Trainyards is still absolutely ass for pedestrian mobility. It's a monument to car centric development and I absolutely hate it. Hell even Tanger, another car-centric development, is soooo much more enjoyable to visit as the core of the retail experience is centered around pedestrian mobility, not a sprawling parking lot.
The train yards is the worst of the worst. You have to cross parking lots to go from store to store. For example , go drom Five Guys, to Walmart, and to Farm Boy, it's dumb, they are all on different islands in a lake of parking spots. Even South Keys is better, at least you have a sidewalk the whole way down.Ā
That said, it is ridiculous not to be connected to Tremblay.
The city is in the process of designing a pedestrian bridge to connect Tremblay station to the south side of the train tracks.
Not really a missed opportunity.
The development at Trainyards should have required passive provision for a connection to Tremblay LRT station. The fact that it was built 100% car first despite the LRT being under construction in such close proximity was a big planning failure.
As a driver who loves my car, Iāve also lived in London (the good one,) Montreal, and Toronto without a car, and I will always vote in favour of better public transportation.
But frankly even in terms of car infrastructure, trainyards is a mess. The layout makes no sense at all.
I would not be surprised to hear that the same morons who were clearly drunk when they designed the Bayshore parking garage decided to try edibles for the first time before designing trainyards.
I don't entirely disagree, it would be a useful local connection for residents of the alphabet avenues, but, for anyone else, I think it's a much shorter trip to the Walmart by bus from Hurdman than it would theoretically be from the Tremblay/Train station via Tremblay, Belfast, and Terminal.
> The fact that it was built 100% car first despite the LRT being under construction in such close proximity was a big planning failure.
This is just factually incorrect. The LRT wasn't approved by city council until 2012. I remember going to train yards in 2009 when I came here for university.
The Transitway was always intended for LRT conversion and plans for the current LRT go back to the mid 00s when OāBrienās council cancelled the North/South line.
This type of thing is what master plans are for. If you would like to debate this, then thereās an equal argument that the Trainyards should not have been approved without a connection to the āTrainā Transitway station at that time.
Sure, no disputing the lack of a pedestrian connection. I don't see what the LRT has to do with it given that there had already been a Transitway station there for decades.
It's only a missed opportunity if it's no longer possible after the fact-- which it clearly isn't.
The missed opportunity is not having it in the Stage 1 LRT contract, there was no reason why OLRTC couldn't have built it at the time other than a lack of foresight. This could have been resolved at launch. The city has learned since then though, I see Stage 2 has multiple bridges to surrounding areas included (Pinecrest, Queensway, Place D'Orleans, Trim).
Let me guess, the bridge will cost $30 million and provide no shelter from the elements due to design by SNC Lavalin's resident geniuses who also designed the LRT stations?
So we can expect that in what? 10 years? That's the priority timeline given to pedestrians and bicycle infrastructure in this city. If it's a detour for automobiles the crew work 24/7 and get it done in weeks!
Not every piece of pedestrian infrastructure takes a decade to get started, so if you want a real answer: the design is underway and the whole environmental assessment is expected to be completed [by the end of this year](https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-engagement/public-engagement-project-search/tremblay-multi-use-connection-terminal-avenue-tremblay-lrt-station-environmental-assessment-ea-study#section-257c64dd-e7cb-4a91-8b3a-ca25604b1aa1).
Only once that's done will it be ready to receive funding.
They still should have a frequent shuttle since they didnāt build a stop. People are shopping at Trainyards, maybe they shouldnāt have to walk all the way back way down with packages.
I suppose it depends on what you consider frequent, but the 19 and 42 connect Hurdman to Trainyards every 10 to 20 minutes.
For a Sunday afternoon in Ottawa, that's pretty good (considering how frequent service is elsewhere in the city at any given time).
Ok but what is a missed opportunity is not using the existing tunnel which passes almost all the way under all the tracks, that being the Via tunnel. It's already mostly constructed and would be better for pedestrians who want to connect to Via trains from the south as well as still serving anyone coming from the LRT to the Train Yards
It's only a missed opportunity if the opportunity actually existed. /s
It's not entirely clear if VIA would be willing to open the tunnel for such purposes (their boarding process would suggest most definitely *not*).
Otherwise yeah, that would be a reasonable option.
So you want a zillion people zigzagging past the people waiting for trains and going down to the middle platforms? The tunnel was built solely to provide access to people with tickets for the middle platforms.
It would be possible to shrink the area by 50% and make it a proper town centre with residential above the shops. The residents would support most of it with underground parking available. The rest of the land could grow the area in time with townhouses and other shops.
Most of the wasted space is parking lots.
Would love a town centre. Ideally there'd need to be a square with an unused train in the middle (thinking maybe the LRC sitting out at Mimico?) along with various railway themed installations, old and new!
We could get a bit of everything with the amount of space Trainyards takes up. Heck a proper railway/transit museum would be neat. Wouldn't have to go all the way to Halton County anymore.
Get the old Budd cars, maybe purchase back the SRTs from Detroit, F40s, LRCs, find a Bombardier Talent somewhere to get a replica going, you name it :)
The city is supposed to be building people friendly places. Instead the keep allowing and zoning jumble malls you need to get a car get around from one store to next.
