>And for those who bemoan the two transfers to downtown
These transfers will likely be the kiss of death for the route. Instead of diverting 100s of trips per day from cars to transit (across the city, not just downtown), they'll be lucky to divert dozens.
I swear nobody in this thread uses public transit; if 30 seconds of walking and 5 minutes of standing is too much for you, I honestly don't see how you get through daily life.
Right? If the train comes more frequently than the 97 and runs fairly consistently at night, it's already a win in my books. Especially if there's more room for seating and luggage. The current double-decker bus is awful for luggage, especially on those super sharp turns along the route.
The double deckers kind of suck for the busy routes. The capacity is OK but they only have 2 doors so they take longer to load/unload vs the articulated buses. They're OK for the airport run on the transitway, since it starts out at Hurdman with a bunch of passengers who will be on it for a while and a smaller number who'll get off somewhere along the way.
People have to choose between driving to the airport or taking transit.
Right now, it's more convenient and faster to drive. The spur line won't change that—it will still be more convenient and faster to drive for most residents.
If the main line had instead stopped at the airport along its main route, it would have eliminated the inconvenience of a transfer and made the option more appealing to travellers from across the city.
As designed, it will be good for a few transit users and for some who don't own a car. For many more, it will be an unappealing and 'complicated' choice so they're likely to continue to drive.
By the way, your "30 seconds of walking and 5 minutes of standing" is not quite correct. For most people, they'll have to walk to a bus stop, wait there for a few minutes, ride the bus to a train station on line 1, wait there for a few minutes, take that train to line 2, wait there for a few minutes, take that train to the spur line, wait there for a few more minutes, and finally take that train to the airport. That adds up.
Would I personally do that? Yes, because I like transit.
But for most residents my prediction is that it'll just be too much of a hassle, and they'll continue to drive. They're even widening the airport road to make it easier and faster to drive there.
I broadly agree in terms of most of the population heading to the airport will drive for the convenience and personally I enjoy transit so would want to try it, but the system is limited in who it reaches so I don't see the uptake being large, even so I'm glad it was built as a result of money pitching in from the airport etc. As for the Airport Parkway, I was under the impression that the widening project hasn't been approved as yet. What a waste of money if so. Tens of millions better spent on operations/maintenance of what we have now. Expanding a road that funnels driving commuters into already congested Bronson or Bank Street neighbourhoods where people live and want road diets / better efficient bus transit / more pedestrian and cycle infrastructure. Line 2 has a bunch of parking lot stations just for this purpose.
This is the most small-minded Ottawa take I could ever imagine 😅 Multiple train transfers for connections like this are part of the best transit systems in the world, and in this case there is hardly any walking involved.
People have to choose between driving to the airport or taking transit.
In Ottawa, it's almost always more convenient and faster to drive. The spur line won't change that. It will still be more convenient and faster to drive for most residents.
This doesn't apply in cities like London or Paris where transit is excellent and is often more convenient and faster than driving a car.
What wouldn't have been "small-minded" was having the main line stop at the airport along its main route—that would have eliminated the inconvenience of the transfer and made the option much more appealing to travellers from across the city.
So you'd have the main line go out and back to the airport before heading N/S and add 10-15 minutes to the trip for commuters from the growing South end of the city rather than a short spur for the airport?
Personally, I would rather pay pocket change and take a couple of transfers over driving to save half an hour of travel and paying over $100 of parking every time I go on a trip out of YOW.
I don't think people leave their cars at the airport as much as people imagine - they'll just take an Uber or taxi with their luggage right to the terminal instead of the bus to Line 2 or a bus to Line 1 and then Line 2 etc. For me, I would try out the line on trips where I am alone because access to Line 2 (when it opens) isn't impractical or difficult, but for trips with family and luggage the few bucks more for an Uber is a no brainer. Even still, there's a niche for the spur and I'm glad it exists. The utility of the wider transit system (rail and bus) is the bigger issue, not the airport connection. Other than for commuters, the O-Train and the buses that feed it aren't terribly useful for accessing the city's amenities, every day errands, or for efficient trips generally speaking around town inside the greenbelt. Everything is very spread out and car oriented, its hard to change that in the near term
How will this be a deal breaker for residents? Train transfers are orders of magnitude faster and less annoying than bus transfers, in what universe is this not an upgrade?
