Riding The Rail

This afternoon, my Dad and I took Ottawa's new light-rail (LRT) from one end of its two lines to the other and back.

After many delays, the new system opened to the public a couple weeks ago. Since it will be replacing certain bus routes in Ottawa's downtown area, including the one I use frequently, I wanted to try it out, with assistance, before that takes effect.

We got the regular bus down to the new, very accessible station (complete with stairs, escalators, AND elevators), waited for a few minutes, then boarded one of the cars. Very easy to get on and off of! This was one of the things I was curious about, having had issues boarding and exiting other light-rail systems before, but the entrances are level, the train itself is fairly slow and not jerky at all.

The ride itself was nice and smooth. I kind of wanted it to go a little faster, but that's really just a nitpick. The stop I would be getting off at if I wanted to go downtown is just about a block away from where the bus currently stops, so walking won't be an issue.

We could have stopped there, but we wanted to see the rest of the route. We stopped at a station with one of the largest escalators in a light-rail station, so I definitely WILL NOT be using that! Closer to the line's end, one of the stops was at a shopping complex called Silver City, which contains a major movie theatre my family and I would often go to when it was more convenient to travel that way. With this new light-rail route, that might be possible again.

Dad and I made it to the end of the line and went all the way back. It was an enjoyable trip, and one that I'm confident I could do on my own next time.

Cheers!