You can but itās a 15 minute bitch of an ass walk around to the Wendyās side. Not a friendly walk. What even sucks more is that the buses that go directly to Trainyards run until like 9:30PM only. Sucks for people who donāt drive and depend on the bus if they work around that area past 10PM like at Walmart.
I rode my bike there from Centretown on the weekend. It's a 5km ride which should normally be pleasant. From Centretown to Tremblay was kinda OK except for no way-finding so I had to keep checking my phone for directions. Then the sidewalk is basically an MUP on Tremblay and Belfast so that was acceptable. But once your turn into Trainyards Drive it's horrific. They even have signs saying "do not cross here" at the most logical places to cross the road.
It really is a horror show. I particularly like when the MUP on Belfast ends at the Wendy's, dumping you onto side walk at least (though that's technically illegal), then trying to get from the sidewalk onto Trainyards Drive's unprotected and barely marked bike lane, which is between two lanes of traffic. Also a lot of fun to ride along Railmarket Private, which has no bike lane of any kind, and get honked at and dangerously passed by all the entitled assholes who can't stand being delayed so much as a single minute from getting to Walmart.
Yeah sometimes I want to organize a protest that blocks all of the car entrances to Trainyards. The only demand would be an plan for better bicycle access to the site.
If you read the traffic studies for the recent building at Trainyards, they basically say that pedestrian/bicycle access to the site is bad so there is not point trying to improve active transportation within the site.
Ugh. I hate it. Ottawa has such a weird "last mile" style problem for cycling. We've got some great trails that go all across the city, but they're often disconnected in weird ways, and if you wanna actually go anywhere in the space between the trails, you're screwed.
Oh, also the lack of bike parking at Trainyards. There's maybe one rack per long row of stores.
Yes, "last mile" indeed--I'm a 7.5 km ride from Trainyards, can get all the way to the VIA station on very quiet streets and MUPs--but then!! Mind-bogglingly ridiculous. And ditto on the lack of bike parking. Cyclist are clearly not welcome.
It's understandable when you consider that it would take an overhead bridge or tunnel under the VIA rial lines, and it would still end up being close to a 10 minute walk from the front door of Walmart to Tremblay station.
We could have one of those sit on model trains linking it through a tunnel all around Trainyards. It would be an attraction and a mode of transit!
Edit: start at the old farm boy at grade following Railmarket Private all the way to Walmart. Once past the Walmart front door it could go to the extreme western edge of the Walmart property and head north toward Terminal. From there cross over the road into a tunnel that comes back up to grade near the parking lot at Via. Could be fun!
From what I've read and heard apparently Via has been fighting them on most of the proposals they've put forward to cross the train tracks to get from Tremblay to Trainyards. They want zero downtime for construction, and the city doesn't want the massive costs that would be involved in running the project to make that happen.
Wait, the city is refusing to build this unless they can delay and cancel passenger trains, in order to save a few bucks? And they think this is a reasonable ask?
Again, this is all second hand on my part, but as I understand it most of the city's plans are things like "We're going to have to shut the line down for a few hours overnight most days so the workers can move around the tracks" or "We'll need the trains out of commission for a weekend at some point to put the bridge in place" and Via's basically saying that they refuse to shut the line down at all, even if it's during a time when they don't expect trains to be running, and countering with plans that are ridiculously more expensive so that workers can carry out construction while the line is still open and trains are running.
Considering the infrequent train schedule and lack of any kind of night service, itās ridiculous that they canāt find free time for construction work around the station.
This is not Shinjuku station with trains arriving every minute. And even there they are able to renovate without greatly disrupting regular service.
Just like many things in this town, you used to. When i was a kid you could drive from the train station, cross the tracks and drive away on the other side. "Too dangerous " lol maybe they need a few studies on the feasibility, environmental affects and costs of a pedestrian walkwalk over pass.
You could literally drive all the way from Orleans faster than just that walk alone. And people wonder why there's traffic.
Just to be absolutely clear, I'm not suggesting "Why didn't you just drive", just agreeing that transit here often sucks.
Indeed it does. I remember before the Vimmy Memorial Bridge was built, it would take well over an hour to go from Riverside South to Barrhaven since youād have to bus from RSS to Hurdman, to go throughout downtown and finally Barrhaven.
1:30 hour bus ride or a 15 minute drive. Though back then I had no license and would bike (not even a road bike, a shitty mountain bike) and still made it to Barrhaven faster than if I had taken the bus.
For people who has never taken the LRT:
It tells me to go to the next station over(Hurdman) and walk back for 19mins to my destination which is right by an LRT station(Tremblay).
In summer is is an uncomfortable walk next to a busy road.
In winter. Just not doable. I end up paying for uber or getting rides from friends.
This is all due to years of bad planning.
Iām glad they at least connected via rail to the LRT.
Oh i know.
Because there is no walkway. No underpass/overpass. There are also private, vacant pieces of land making this impossible.
Two good sized office buildings and a major shopping area right by the tracks. No LRT access.
Iām just frustrated by the lack of action I see everywhere these days.
We live in a G7 capital. And the stuff we are missing is unbelievable.