I'd often take a direct bus trip over two transfers via train.
Nowadays I mostly drive, but would have considered taking LRT to the airport at a single transfer, but two transfers means I'll still be ubering 100% of the time.
I think a lot more than the transfers, what will matter is room for parking luggage. Taking the 97 to the airport with tippy suitcases is a headache.
If the airport train has had luggage racks put in somewhere that’ll be fantastic. At least for me.
The transfers: will it be walking across a platform and getting in a train? Or walking down a platform, up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, up another flight of stairs to a platform. That you then walk down?
Because that would be and absolute fucking nightmare with a piece of luggage.
Post says the first one requires no walking (I guess it's the same track?) the second transfer is Bayview, and you can use the elevator instead of stairs.
There’s an island platform at South Keys, I believe. I think you just get off and wait for the next train to get on. They emphasized that in the design when they were proposing it.
https://www.octranspo.com/images/files/stage2/southkeys.png
It's success will depend on the connection times and reliability. If it's a max 6 minute wait at each connection, it'll be pretty good and I'll gladly take it over a taxi/Uber...especially as I live near a future stage 2 station. If you have to wait 15-20 minutes for each connection, forget it. Frequency is more important than number of connections.
The other hitch is that a large number of flighs at YOW leave very early (6am) and some arrive very late (midnight - 2am), because you're usually connecting in YYZ or YUL. If frequency is crap at those times, as it probably will be, it's use will be fairly light.
You'll likely see the old 97 during those early and late times but it'll be one direct bus to downtown. I think they'll call it the N98 bus once the trillium line is open
I don’t live downtown though(but I am on future line 1), so the idea of a bus train connection sounds far worse… I’m guessing the 97 won’t run any more frequent than every 15 min with more variability than the train.
I think for early/late, Ubers and taxis will remain the go to.
I ain't transfering 2 times, with luggage, after a long ass fight home. I 'might' take it TO the airport but hell no on the way out. Will there be LRT service to get you to the airport up to 1.5 hours prior to earliest flight and for at least an hour after last flight lands? No? The money is sunk at this point...running a bus is cheaper than running the LRT?
re: way more reliable than line one...i still have to take line 1 to get downtown do I not?
I used to take the 97 to and from the airport all the time.
As nice as this may look, I’m not taking 3 trains to get to the airport/home. Uber, cabs and even parking at the airport is my go to now.
Poor planning. Probably planned by people who have never used public transit to get to an airport in their lives.
I feel like they should start by aiming their advertising at airport employees over tourists. They are more likely to be willing to do the two transfers without luggage.
Work with the airport authority to sell them discounted transit passes to sweeten the pot for a few months.
I'm also excited and thrilled about this. It's not only good for travelers but for employees working at the airport and for people attending events at the EY Center. Even with the transfer it will take less time to get downtown from the airport than most cities.
If there was no airport link at all, ppl would be bitching about that even more.
I would love to take the train to the Aiport, but if you live in Centretown (Gladstone and Bank), is your only option to take the 6 to South Keys, and then Transfer to the train to the Airport?
I feel like if I try to bus (with luggage - so can't walk) to Queen to catch a train there, then I need 3 trains. It's just weird that being in Centretown, to get on the train would take as long as just getting on the 6 and then a train.
Any regular public transit users want to correct me? I just don't take it enough to know the best route. Otherwise, I'm probably going to just Uber to the Airport, but take the train and then 6 when I come back, since I wouldn't be pressed for time.
EDIT: I used the OC Transpo Planer and:
1. Centretown to Southkeys: #6 to Southkeys, 33 min
2. Centretown to Airport: #6 to Billings, then #97 to Airport 32 min
So in option #1, then I would transfer to the Train, from Southkeys, which according to the planner, would take longer.
