The Central Transitway is the downtown section of Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's Transitway

Ottawa Rapid Transit

In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the public transit service operated by OC Transpo has two rapid transit systems: the Transitway, a bus rapid transit network, and the O-Train, a diesel-powered light rail transit service operated on one line.-Major routes:...

. This section of the Transitway uses dedicated lanes on existing streets, namely Albert Street

Albert Street (Ottawa)

Albert Street is one of the main east-west roads in downtown Ottawa, Canada. Albert is one way going west. It carries the westbound portion of the transitway through downtown, with Slater Street just to the south carrying the eastbound portion...

 for westbound routes and Slater Street

Slater Street

Slater Street is one of the main east-west roads in downtown Ottawa, Canada. Slater is one way going east. It carries the eastbound portion of the Transitway through downtown, with Albert Street just to the north carrying the westbound portion...

 for eastbound routes. These lanes are dedicated to buses only on weekdays from the start of morning rush hour

Rush hour

A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...

 (6:00AM) to the end of evening rush hour (6:00PM); they are otherwise open to regular traffic. Even during rush hour, regular traffic needs to cross the dedicated lanes to access right turning lanes.

This section of the Transitway has four nominal stops: Bay

Bay Station (OC Transpo)

Bay Transitway Station is a bus stop on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's transitway served by OC Transpo buses. It is located in the central transitway section at Bay Street, with two substations on Albert Street and Slater Street....

, Kent

Kent Station (OC Transpo)

Kent Transitway Station is a bus-stop on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's transitway served by OC Transpo buses. It is located in the central transitway section, appearing on both Albert Street and Slater Street....

, Bank

Bank Station (OC Transpo)

Bank Transitway Station or Bank Street Station is a bus-stop on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's transitway served by OC Transpo buses. It is located on the central transitway, which is part of the 95 line, 96 line and 97 line. Bank is named for Bank Street which is located perpendicular to the...

 and Metcalfe

Metcalfe Station (OC Transpo)

Metcalfe Station is a bus station on OC Transpo's Central Transitway. There are two parts of the station, as the Transitway runs on two parallel streets. The north station serves westbound traffic, and is found on Albert Street, and the south station serves eastbound traffic, and is found on...

. The eastbound and westbound halves of the stops are not co-located and are not necessarily aligned to each other. For scheduling convenience, identical routes stop at all stations.

The Central Transitway gets very congested during rush hour due to the number of express routes, which provide door-to-door service to those who work downtown and live in farflung suburbs. Almost all express routes pass through the Central Transitway.

Initial plans for the Transitway included a bus-only tunnel in this section but the cost of a ventilated tunnel for conventional buses was deemed too expensive and was not warranted at the time. In 2006 it was proposed to extend the O-Train downtown as a tramway over the same streets while keeping existing bus and car traffic. The idea was met with objections from businesses along those streets as normal access to these businesses would be impeded.

Future

The city plans to replace the Central Transitway with a rail-based rapid transit system in the near future.

A 13-km rapid transit line will be built from the Tunney's Pasture

Tunney's Pasture

Tunney's Pasture is an area within the City of Ottawa, Ontario, that is exclusively developed for Canada's federal government buildings. It is bordered by Scott Street to the south, Parkdale Avenue to the east, the Ottawa River Parkway to the north and Northwestern Avenue to the west...

 area west of downtown to the Blair area in the east of the city. This service is scheduled to open to riders in 2019. Afterwards, the line will be extended from Tunney's Pasture west to Baseline station

Baseline Station (OC Transpo)

Baseline Transitway Station is directly across from the main campus of Algonquin College in Ottawa's west end, off of Woodroffe Avenue and Baseline Road. Many Algonquin students and Centrepointe residents use this terminal to get to various points in the city, and of course, to get to the College...

. Another line will then be built which will travel from the downtown core to South Keys, the airport, and the Riverside South suburban community.

These two lines will be interlined

Interlining

Interlining is a voluntary commercial agreement between individual airlines to handle passengers traveling on itineraries that require multiple airlines.-Agreements:...

 through a tunnel underneath the existing Central Transitway. The four stations of the Central Transitway will be replaced with two stations: Downtown West (replacing Bay and Kent), and Downtown East (replacing Bank and Metcalfe).