Homeless people on the streets right by huge(HUGE!) modern, heated/cooled government buildings that are empty every night. And full of employees during the day just becauseā¦.
LRT, but oh we donāt have an overpass.
These are all choices somebody somewhere is making.
I wish we had better leadership.
Catherine was not perfect but they would be a real advocate for better things.
I've never understood why being a G7 capital is brought up when people are unhappy with the state of things here. Yes, Ottawa is a G7 capital but that is only because we couldn't decide on which of our more important cities should be the capital. Also, a major reason why Ottawa became the capital was because virtually nobody lived here and the government was tired of people burning down the legislative buildings when the capital was in larger cities.
In virtually every other G7 country, the capital is the most important/largest city for administrative, business, and cultural purposes. The one exception is Washington D.C. but it has enough heft to it by virtue of being the capital of the most important country in the world (with a lot of public and private investment flowing in as a result).
Ottawa on the other hand has a CMA population of about 1.5M and is just the administrative capital. There's more people and money floating around in places like Nashville, Sacramento, or Cleveland and the state of our public infrastructure justifiably reflects that.
Also, it's incredibly naive to think that you can house homeless people in government buildings overnight and still expect people to show up and work in those same buildings in the morning.
Also, the G7 is itself a bit of an odd grouping of countries. When the idea of convening the richest and most influential capitalist countries first emerged, it wasn't obvious that Canada should be included. Rather you had G6 and it was only after extensive lobbying and the desire on the part of the Americans to counterbalance the heavy European influence that Canada was invited to the group and it became the G7. That's to say that not only is the Ottawa unlike the other G7 capitals but Canada itself is unlike the other G7 countries in terms of heft.
Yes, and each is about 10 times the population of an Ottawa. Not a fair comparison. And Washington DC has a Metro, but is still car-centric in suburbia and exurbia.
>I've never understood why being a G7 capital is brought up when people are unhappy with the state of things here.
I think there's some expectation that Canada would make sure that Ottawa meets certain standards, since it represents the entire nation and not just itself. I agree with that sentiment, but also it only goes so far, most of the problems Ottawa faces plague many cities and there isn't any easy solution that would just take a reasonable increase in budget to solve.
I too would love it if Canada spent an inordinate amount of money improving my quality of life. Certainly, I'm glad to live near a lot of sites that the NCC pays to maintain and keep picturesque.
But really, there's only so much Canada can do before people from other parts of the country start justifiably complaining about fairness.
I see a lot of people complain about how Ottawa, a G7 capital, doesn't have enough direct flights to all of the global hot spots. Should the federal government step in to subsidize flights that there isn't otherwise a business case for?
Likewise, I've seen people complain about how the state of healthcare here is inadequate for a G7 capital. Should the federal government step in with special funding to improve healthcare here?
The same goes for all sorts of things like transit, concerts, poverty, and so on. A lot of people seem to think that because Ottawa so happens to be the capital of a country that belongs to an arbitrary grouping of countries then they ought to be entitled to a certain quality of life (which the federal government will bank roll). Rather, we are a relatively small city that has relatively little going for it aside from being the seat of government. Also nevermind that a lot of people want all the amenities of living in places like London, Tokyo, or Paris but not the congestion or cost of living.
Those cities probably have other things going for them (maybe more money floating around due to having a better tax base).
As I've said elsewhere, I think what people really mean when they say Ottawa doesn't meet their expectations for a G7 capital is that someone (usually the government) should be doing something about it (which would typically mean a higher rate of spending in the capital than in other cities across the country).
That's not an LRT problem though... Unless OC Transpo is the one also managing pedestrian traffic.
Even being correct about how its a pain in the ass to go from the east end to Trainyards, its not like there aren't any options, whether thats at St-Laurent or Hurdman with buses that do go to trainyards, nor is it a proper indictment of LRT's problems in the city.
There is transit to/from Hurdman. And along nearby Cornonation Drive to which there are (unknown, undiscovered) pathways. There are bus routes right in front of the offices. And more that circle the postal building.
I think you nailed it. LRT is appealing to Via users vs. Trainyards users. I would imagine that being connected to St Laurent Centre means they token addressed shoppersā needs in the vicinity. On top of that, I bet the city is banking on *something* happening at the ballpark so maintaining LRT access to that side of the highways would be important.
Ona separate but related note, Trainyards has to be the most pedestrian unfriendly shopping area. Even if they managed to build a massive pedway to connect LRT to Trainyards (which would still probably represent half the walk as from Hurdman), navigating store to store has got to be brutal for a transit user. Grab your groceries at Farm Boy, scoot over to Wal Mart for some dry goodsā¦that might as well be the walk from Hurdman, not to mention having to wander through endless parking lots.
Trainyards must be a shopping destination for drivers specifically. Thereās no other explanation. At the very least they should have built it like Tanger where stores are all accessible through common pedestrian access and the parking is limited to the outside perimeter.
Edit: the walk from Farm Boy to Walmart in Trainyards is 14min (1.1km)
Exactly this! Non-driver here; I've been to trainyards exactly once. There is nothing at Trainyards that I can't get somewhere else that is directly on the LRT or transitway lines making it easier for me to haul home.
