A $4-billion transit plan that includes light rail in both north-south and east-west directions has been recommended over three other options by city staff.

The plan, which has a rail link to the airport, dedicated bus routes to outlying areas and a downtown tunnel, received the staff's endorsement at a joint transit and transportation committee meeting Wednesday morning.

It will take approximately 20 years to complete and will require funding from upper levels of government.

Staff issued their report after weeks of study and public consultations that garnered more than 1,200 written submissions from the public in response to the four options released on March 3:

1. A buses-only expansion option.
2. Light rail in the north-south direction and a bus expansion in the east-west direction.
3. East-west light rail and a bus expansion in the north-south direction.
4. Light rail in both the north-south and east-west directions.

A summary of public reaction prepared by staff and distributed to councillors earlier this month notes "broad support for Option 4 as the preferred long-term solution for the City of Ottawa."

A final decision on the plan will be made in May following further public consultations between April 21 and May 7, where the public can comment on which part of the plan should be built first.

Tunnel to cost $550M

Outside the meeting, Mayor Larry O'Brien, transportation committee chair Coun. Maria McRae and transit committee chair Coun. Alex Cullen unveiled the new slogan for the transit plan: "Getting it right."

O'Brien said the plan will "reduce congestion from the core out."

"And with a downtown tunnel comes an amazing opportunity to build an underground city that will generate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic growth in the City of Ottawa," he added.

Cullen said the downtown tunnel will cost roughly $550 million to build, but is a crucial part of the plan.

"Our staff, their consultants, the international peer review panel have all found that it would be impossible to service our city to 2031 without a tunnel," he said.

No Gatineau link

David Jeanes, an advocate with the transportation lobby group Transport 2000, said he was disappointed that city staff didn't consider the east-west light rail option paired with north and south extensions of the existing O-Train, including a link to Gatineau.

He said the existing plan doesn't take Gatineau into account and doesn't bring rail to suburban areas of high traffic flow such as Kanata and Orleans, where existing park and rides link to express bus routes that go all the way downtown.

Under the new system, commuters will have to park, take a bus and then switch to a train, he said.

The plan relies too heavily on buses, he added, and dozens of kilometres of new dedicated bus transitways that are sure to be built long before a downtown tunnel.

"The public clearly doesn't want that amount of investment to go into bus rather than rail," he said. "The fear that we have is that they will still build more transitways and try to bring more buses downtown before the tunnel is studied and built."