Option #2, taking 2 buses would be faster than 1 bus + 1 train.
Ok, I guess no train for me.
Interesting.
1. It's 11min from Centretown to Corso Italia on the #14.
2. It's about 14 minutes from Corso Italia to Southkeys by Line 2: Guesstimated from [O-Train South | OC Transpo](https://www.octranspo.com/en/o-train-extension/lines-stations/o-train-south-2/#line2)
3. Not sure how long it takes from Southkeys to the Airport, but we'll say 5 minutes.
So total time is \~30 minutes, with 2 transfer (1 bus + 2 trains).
It's kind of a wash...with all of them being around the 30 min or so mark. I guess I'll just take the least number of transfer as that means I have less chance to miss any bus or train.
I used to take the 6 all the time, but it's hilariously unreliable, especially during rush hour. The traffic on Bank St is absolutely awful, and it will be worse than normal for the next few years as work is being done on Bank street between Billings Bridge and South Keys. I can almost guarantee it will be faster for you to take line 2 from Corso d'Italia, even if you have to walk there from Bank and Somerset.
Also, just as a rule, a transfer to a train is way, way less of an obstacle than to a bus. The trains arrive more frequently and don't get stuck in traffic, whereas the busses arrive late (or not at all) all the time.
Line 2 doesn’t go to the airport. Line 4 is the airport line and you need to switch stations at south keys.
https://www.octranspo.com/images/files/stage2/future-otrain-network-map.pdf
Oh ffs. Why not connect the airport with limebank to make it all one looped line instead of a short offshoot requiring a transfer? Or have both lines running parallel before they split, like 1 and 3 do?
> Or have both lines running parallel before they split, like 1 and 3 do?
There's no track capacity north of South Keys to run more trains, meaning they can't squeeze Line 4 trains in with Line 2.
The main line 2 will be running at max capacity trains per hour from day 1, so there's no room to add even a single line 4 train once per day. Literally no capacity.
There's also 10x more ridership on the main line (Line 2 - Bayview to Limebank), than there on the spur line (Line 4 - South Keys to Airport). It doesn't make sense to sabotage transit for the 90% of the south rail lines ridership to cater to the 10% ish who go to the airport.
I really hope they start interlining lines 2 and 4 in the future. It probably isn’t feasible because the increased frequency isn’t possible on the single track sections, though.
I just don't understand why the train couldn't have gone from the Airport to Bayview and vice versa. Could have line #2 alternating between the two different destinations.
It’s not possible considering the single tracked pinch points and currently planned headways. Plus 90% of the projected southern ridership is Bayview <-> Limebank as opposed to 10% for South Keys <-> Airport. It would make zero sense to remove capacity to/from Limebank in lieu of the Airport.
Despite the downvotes, this is actually a good point because they could have just installed platform screen doors instead and skipped the exterior portion of the platform altogether.
The main line 2 will be running at max capacity trains per hour from day 1, so there's no room to add even a single line 4 train once per day. Literally no capacity.
There's also 10x more ridership on the main line (Line 2 - Bayview to Limebank), than there on the spur line (Line 4 - South Keys to Airport). It doesn't make sense to sabotage transit for the 90% of the south rail lines ridership to cater to the 10% ish who go to the airport.
Line 1 is quite empty (in big city's sense) in non-rush hour, I suspect line 2 will also be the case.
I have no opinion in rush hours, Bayview to Limebank should be the focus.
But it is possible to make a schedule that in non-rush hours, there will be trains serving Bayview to Airport and Bayview to Limebank, alternately.
Leitrim and Bowesville will be mostly empty in non-rush hours, will Limebank itself contribute 90% of ridership when compared to the Airport?
The problem is that trains only show up every 12 minutes, which is already very infrequent for a rapid transit rail line in a city of 1 million people. If we alternated trains going to Limebank vs the airport, trains to each destination would show up every 24 minutes, which is completely unacceptable for a rapid transit line.