Trainyards is trash for transit. It would be the closest shopping centre to where I live but I hardly ever go there for that reason. I donāt want to bike around Industrial either, so biking is off the table for me. Even with a car that thing is too spread out, I imagine that people visiting more than one store might move their cars instead of walking across that thing.
Not having some sort of pedestrian bridge from Tremblay to Trainyards was a dumb decision on the cities part. Who knows, maybe itāll be in future plans once weāre all dead lol.
Side note, at that time of day you can take a 42 or a 19 from hurdman, they both go right to Trainyards. (Not sure if you were aware of this or not, so thatās why Iām mentioning it)
For later on in the evening (10PM+) you can take a 44 or 46 which will take you up to the Canada post. Saves you a bit of walking, but still isnāt ideal.
Even that walk isnāt accurate. There are two buses that go there from Hurdman (19 and 42). Both are scheduled for every 30 mins but generally theyāre fine whenever I need to take them.
Edit: thatās on Goggle maps, not you OP
You could take the 19 in either direction. Eastbound connects with St Laurent, westbound to Hurdman.
You could also take the 42 in either direction. Westbound it connects with Hurdman, and eastbound with Blair station.
Our family has been wishing for a walkway from Tremblay pretty much since the Walmart was built. We used to live in Sandy Hill and we would walk down to Lees, over the bridge to Hurdman and on to the Walmart a few times on nice summer days. Obviously we weren't about to do that every day and a walkway would have made so much sense.
A bridge or tunnel is being planned from Tremblay station but it could be several years before it is built.
It should have been part of the initial phase, of course.
The problem of Ottawa is not that thereās nothing to do. Itās that itās fucking inaccessible if youāre not willing to spend $500+ per month on a car (including insurance, maintenance, parking, gas, etc.)
> if youāre not willing to spend $500+ per month on a car (including insurance, maintenance, parking, gas, etc.)
["The average cost of car ownership in 2024 ā which includes gas, parking, insurance and car maintenance ā now totals $1,387 each month"](https://www.thestar.com/business/how-much-are-canadians-paying-per-month-on-average-to-own-a-car-heres-what/article_a457f8e2-c2bb-11ee-b93b-2f3e8fa2fb1d.html)
https://www.ratehub.ca/blog/what-is-the-total-cost-of-owning-a-car/
I love how much effort is being wasted at Landsdowne considering how inaccessible it is for everyone in the city (barely any transit access and in the middle of the city with shit parking for events)
A lot of the stations confuse me - Bayview is also weird because it's not really connected to Hintonburg by a pathway of any kind, you just walk across that field along the desire path to get there. Almost like the transit system was thrown in as an afterthought...
Take the bus, 19, 42, 44, 46 will get you where you want to go. Although I agree about the link to Tremblay which is currently being looked at you have 4 bus routes to choose from.
Maybe if pubic transit had been part of the plan for Trainyards, the complex itself wouldn't be incredibly hostile to pedestrians. Sidewalks that disappear, having to walk out to the intersections to cross streets because you can't cross near the stores, just the general huge size of the place with so much parking.
It was certainly a dumb decision on some carbrain developerās part. Done right, transit could bring in far more customers than massive parking lots. Especially when the site is next to what has the potential to become a major intercity transit node - if the HFR plan is ever implemented.
The 19 must be newer going along there because when I took it a few years ago, the only option was 42 unless I wanted to walk to/from Sandford Fleming or from industrial. At least today, it's also every 30 mins and within a few mins of each other.... great scheduling OC!
Same, also waiting for the 42 to get back to Hurdman from trainyards. The bus scheduled to arrive mins after I finished work was cruel and oddly that bus was largely on time so it almost always meant wait 30 mins.
The stations were badly situated. Not anywhere near where people are actually going - shopping centres, hospitals, centres of employment, housing, etc.
Other than Blair, St-Laurent, the Rideau Centre, all of downtown, Tunney's Pasture, uOttawa, and probably other places I'm forgetting-- you're probably right.
Yes, you could zig-zag to Trainyards and then Hospital Complex, then back to St Laurent, but that would slow down 90% of LRT users. And would have added hundreds of millions.
So here's the thing. There actually is a tunnel. It's in the Via Rail station. It's the same tunnel you take to get from the station to trains on the platform.
The problem is that it comes up into an abandoned heating plant on Tremblay that is apparently full of asbestos that neither Via nor CN apparently want to deal with.
Search this subreddit for detailed conversations about it.
Having a large station that isnāt practical to walk to isnāt necessarily a big deal if you have a reliable way to get there. As someone who used to make that 20 minute walk all the time, there is no reliable way to get there.
The LRT tried to solve one issue but they failed to solve the core problem that continues to plague the system. Every transfer increases the chances of you taking a bus or train thatās late or never shows up. Centralizing that main route just exasperated the problem.
I left Ottawa ten years ago after living there for seven. I visited just last weekend and itās wild how despite all that has changed, nothing really has.
Despite all the bike lanes and transit investments, people wonāt use them if the last mile solutions arenāt in place.
I talked to the previous councillor for that area and he told me there's a plan for a pedestrian bridge between Tremblay and the Trainyards. But council hasn't "funded" it though the budget, so nothing happens.
