OK, so having said some nice things about OC Transpo shelters, it’s back to griping again.

Taking the Trillium O-Train Line (aka route Number 2, aka the Green Line) through Carleton U one is struck by the just-OK collection of passenger waiting lounges.

They are, of course, bus shelters on a concrete station platform. But just look at that Faregate !

The money has been spent where it is most important. No, not on the passengers. On protecting the fare gates.

Yet the fare gate building is constructed pretty much at the same level as the platform. Would it have been so difficult to have extended the roof another 12′ towards the tracks and put in another glass wall? Surely the marginal cost would have been quite low given crews and equipment were already being contracted.

Such an expanded station-ette would have given some gravitas to the train experience. And that section of chain link fence between the two would not have been required, although the barbed wire top is still missing.

Education is big business these days, and Universities compete for students. Students scouting out campuses will find a large heated Campus Station at UOttawa; and bus shelters at Carleton U. I am surprised the marketing folks at Carleton let this go by.

Although Carleton does have the grandest, nicest station sculpture on the present system. And possibly still the nicest artwork on the expanded rail system in 2018 (or whenever).

I also noticed that the Mooney’s Bay Station (who thought up this name? It isn’t even the closest station to or within sight of  Mooney’s Bay !) had a similar faregate building. It is several feet higher in elevation than the bus shelters on the platform, but even there I suspect some modest redesign work could have made a more substantial Station combing the faregate with the waiting areas on the platform.

I do realize that these faregate structures are not likely to be long-term permanent structures. The post-19-month-closed then re-opened Trillium Line in 2021 may actually have real transit stations similar to those on the Confederation Line. The stations on Trillium and future phases of Confederation Line are all much more “cookie cutter” stations with modest modifications to fit each new location. This is good, as it will make them easier for users to navigate easily. And should be cheaper to build.

I think of them like large intersections somewhere out in a suburb of Ottawa that I rarely visit … or even in another city. Even though unfamiliar, the vocabulary of the intersection is familiar and one by and large knows how to navigate it intuitively.

And if Carleton ever does get a grown-up station, I presume the faregate structure is modular enough it could be relocated out to a park and ride, PPUDO, or other facility. A second chance, so as to speak, to do it better.

Speaking of doing it better, shift your focus to the development underway at Bayview:

 

While there aren’t yet many details to reveal yet, and certainly no pictures of it, the future complex at 900 Albert Street (opposite Bayview Station) will have a nifty transit facility built in.

The City now recognizes that Sobey’s, the drug store, restaurants, fitness gym, 2 – 50-ish storey rental towers, a third 50-ish tower of rentals and maybe a hotel too, plus gobs of office space, will generate significant passenger traffic to the rail transit. Not to mention the $20-28 million of development charges and $7million of annual taxes.

So the building complex will be getting its own access to the Trillium Line platform and from there into the rest of the Bayview Station. This access is also being extended right across the tracks to connect to the MUP running alongside Tom Brown arena.

The developer is providing a skylit “transit lounge” within the podium of the building that will access the new ped bridge over the tracks (including providing access to the Hintonburg side), elevators, etc. It is to be designed and built by our valued LRT contractors, but paid for by Trinity.

At last, not just the words “transit oriented development”, but transit integrated development !

_________________

Note to readers:  the recent story about bus shelters got a huge spike in readership: 3600 readers in just one day. How could this be so popular? And the story on Scott Street is 3069 readers on its first day. What this tells me is that the city is under-managing its LRT public relations budget. There are apparently lots of people craving knowledge about what is coming and how it will work and they are not getting the content they want from the city.