OTTAWA -- The price tag to extend Light Rail Transit into Ottawa's fastest growing neighbourhood of Barrhaven is $3 billion.
A report for the Nov. 2 Transportation Committee outlines the cost to extend LRT from Baseline Station to Fallowfield Station, and then on to Barrhaven Town Centre.
Funding to build Stage 3 has not yet been secured.
Staff say the LRT extension into the heart of Barrhaven would include 10 kilometres of twin-track, fully segregated electric LRT, with seven LRT stations.
Under the plan, there would be 2.4 kilometres of track on an elevated structure west of Woodroofe Avenue between Baseline Station and Nepean Sportsplex. Then there's 7.6 kilometres of track along the existing Southwest Transitway between Nepean Sportsplex and Barrhaven Town Centre.
The route includes three new bridges for LRT and vehicle traffic over the Woodroffe Avenue and Fallowfield Road VIA rail lines and the Southwest Transitway.
Three new LRT stations would be built at Tallwood, Knoxdale and Nepean Sportsplex, while four existing Bus Rapid Transit Stations at Fallowfield, Longfields, Strandherd and Barrhaven Centre would be converted to LRT stations.
City staff recommend the project be built in two phases. Phase one would cost $2 billion and run LRT from Baseline Station to Fallowfield Station. The second phase would cost $1 billion, and run LRT to Barrhaven Town Centre and include a new Train Storage and Servicing Facility.
Running LRT into Barrhaven is part of the Transportation Master Plan, with intended implementation beyond 2031. The city has eyed extending LRT to Barrhaven and Kanata/Stittsville as part of Stage 3 of LRT expansion.
A 2018 city report estimated it would cost $1.8 billion to extend LRT from Moodie Station to Kanata and Stittsville.