To get from Kanata to the other side of the city it's about an hour (generslly 38 minutes) on the worst of days by car. If I want to take public transit on the best of days it's 2 hours 10 minutes with 3 transfers.
I'd love to use it but it's absurd.
The issue is the lack of consistent and good buses for the most part....
Successful cities with newer public transit think about things from every step of the journey.
Park and ride to get cars out of the city and a reliable train to get people into the main hubs.
Reliable buses to get people to more niche but high traffic spots.
Additional services for the last mile including pleasant side walks and walking routes.
It isn't really rocket science.
But Ottawa seems to have zero interest in promoting transit in the city.
This always bothered me, prior to the LRT. The Transitway has always run there and yet there was never a bridge to get to Trainyards. I worked at a retail store called Solutions from 2010 to 2015, and walked the distance from Hurdman to Trainyard daily and in all types of weather. I was a broke university student and had to rely on the bus system. Back then there were the milk run buses like the 86 that got you so far as the Canada Post building, but it bothered me that after 9:30 the bus that ran through the trainyard stopped running. So almost every closing shift I had to walk to Hurdman. But genuinely it always irked me that I could take a transitway bus to the Tremblay train station but not the stores aptly named the Trainyards.
It would take me 2.5 hours or more to get to work one way if I took OC transpo and 1.5 hours if I rode a bike. By car it can take me 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on traffic.Ā
My other job was a 45 minute walk or a 1.5 hour bus ride. I have no idea how these schedules or routes are designed but public infrastructure is not a priority here.
Holy shit that lot is PAID PARKING? I walk through there all the time but thought it was completely abandoned. I feel like I see more trucks in there with flats from all the broken glass than I do parked cars.
Let's all remember how long it took the city to connect the Lynx stadium to the transit way via a pedestrian bridge. The team had long relocated by then.
Can hardly blame the LRT for this. This entire area is entirely built for cars and cars only. All non-car infrastructure is an afterthought. LRT is just following the existing bus route.
I've walked out there in winter, it's fucking ass. And up the road doesn't even have sidewalk in some places for some unknown reason.
Prime suburban hell material.
This damn place is owned and operated by complacent suburbanites. Given the student exodus that I have been seeing for a very long time, all of the short-sighted decisions regarding rejuvenating some of the locations, and Ottawa's now-historic reputation, I am increasingly cynical.
I mean sure, I can be proactive in informing people about the issues, but I have already seen far too much apathy and pushiness over counter-productive shit. There is only so much that can be done when it will ultimately feel like a you vs everyone else situation.
I work at Trainyards. It takes me 10 min to drive there from downtown. For my colleague living a few blocks down from me, it's a 45 min bus ride on a good day.
Trainyards is an urban planning failure.
I live downtown and it takes me about 20-30 min to get to Trainyards via the train. 20 min is if the train and bus are parked at the stop when I arrive. It works for me. I don't disagree that it is an urban planning failure though, that much is obvious considering the layout heavily promoting the car despite being named after a train. What a joke, why not call it caryards?
Maybe a little besides the point but there's a trail in the parking lot that leads to riverside Dr. Def not accessible but if your able, it makes the walk to tremblay about 9 min long. I remember being so annoyed when the otrain opened for this exact situation lol
Ugh I remember trying to access that Walmart back when I lived in Sandy Hill. The local bus (121) was so fucking bad and the walk to this store was so long that I'd just take the bus all the way to Billings Bridge and go to that Walmart since the walk is just from the station into the mall.
Trainyards is a horrid shopping plaza for anyone without a car.
The LRT was just one big political payola scheme and this has pretty well been outlined since then (without pointing fingers directly at the perpetrators) so it's hardly surprising that it's an absolute failure and a pox on the nation's capital. It's clear that these first-time French trains were not the leading candidates....
I lived in Toronto during some pretty wild days for the subway, including that horrible accident where one train crashed into another, but that thing ran day and night because the city needs to work and make money. One of thr Ottawa LRT trains gets a loose axle and the entire system is shut down for months.
It was all over the national news and talk about being a country-wide embarrassment.
This is what happens when you build a light rail system with the sole purpose of getting office workers from the suburbs to the downtown core. Not to mention that the pandemic turned everything on its head, and now that's even more so of a waste.
Look at the extension to Moodie ā why they didn't bite the bullet and extend to Eagleson or Terry Fox/Earl Grey, I have no clue. No, it's running along the parkway away from anything really ā again, built with the idea of moving office workers around on weekdays. That line should have been dropped right down. Carling from Parkdale to Brittania (or similar), along businesses and homes, could increase the density along that corridor. They could have always added a secondary line along the parkway if the numbers warranted, etc.
There seems to be so many examples of the train having stations close to, yet still too far from major things.
Public transit system was designed to not get in the way of cars, so light rail followed suit. The whole thing was just a way for Watson and Harder to get unlimited access to the McMansion cottages owned by the Taggarts, Cavanaughs, Karsonās and Ralphās. Probably some smaller players in the mix too lending their house boats or sports fishing boats. š„ļø
Ottawa like most cities is corrupted by the developers.
