Talk:Line 1 (O-Train)

Surreal

This article describes plans that are 10 years old. If someone would read them today, the misleading tone would make them think the train actually runs on time, it doesn’t stop when it snows, and the construction plan are being efficiently executed.

Including a section about the history of the construction, with the lawsuits, delays, and the cancellation of the construction plans will make this article more accurate and attached to reality.

It should, at least, mention the news coverage of such a shameful execution, a reference: https://www.tvo.org/article/ottawas-colossal-lrt-debacle-a-brief-ish-history 2607:FEA8:E29D:5700:B091:4465:D7ED:153E (talk) 11:59, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Classification

As Reecemartin558 -a public transport expert- explained here, the Confederation line is by definition (because being fully grade-separated) a light metro line. This article explains why it's locally called 'light rail transit': "So, the politicians in Ottawa built a light metro instead, but by using modern trams, they could call it LRT." However, Wikipedia is a digital encyclopedia and therefore needs to describe the natural world accurately. As the goal is to be accurate, the means to use secondary sources. Below is a list of some secondary sources backing up that the Confederation Line is in fact a light metro/light rapid transit:

• The Confederation Line is part adaption of the O-Train and Trillium rail networks and consists of a grade separated, high frequency service light metro project. (IRJ)
• The Confederation line is a light metro line still currently under construction in Ottawa and will form part of the city’s O-Train rapid transit system ...
• As Mehlman explained, the Confederation Line will be more like a light metro with underground stations in the city centre, 100-second headways and CBTC train control.
• At many points the formation is therefore either elevated or in a shallow cutting. As a result, the Confederation Line offers a service more akin to light metro than streetcar.
• O-Train Line 1, or the Confederation Line (Ligne de la Confédération) is a low floor LRV light metro service on an East-West alignment.

KatVanHuis (talk) 11:42, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Just to raise a very big red flag, Reece Martin is no more a "public transport expert" than I am. He is a public transit enthusiast like many of the rest of us who has a mildly popular YouTube channel, making him a self-published source which we would never include as per WP:UGC. Editors of Wikipedia 1000% do not get to determine who qualifies as an "expert"—that's for reliable sources to determine. Even if such a determination had been made (I can think of only one private citizen in Canada who has had that kind of distinction made and whose work we cite with any regularity and that's because they've been recognized as an expert by 3rd parties for over FIFTY years), we would certainly never rely on one such person's opinions alone to determine how something was classified.

In a proper world, Reece Martin would not be editing Wikipedia at all as it's a huge and obvious conflict of interest, some of the issues of which are demonstrated in this uncritical labelling of him as an "expert" in this comment.

If the majority of reliable and verifiable non-self-published sources describe the Confederation Line specifically or the O-Train more generally as "light metro", then of course we would be good to include that description. But we certainly aren't free to do so simply because 1 person on the Internet says it's such. —Joeyconnick (talk) 18:24, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you Joeyconnick for your reply, you are right. For sure Wikipedia needs to follow reliable secondary sources. I'd encourage everyone to read my first sentence above without the "-a public transport expert-" part. KatVanHuis (talk) 07:36, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Requested move 2 April 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. – robertsky (talk) 07:25, 20 April 2025 (UTC)

---

• Confederation Line → Line 1 (O-Train)
• Trillium Line → Line 2 (O-Train)

– The city of Ottawa and OC Transpo have both moved away from the usage of the names "Confederation Line" for Line 1 and "Trillium Line" for Line 2. With the recent creations of dedicated articles for Lines 3 and 4, the article names should be standardized. OrdinaryScarlett (talk) 19:55, 2 April 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 03:47, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

Seconding this. The "Pilot project" section of the main O-Train article should link to the Line 2 article as well Ottawatransitguy (talk) 00:10, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

• Weak support. While OC Transpo has fully moved to line numbers, secondary sources have not. This CBC article from March 10 is titled "Trillium Line will run 7 days a week starting Sunday, March 16. BLAIXX 00:36, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

  CBC is just running off the name they've been using in articles since 2017. I'll need to go digging, but a memo from OC during the final stages of Line 2/4 construction had specifically said "... O-Train Lines 2 and 4 (formerly Trillium Line)...". Same goes for Line 4, I don't recall it ever being "officially" called the "Airport Link" besides in the early phases of planning and construction.

  You'll also notice the naming is almost entirely scrubbed from OC Transpo's website and media releases (safe for some older outdated pages), and not present on any physical wayfinding material (safe for some older Line 1 diagrams mentioning a transfer to Trillium as they haven't been updated to newer ones)

  https://www.octranspo.com/en/our-services/o-train-network

  https://www.octranspo.com/en/o-train-extension/lines-stations/o-train-south-2/#line2

  https://www.octranspo.com/en/o-train-extension/lines-stations/o-train-south-2/#line4

  https://www.octranspo.com/en/news/article/mar-10-o-train-lines-2-and-4-service-expands-to-seven-days/ Ottawatransitguy (talk) 01:15, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

  Except it's not really about official names, it's about WP:COMMONNAME. So if sources are still saying "Trillium Line", that's what we'd need to go by. —Joeyconnick (talk) 23:30, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Rapid transit, Canadian Wikipedians' notice board, WikiProject Ottawa, WikiProject Ontario, and WikiProject Trains have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 03:49, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

• Support. In situations like these it's best to follow the official name for the article title. The original name should be mentioned prominently in the lead of course. Mackensen (talk) 11:51, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
• Support. Use updated names. Cards84664 02:28, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
• Support per WP:CONSISTENT. Tomiĉo (talk) 07:05, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Classification 2

I understand that there's been some renewed contention on what to classify Line 1 (and by extension the future Line 3) as. Due to the opinion that fully grade-separated light rail classifies as light metro, and since Line 1 (and by extension the future Line 3) are both fully grade-separated, that makes them both light metro. However, my impression is that most secondary sources refer to Line 1 as "light rail", and per WP:SECONDARY, we really ought to be sticking to the common term used to describe Line 1. Even if there may be some sources that refer to it as "light metro", I would say that these are definitely very rare and very much in the minority. I have doubts regarding the paragraph and the sources cited; it comes off to me as trying to cherrypick from a handful of sources that confirm the assertion that Line 1 is a "light metro" in order to push that particular point-of-view, and I have doubts about the reliability of the sources chosen.

I believe the former claim of fully grade-separated light rail automatically qualifying as "light metro" is largely original research, or at best an opinion largely held by some transit advocates, enthusiasts, or those working in the industry. It's really by no means a common sentiment held by the general public at-large, and we really ought to avoid treating uncommon claims/assessments as gospel. OrdinaryScarlett (talk) 06:21, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for you reply here, I will answer using bullet points:

1. Due to the opinion that fully grade-separated light rail classifies as light metro: it's not an opinion, but a definition by the UITP.
2. WP:SECONDARY: I've read the section, but there's nothing written about using the common term.
3. push that particular point-of-view: I've also included that LRVs are in service and the classification used by OC Transpo itself. Feel free to incorporste sources who use other terms.
4. It's really by no means a common sentiment held by the general public at-large, since when is an encyclopedia based on sentiment?

KatVanHuis (talk) 17:08, 1 June 2026 (UTC)