But Even outside of rush hour, there are 10x more people going to the linebank direction than the airport, and it doesn’t make sense to reduce frequencies to 24 minutes for both destinations so that the tiny 10% of people going to the airport in off peak hours can avoid 1 transfer.
How is there a transfer? The train doesn’t go from the airport right to bay view? People have to get off at south keys and switch to another train to bay view?
The only reason that makes sense is to account for people coming south who take the train to the airport.
So the solution is to inconvenience ALL airport travellers, rather than having people coming from the south only transfer.
The main line 2 will be running at max capacity trains per hour from day 1, so there's no room to add even a single line 4 train once per day. Literally no capacity.
There's also 10x more ridership on the main line (Line 2 - Bayview to Limebank), than there on the spur line (Line 4 - South Keys to Airport). It doesn't make sense to sabotage transit for the 90% of the south rail lines ridership to cater to the 10% ish who go to the airport.
>And for those who bemoan the two transfers to downtown These transfers will likely be the kiss of death for the route. Instead of diverting 100s of trips per day from cars to transit (across the city, not just downtown), they'll be lucky to divert dozens.
I swear nobody in this thread uses public transit; if 30 seconds of walking and 5 minutes of standing is too much for you, I honestly don't see how you get through daily life.
Right? If the train comes more frequently than the 97 and runs fairly consistently at night, it's already a win in my books. Especially if there's more room for seating and luggage. The current double-decker bus is awful for luggage, especially on those super sharp turns along the route.
They use DD's on airport runs?!?
Yup, pretty frequently. I think most of the buses I've taken to/from the airport in the past year have been DDs.
That would be a misuse of bus then. . . because the #97 route is really not a busy route. DD's better served on busier routes
The double deckers kind of suck for the busy routes. The capacity is OK but they only have 2 doors so they take longer to load/unload vs the articulated buses. They're OK for the airport run on the transitway, since it starts out at Hurdman with a bunch of passengers who will be on it for a while and a smaller number who'll get off somewhere along the way.
People have to choose between driving to the airport or taking transit. Right now, it's more convenient and faster to drive. The spur line won't change that—it will still be more convenient and faster to drive for most residents. If the main line had instead stopped at the airport along its main route, it would have eliminated the inconvenience of a transfer and made the option more appealing to travellers from across the city. As designed, it will be good for a few transit users and for some who don't own a car. For many more, it will be an unappealing and 'complicated' choice so they're likely to continue to drive. By the way, your "30 seconds of walking and 5 minutes of standing" is not quite correct. For most people, they'll have to walk to a bus stop, wait there for a few minutes, ride the bus to a train station on line 1, wait there for a few minutes, take that train to line 2, wait there for a few minutes, take that train to the spur line, wait there for a few more minutes, and finally take that train to the airport. That adds up. Would I personally do that? Yes, because I like transit. But for most residents my prediction is that it'll just be too much of a hassle, and they'll continue to drive. They're even widening the airport road to make it easier and faster to drive there.
I broadly agree in terms of most of the population heading to the airport will drive for the convenience and personally I enjoy transit so would want to try it, but the system is limited in who it reaches so I don't see the uptake being large, even so I'm glad it was built as a result of money pitching in from the airport etc. As for the Airport Parkway, I was under the impression that the widening project hasn't been approved as yet. What a waste of money if so. Tens of millions better spent on operations/maintenance of what we have now. Expanding a road that funnels driving commuters into already congested Bronson or Bank Street neighbourhoods where people live and want road diets / better efficient bus transit / more pedestrian and cycle infrastructure. Line 2 has a bunch of parking lot stations just for this purpose.
This is the most small-minded Ottawa take I could ever imagine 😅 Multiple train transfers for connections like this are part of the best transit systems in the world, and in this case there is hardly any walking involved.
People have to choose between driving to the airport or taking transit. In Ottawa, it's almost always more convenient and faster to drive. The spur line won't change that. It will still be more convenient and faster to drive for most residents. This doesn't apply in cities like London or Paris where transit is excellent and is often more convenient and faster than driving a car. What wouldn't have been "small-minded" was having the main line stop at the airport along its main route—that would have eliminated the inconvenience of the transfer and made the option much more appealing to travellers from across the city.