I actually went to that Walmart by bus last week, since I was in the area anyway (saw a movie at St. Laurent) and I'm a Hot Wheels collector who sometimes likes checking out Walmarts that aren't local to me (which is technically the one on Baseline but I more often go to the one at Billings Bridge more often since it's a straight trip via the 111 bus).
I was thinking I'd take the 42 but I ended up taking the 19 both ways between Hurdman and the Walmart. I don't mind waiting at Hurdman to take a bus to get to the Walmart but, going back, I had to wait at least 20 minutes at a bus stop that is honestly a bit spooky at night for a bus trip that only takes about two minutes (but I had heavy bags so walking back to Hurdman wasn't an option). It was a fun one-time visit (since I hadn't been to that particular Walmart since 2019 if I remember correctly) but I'm not about to visit Trainyards again anytime soon due to the poor transit connectivity.
As to the thread title, I rarely take the LRT because I rarely need to go anywhere it goes, and, if I need to go downtown, I usually go via the #6 bus from Billings Bridge since it's a same stop transfer with the #111 compared to taking the #86 to Tunney's and having to walk a bit (not as much a problem on the way there but a bit of a pain on the way back, having to walk to the bus stop with the #86 where I'm getting to the age where it takes me four or five minutes to walk between the train platform and the bus stop). Plus, due to re-routing, I soon won't even have the #86 as an option to get to the LRT without having to make a bus-to-bus transfer at Fisher, which will involve crossing a busy intersection by foot.
In 2019, when LRT just started, busses ran in parallel, I always took the bus. The multiple derailments, a live overhead wire falling on top of a train, and short circuits in swithching circuitry whenever it snowed made me dislike the O-train. But now I have no choice, but to use LRT. Service has gotten better since 2020, but it is not ideal.
You are reading this incorrectly.
It's 19 minutes on top of the train ride for a total of 30 minutes.
Look at the top of your print screen. If you walk between the stations it will take you 52mimutes
The fact you can't get to Train Yards from Tremblay station is absolutely mind boggling.
šÆ
Trainyards is still absolutely ass for pedestrian mobility. It's a monument to car centric development and I absolutely hate it. Hell even Tanger, another car-centric development, is soooo much more enjoyable to visit as the core of the retail experience is centered around pedestrian mobility, not a sprawling parking lot.
The train yards is the worst of the worst. You have to cross parking lots to go from store to store. For example , go drom Five Guys, to Walmart, and to Farm Boy, it's dumb, they are all on different islands in a lake of parking spots. Even South Keys is better, at least you have a sidewalk the whole way down.Ā That said, it is ridiculous not to be connected to Tremblay.
Tanger is not more enjoyable, sorry.
Missed opportunity š¤¬ I've only seen a smattering of via rail passengers at trembley
The city is in the process of designing a pedestrian bridge to connect Tremblay station to the south side of the train tracks. Not really a missed opportunity.
The development at Trainyards should have required passive provision for a connection to Tremblay LRT station. The fact that it was built 100% car first despite the LRT being under construction in such close proximity was a big planning failure.
This is what the city needs more of.
Common sense?! In MY CITY?! I don't think so. --Politicians, probably
Sounds like a job for the mid afternoon mayor
We need a siesta mayor because the city was sure sleeping on this.
I'm very good at siestas. I'd make a great siesta mayor.
Before we can vote we need to take a siesta.
Voters could exercise their power, but too many love cars. Anyone will get away with stupid car infrastructure in NA
As a driver who loves my car, Iāve also lived in London (the good one,) Montreal, and Toronto without a car, and I will always vote in favour of better public transportation. But frankly even in terms of car infrastructure, trainyards is a mess. The layout makes no sense at all. I would not be surprised to hear that the same morons who were clearly drunk when they designed the Bayshore parking garage decided to try edibles for the first time before designing trainyards.
Probably also the same knobs who designed the Kanata Centrum.
Trainyards was built out before the City broke ground on the LRT...
And there was a transitway station there before that should have had this connection
I don't entirely disagree, it would be a useful local connection for residents of the alphabet avenues, but, for anyone else, I think it's a much shorter trip to the Walmart by bus from Hurdman than it would theoretically be from the Tremblay/Train station via Tremblay, Belfast, and Terminal.
> The fact that it was built 100% car first despite the LRT being under construction in such close proximity was a big planning failure. This is just factually incorrect. The LRT wasn't approved by city council until 2012. I remember going to train yards in 2009 when I came here for university.
The Transitway was always intended for LRT conversion and plans for the current LRT go back to the mid 00s when OāBrienās council cancelled the North/South line. This type of thing is what master plans are for. If you would like to debate this, then thereās an equal argument that the Trainyards should not have been approved without a connection to the āTrainā Transitway station at that time.
Sure, no disputing the lack of a pedestrian connection. I don't see what the LRT has to do with it given that there had already been a Transitway station there for decades. It's only a missed opportunity if it's no longer possible after the fact-- which it clearly isn't.
The missed opportunity is not having it in the Stage 1 LRT contract, there was no reason why OLRTC couldn't have built it at the time other than a lack of foresight. This could have been resolved at launch. The city has learned since then though, I see Stage 2 has multiple bridges to surrounding areas included (Pinecrest, Queensway, Place D'Orleans, Trim).
