Written by Jon Willing in the Ottawa Sun.

Orléans residents might actually see LRT in their lifetimes.

The city’s planning chief told council Friday staff will investigate if it’s a good idea to take all the rapid transit money earmarked for the east end and use it for extending light rail there.

The area has one of the highest transit demands in Ottawa.

The 2008 transportation master plan, which is the city’s bible of transit planning, doesn’t call for LRT to Orléans before 2031, but two rapid transit corridors have been identified between Blair Rd. and Trim Rd. They are marked as bus corridors in the plan with the intention of one day converting them to LRT.

The current $2.1-billion plan would run trains between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair station through a downtown tunnel by 2018.