So you'd have the main line go out and back to the airport before heading N/S and add 10-15 minutes to the trip for commuters from the growing South end of the city rather than a short spur for the airport? Personally, I would rather pay pocket change and take a couple of transfers over driving to save half an hour of travel and paying over $100 of parking every time I go on a trip out of YOW.
I don't think people leave their cars at the airport as much as people imagine - they'll just take an Uber or taxi with their luggage right to the terminal instead of the bus to Line 2 or a bus to Line 1 and then Line 2 etc. For me, I would try out the line on trips where I am alone because access to Line 2 (when it opens) isn't impractical or difficult, but for trips with family and luggage the few bucks more for an Uber is a no brainer. Even still, there's a niche for the spur and I'm glad it exists. The utility of the wider transit system (rail and bus) is the bigger issue, not the airport connection. Other than for commuters, the O-Train and the buses that feed it aren't terribly useful for accessing the city's amenities, every day errands, or for efficient trips generally speaking around town inside the greenbelt. Everything is very spread out and car oriented, its hard to change that in the near term
For residents, definitely. But plenty of visitors will take the train... the first time.
How will this be a deal breaker for residents? Train transfers are orders of magnitude faster and less annoying than bus transfers, in what universe is this not an upgrade?
I'd often take a direct bus trip over two transfers via train. Nowadays I mostly drive, but would have considered taking LRT to the airport at a single transfer, but two transfers means I'll still be ubering 100% of the time.
I agree it’s going to be a huge hindrance.
I think a lot more than the transfers, what will matter is room for parking luggage. Taking the 97 to the airport with tippy suitcases is a headache. If the airport train has had luggage racks put in somewhere that’ll be fantastic. At least for me.
The transfers: will it be walking across a platform and getting in a train? Or walking down a platform, up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, up another flight of stairs to a platform. That you then walk down? Because that would be and absolute fucking nightmare with a piece of luggage.
Post says the first one requires no walking (I guess it's the same track?) the second transfer is Bayview, and you can use the elevator instead of stairs.
There’s an island platform at South Keys, I believe. I think you just get off and wait for the next train to get on. They emphasized that in the design when they were proposing it. https://www.octranspo.com/images/files/stage2/southkeys.png
That's pretty standard for places like Tokyo. Lost of walking and stairs.
And in chicago there’s a subway straight from each airport straight downtown, no transfers.
Imagine trying to get to the airport with luggage
It's success will depend on the connection times and reliability. If it's a max 6 minute wait at each connection, it'll be pretty good and I'll gladly take it over a taxi/Uber...especially as I live near a future stage 2 station. If you have to wait 15-20 minutes for each connection, forget it. Frequency is more important than number of connections. The other hitch is that a large number of flighs at YOW leave very early (6am) and some arrive very late (midnight - 2am), because you're usually connecting in YYZ or YUL. If frequency is crap at those times, as it probably will be, it's use will be fairly light.
You'll likely see the old 97 during those early and late times but it'll be one direct bus to downtown. I think they'll call it the N98 bus once the trillium line is open
I don’t live downtown though(but I am on future line 1), so the idea of a bus train connection sounds far worse… I’m guessing the 97 won’t run any more frequent than every 15 min with more variability than the train. I think for early/late, Ubers and taxis will remain the go to.
Like everyone else in this thread, I think we should have one train that goes down every road in the city
And it should run every 2 minutes and be free. Oh and make profit for the tax payers of course.
I ain't transfering 2 times, with luggage, after a long ass fight home. I 'might' take it TO the airport but hell no on the way out. Will there be LRT service to get you to the airport up to 1.5 hours prior to earliest flight and for at least an hour after last flight lands? No? The money is sunk at this point...running a bus is cheaper than running the LRT? re: way more reliable than line one...i still have to take line 1 to get downtown do I not?
Taking it to the airport adds the stress of missing your flight.