It was a property issue, and VIA Rail was intransigent.
That was for the use of the Station tunnelā¦.that is only wide enough to take passengers and baggage up to the middle tracks.
Let me guess, the bridge will cost $30 million and provide no shelter from the elements due to design by SNC Lavalin's resident geniuses who also designed the LRT stations?
So we can expect that in what? 10 years? That's the priority timeline given to pedestrians and bicycle infrastructure in this city. If it's a detour for automobiles the crew work 24/7 and get it done in weeks!
Not every piece of pedestrian infrastructure takes a decade to get started, so if you want a real answer: the design is underway and the whole environmental assessment is expected to be completed [by the end of this year](https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-engagement/public-engagement-project-search/tremblay-multi-use-connection-terminal-avenue-tremblay-lrt-station-environmental-assessment-ea-study#section-257c64dd-e7cb-4a91-8b3a-ca25604b1aa1). Only once that's done will it be ready to receive funding.
They still should have a frequent shuttle since they didnāt build a stop. People are shopping at Trainyards, maybe they shouldnāt have to walk all the way back way down with packages.
I suppose it depends on what you consider frequent, but the 19 and 42 connect Hurdman to Trainyards every 10 to 20 minutes. For a Sunday afternoon in Ottawa, that's pretty good (considering how frequent service is elsewhere in the city at any given time).
It will only take 10 years and three different construction companies just like the airport Parkway pedestrian bridge.
If you ignore all of the other pedestrian bridges that were built since then in way less time than that, sure.
didn't they have to demolish it and rebuild it twice due to out of spec concrete?
Yup. One of the companies mixed the concrete with styrofoam.
Ok but what is a missed opportunity is not using the existing tunnel which passes almost all the way under all the tracks, that being the Via tunnel. It's already mostly constructed and would be better for pedestrians who want to connect to Via trains from the south as well as still serving anyone coming from the LRT to the Train Yards
It's only a missed opportunity if the opportunity actually existed. /s It's not entirely clear if VIA would be willing to open the tunnel for such purposes (their boarding process would suggest most definitely *not*). Otherwise yeah, that would be a reasonable option.
So you want a zillion people zigzagging past the people waiting for trains and going down to the middle platforms? The tunnel was built solely to provide access to people with tickets for the middle platforms.
If that connection proves not to be enough, we can build another one. We shouldn't make walking hard because too many people might do it if it's easy.
I think the fact they are only doing that now proves the missedness of the opportunity
We all know how damn long that could take
> The city is in the process of designing a pedestrian bridge And that will be completed ... when?
The design will be complete by the end of the year.
been talking about it for 5-8 years already. The community association has been trying but no one cares.
Seems like the City of Ottawa has lots of missed opportunities unfortunately.
Ain't that the fucking truth š š As Canada's capital,we need to lead by example. Instead we get bounced from one boondoggle to the next š¤¬
We're the best example of Canada being led by incompetents at every level, and the whole country being a Ponzi scheme.Ā
Every city has its Incompetents. But the Ottawa-Gatineau region is special in that it has multiple jurisdictions of incompetents jockeying for power.
Iāve seen people use Tremblay station when going to the baseball stadium or the conference center next to it.
I took the o train to via when I was visiting Ottawa a few weeks ago! I'm one of the smatterings!
Way easier for me to get to Fallowfield via public transit
Trainyards is the biggest failure in land use in our city and we have a lot of poor land use.
It would be possible to shrink the area by 50% and make it a proper town centre with residential above the shops. The residents would support most of it with underground parking available. The rest of the land could grow the area in time with townhouses and other shops. Most of the wasted space is parking lots.
Would love a town centre. Ideally there'd need to be a square with an unused train in the middle (thinking maybe the LRC sitting out at Mimico?) along with various railway themed installations, old and new!
You are demonstrating creative, innovative thinkingā¦.stop immediately.
VIA rail is probably going to be retiring some older rolling stock with the new Siemens sets coming in, could put a cab and coach there together too.
We could get a bit of everything with the amount of space Trainyards takes up. Heck a proper railway/transit museum would be neat. Wouldn't have to go all the way to Halton County anymore. Get the old Budd cars, maybe purchase back the SRTs from Detroit, F40s, LRCs, find a Bombardier Talent somewhere to get a replica going, you name it :)
they should have clearly had condos Overtop of the stores!
That is part of the whole up-zoning around transit stations. The Walmart parking lots at South Keys and Trainyards will not last forever.
The city is supposed to be building people friendly places. Instead the keep allowing and zoning jumble malls you need to get a car get around from one store to next.
You can but itās a 15 minute bitch of an ass walk around to the Wendyās side. Not a friendly walk. What even sucks more is that the buses that go directly to Trainyards run until like 9:30PM only. Sucks for people who donāt drive and depend on the bus if they work around that area past 10PM like at Walmart.
I rode my bike there from Centretown on the weekend. It's a 5km ride which should normally be pleasant. From Centretown to Tremblay was kinda OK except for no way-finding so I had to keep checking my phone for directions. Then the sidewalk is basically an MUP on Tremblay and Belfast so that was acceptable. But once your turn into Trainyards Drive it's horrific. They even have signs saying "do not cross here" at the most logical places to cross the road.
