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The notion of regional transit planning gained steam this week when Ottawa city council asked Watson to formalize talks with Pedneaud-Jobin about improving the rapid transit connections between the two cities, with a special focus on the potential future use of the Prince of Wales bridge, which the City of Ottawa owns.

There are also ongoing discussions about what to do with the roughly 1,000 STO buses that cross the bridges into Ottawa every weekday once the Confederation LRT Line opens next year.

As construction continues on the 12.5-kilometre line, the city is planning a second phase that would extend light rail to the east, west and south, a $3.6-billion package council approved on Wednesday.

Gatineau launched its Rapibus system in 2013 to serve the city’s east side. Now it’s studying rapid transit solutions for the west side and Aylmer, and whether to expand the bus network or instead build a rail link to either downtown Gatineau or even downtown Ottawa.

Whatever the study ultimately recommends, the Prince of Wales bridge could be key. “It’s a natural option,” Pedneaud-Jobin said.

However, fixing up the bridge for rail service will cost millions.

The City of Ottawa doesn’t have the money in its transit affordability plan to pay for that, even though the reason it bought the bridge years ago was to use it as a transit corridor someday.

But the federal government just might, and the idea of an interprovincial transit connection has the support of Liberal MPs on both sides of the river at a time when their government plans to spend $125 billion on infrastructure in the next decade.