-sped rail (and probably don't use existing snail rail much either.

@zazzoo

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 22:20:33 GMT

hamishb@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 22:20:33 GMT

An underground link would definitely be a good idea (I don't recall there being one) — something as big and bright and easy as the under-lake link at Billy Bishop, with moving sidewalks (but perhaps without the annoying ads). We are a winter country, after all.

@human3500 @zazzoo

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 20:10:15 GMT

zazzoo@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:10:15 GMT

@johnefrancis Enough. They got extra cops. Shut up for another year, I say.

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 20:09:29 GMT

zazzoo@mstdn.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:09:29 GMT

@human3500 Tremblay station is far less than a 5 minute walk to the main VIA station. To me it's an ideal place. I think it's important for the train station to have parking, at least for now, because so little of this city is serviced by reliable public transport. For anybody outside of Centretown, downtown is a pain to get to.

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 19:03:30 GMT

human3500@ottawa.place — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:03:30 GMT

@zazzoo while it would be great to have the hsr station right downtown (as opposed to Tremblay), the logistics vs cost is ludicrous.

However, the hsr and lrt stations must coexist if at Tremblay. The distance between them has to be walkable in less than 5 minutes with two suitcases in a climate controlled / protected passage.

#Ottawa

Reply to I'm not sure why some seem obsessed with having the proposed high-speed rail station for Ottawa located downtown - like a nostalgic throw-back to when the current Senate of Canada building was Ottawa Union Station. on Tue, 05 May 2026 18:47:18 GMT

johnefrancis@cosocial.ca — Tue, 05 May 2026 18:47:18 GMT

@zazzoo I think it's the same downtown property owners who demand council orient every discussion around subsidizing the Market and forcing every public servant to eat lunch at their crappy price-jacked restaurants.

"Me, me, me" say the downtown commercial landlords...