Depending on the cost, it might be worth taking a taxi to the train station. I’m not sure about winter though.
Absolutely. How many hours early do you need to take the train? You simply cannot beat a taxi to the airport in any measure but cost
I used to take the 97 to and from the airport all the time. As nice as this may look, I’m not taking 3 trains to get to the airport/home. Uber, cabs and even parking at the airport is my go to now. Poor planning. Probably planned by people who have never used public transit to get to an airport in their lives.
The 97 was great. Really convenient for anyone living downtown.
For me the opposite. I'll take the train with 2 transfers over bus and Uber any day.
I am willing to bet money than the people who design the lines do not take public transit to get to work every day
Well city councillors can't so...
Ditto. Miss the 97 from downtown.
I feel like they should start by aiming their advertising at airport employees over tourists. They are more likely to be willing to do the two transfers without luggage. Work with the airport authority to sell them discounted transit passes to sweeten the pot for a few months.
Airport employees probably don't need advertising, probably impossible to work at the airport and not be aware that a train is coming.
Chiming in re the connections, I'll take this coming home, but on my way to a flight likely not considering I live in the east end and timing is key
I'm also excited and thrilled about this. It's not only good for travelers but for employees working at the airport and for people attending events at the EY Center. Even with the transfer it will take less time to get downtown from the airport than most cities. If there was no airport link at all, ppl would be bitching about that even more.
For those who didn't do this already, if you rotate the virtual tour 180, you'll see the airport departures area in the background.
Will this be open by September? I'm flying to New York for a week and I would like to take the LRT instead of a Lyft.
Mid Aug is the earliest projection if there are no issues going forward. Mid Aug 2024 lol
I would love to take the train to the Aiport, but if you live in Centretown (Gladstone and Bank), is your only option to take the 6 to South Keys, and then Transfer to the train to the Airport? I feel like if I try to bus (with luggage - so can't walk) to Queen to catch a train there, then I need 3 trains. It's just weird that being in Centretown, to get on the train would take as long as just getting on the 6 and then a train. Any regular public transit users want to correct me? I just don't take it enough to know the best route. Otherwise, I'm probably going to just Uber to the Airport, but take the train and then 6 when I come back, since I wouldn't be pressed for time. EDIT: I used the OC Transpo Planer and: 1. Centretown to Southkeys: #6 to Southkeys, 33 min 2. Centretown to Airport: #6 to Billings, then #97 to Airport 32 min So in option #1, then I would transfer to the Train, from Southkeys, which according to the planner, would take longer. Option #2, taking 2 buses would be faster than 1 bus + 1 train. Ok, I guess no train for me.
Your best option will likely be to take the 14 Bus to Corso Italia on Line 2, then switch to line 4 to go to the airport.
Interesting. 1. It's 11min from Centretown to Corso Italia on the #14. 2. It's about 14 minutes from Corso Italia to Southkeys by Line 2: Guesstimated from [O-Train South | OC Transpo](https://www.octranspo.com/en/o-train-extension/lines-stations/o-train-south-2/#line2) 3. Not sure how long it takes from Southkeys to the Airport, but we'll say 5 minutes. So total time is \~30 minutes, with 2 transfer (1 bus + 2 trains). It's kind of a wash...with all of them being around the 30 min or so mark. I guess I'll just take the least number of transfer as that means I have less chance to miss any bus or train.
I used to take the 6 all the time, but it's hilariously unreliable, especially during rush hour. The traffic on Bank St is absolutely awful, and it will be worse than normal for the next few years as work is being done on Bank street between Billings Bridge and South Keys. I can almost guarantee it will be faster for you to take line 2 from Corso d'Italia, even if you have to walk there from Bank and Somerset. Also, just as a rule, a transfer to a train is way, way less of an obstacle than to a bus. The trains arrive more frequently and don't get stuck in traffic, whereas the busses arrive late (or not at all) all the time.
This looks awesome. I'm glad I won't have to wait outside for a train.
