Mayor Jim Watson vows to take west LRT standoff to John Baird

Ottawa's mayor is planning to take his "profound disappointment" over the National Capital Commission's rejection of a partially-buried stretch of the planned western LRT extension to the federal minister who oversees the commission.

"I just received a very strong mandate to go forward with phase two of light rail transit," said Jim Watson on Monday. "And obviously we'll be getting in touch with Minister [John] Baird as well to meet with him, to express our profound disappointment."

• RELATED: Mayor 'disappointed' by 'secret' NCC meeting on west LRT burial

The NCC announced on Nov. 21 that it would not allow the city to bury only part of its proposed line along the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.

Instead, the NCC offered the city a portion of its Rochester Field lands, through which the line could be diverted. The other option would be to dig a deeper tunnel along the current proposed route, the commission added.

The city had previously proposed a 500-metre below-grade trench that would run along the parkway, but NCC representatives said that wasn't good enough to protect the riverfront.

When Baird was asked Monday if the federal government would consider covering the cost of a tunnel to bury the entire contentious stretch, the minister only said he had "not received an application yet."

NCC wants "unimpeded, continuous access"

Last June, the NCC's board passed a motion calling for "unimpeded, continuous access" to both the parkway and the Ottawa River shoreline.

The city has said that running trains through Rochester Field would be too costly, arguing that the project's bill could increase from $980 million to $1.7 billion if that route were chosen.

Construction on the western light rail extension is expected to get underway after 2018, once work on the Confederation Line — which will connect Tunney's Pasture station in the west to Blair station in the east — is completed.