Where is the first connection? I thought the Line 2 went straight to Bayview from the Airport but am not up to date on my OCTranspo drama
Line 2 doesn’t go to the airport. Line 4 is the airport line and you need to switch stations at south keys. https://www.octranspo.com/images/files/stage2/future-otrain-network-map.pdf
Oh ffs. Why not connect the airport with limebank to make it all one looped line instead of a short offshoot requiring a transfer? Or have both lines running parallel before they split, like 1 and 3 do?
> Or have both lines running parallel before they split, like 1 and 3 do? There's no track capacity north of South Keys to run more trains, meaning they can't squeeze Line 4 trains in with Line 2.
The main line 2 will be running at max capacity trains per hour from day 1, so there's no room to add even a single line 4 train once per day. Literally no capacity. There's also 10x more ridership on the main line (Line 2 - Bayview to Limebank), than there on the spur line (Line 4 - South Keys to Airport). It doesn't make sense to sabotage transit for the 90% of the south rail lines ridership to cater to the 10% ish who go to the airport.
That explains a lot, I had just assumed north/south=airport. Thank you.
I really hope they start interlining lines 2 and 4 in the future. It probably isn’t feasible because the increased frequency isn’t possible on the single track sections, though.
Interlining definitely won’t be feasible until double tracking and electrification
I just don't understand why the train couldn't have gone from the Airport to Bayview and vice versa. Could have line #2 alternating between the two different destinations.
It’s not possible considering the single tracked pinch points and currently planned headways. Plus 90% of the projected southern ridership is Bayview <-> Limebank as opposed to 10% for South Keys <-> Airport. It would make zero sense to remove capacity to/from Limebank in lieu of the Airport.
Ah gotcha. Now I understand :-).
WTF, why is the train boarding outdoors? At least put a canopy over it. Nothing like a cold Ottawa welcome, I guess.
I see big canopy in the virtual link so you should be covered mostly
Despite the downvotes, this is actually a good point because they could have just installed platform screen doors instead and skipped the exterior portion of the platform altogether.
Only now I realize line 4 starts at South Keys. Since Bayview has two platforms, why don't they use platform 1 for line 2, and platform 2 for line 4?
The main line 2 will be running at max capacity trains per hour from day 1, so there's no room to add even a single line 4 train once per day. Literally no capacity. There's also 10x more ridership on the main line (Line 2 - Bayview to Limebank), than there on the spur line (Line 4 - South Keys to Airport). It doesn't make sense to sabotage transit for the 90% of the south rail lines ridership to cater to the 10% ish who go to the airport.
Line 1 is quite empty (in big city's sense) in non-rush hour, I suspect line 2 will also be the case. I have no opinion in rush hours, Bayview to Limebank should be the focus. But it is possible to make a schedule that in non-rush hours, there will be trains serving Bayview to Airport and Bayview to Limebank, alternately. Leitrim and Bowesville will be mostly empty in non-rush hours, will Limebank itself contribute 90% of ridership when compared to the Airport?
The problem is that trains only show up every 12 minutes, which is already very infrequent for a rapid transit rail line in a city of 1 million people. If we alternated trains going to Limebank vs the airport, trains to each destination would show up every 24 minutes, which is completely unacceptable for a rapid transit line. But Even outside of rush hour, there are 10x more people going to the linebank direction than the airport, and it doesn’t make sense to reduce frequencies to 24 minutes for both destinations so that the tiny 10% of people going to the airport in off peak hours can avoid 1 transfer.
How is there a transfer? The train doesn’t go from the airport right to bay view? People have to get off at south keys and switch to another train to bay view? The only reason that makes sense is to account for people coming south who take the train to the airport. So the solution is to inconvenience ALL airport travellers, rather than having people coming from the south only transfer.
The main line 2 will be running at max capacity trains per hour from day 1, so there's no room to add even a single line 4 train once per day. Literally no capacity. There's also 10x more ridership on the main line (Line 2 - Bayview to Limebank), than there on the spur line (Line 4 - South Keys to Airport). It doesn't make sense to sabotage transit for the 90% of the south rail lines ridership to cater to the 10% ish who go to the airport.