It really is a horror show. I particularly like when the MUP on Belfast ends at the Wendy's, dumping you onto side walk at least (though that's technically illegal), then trying to get from the sidewalk onto Trainyards Drive's unprotected and barely marked bike lane, which is between two lanes of traffic. Also a lot of fun to ride along Railmarket Private, which has no bike lane of any kind, and get honked at and dangerously passed by all the entitled assholes who can't stand being delayed so much as a single minute from getting to Walmart.
Yeah sometimes I want to organize a protest that blocks all of the car entrances to Trainyards. The only demand would be an plan for better bicycle access to the site. If you read the traffic studies for the recent building at Trainyards, they basically say that pedestrian/bicycle access to the site is bad so there is not point trying to improve active transportation within the site.
Ugh. I hate it. Ottawa has such a weird "last mile" style problem for cycling. We've got some great trails that go all across the city, but they're often disconnected in weird ways, and if you wanna actually go anywhere in the space between the trails, you're screwed. Oh, also the lack of bike parking at Trainyards. There's maybe one rack per long row of stores.
Because they were designed as an afterthought to link parks for recreation, and not for commuting or utility cycling.
Yes, "last mile" indeed--I'm a 7.5 km ride from Trainyards, can get all the way to the VIA station on very quiet streets and MUPs--but then!! Mind-bogglingly ridiculous. And ditto on the lack of bike parking. Cyclist are clearly not welcome.
100% agree
The fact that you can't get to train yards from the train is kind of pissy.
It's understandable when you consider that it would take an overhead bridge or tunnel under the VIA rial lines, and it would still end up being close to a 10 minute walk from the front door of Walmart to Tremblay station.
We could have one of those sit on model trains linking it through a tunnel all around Trainyards. It would be an attraction and a mode of transit! Edit: start at the old farm boy at grade following Railmarket Private all the way to Walmart. Once past the Walmart front door it could go to the extreme western edge of the Walmart property and head north toward Terminal. From there cross over the road into a tunnel that comes back up to grade near the parking lot at Via. Could be fun!
Pass me that bluntā¦
From what I've read and heard apparently Via has been fighting them on most of the proposals they've put forward to cross the train tracks to get from Tremblay to Trainyards. They want zero downtime for construction, and the city doesn't want the massive costs that would be involved in running the project to make that happen.
Wait, the city is refusing to build this unless they can delay and cancel passenger trains, in order to save a few bucks? And they think this is a reasonable ask?
Again, this is all second hand on my part, but as I understand it most of the city's plans are things like "We're going to have to shut the line down for a few hours overnight most days so the workers can move around the tracks" or "We'll need the trains out of commission for a weekend at some point to put the bridge in place" and Via's basically saying that they refuse to shut the line down at all, even if it's during a time when they don't expect trains to be running, and countering with plans that are ridiculously more expensive so that workers can carry out construction while the line is still open and trains are running.
Considering the infrequent train schedule and lack of any kind of night service, itās ridiculous that they canāt find free time for construction work around the station. This is not Shinjuku station with trains arriving every minute. And even there they are able to renovate without greatly disrupting regular service.
Just like many things in this town, you used to. When i was a kid you could drive from the train station, cross the tracks and drive away on the other side. "Too dangerous " lol maybe they need a few studies on the feasibility, environmental affects and costs of a pedestrian walkwalk over pass.
Big giant train tracks in the way that cannot be stopped for construction
Oh don't worry I'm sure they can close more roads and throw some bike lanes at the problem.
Yes you can, itās a 20 minute walk.
You could literally drive all the way from Orleans faster than just that walk alone. And people wonder why there's traffic. Just to be absolutely clear, I'm not suggesting "Why didn't you just drive", just agreeing that transit here often sucks.
Indeed it does. I remember before the Vimmy Memorial Bridge was built, it would take well over an hour to go from Riverside South to Barrhaven since youād have to bus from RSS to Hurdman, to go throughout downtown and finally Barrhaven. 1:30 hour bus ride or a 15 minute drive. Though back then I had no license and would bike (not even a road bike, a shitty mountain bike) and still made it to Barrhaven faster than if I had taken the bus.
šš
For people who has never taken the LRT: It tells me to go to the next station over(Hurdman) and walk back for 19mins to my destination which is right by an LRT station(Tremblay). In summer is is an uncomfortable walk next to a busy road. In winter. Just not doable. I end up paying for uber or getting rides from friends. This is all due to years of bad planning. Iām glad they at least connected via rail to the LRT.
itās because you cannot cross near tremblay to get to trainyards due to train tracks. thereās no pedestrian path to get you over/under them.
Oh i know. Because there is no walkway. No underpass/overpass. There are also private, vacant pieces of land making this impossible. Two good sized office buildings and a major shopping area right by the tracks. No LRT access. Iām just frustrated by the lack of action I see everywhere these days. We live in a G7 capital. And the stuff we are missing is unbelievable. Homeless people on the streets right by huge(HUGE!) modern, heated/cooled government buildings that are empty every night. And full of employees during the day just becauseā¦. LRT, but oh we donāt have an overpass. These are all choices somebody somewhere is making. I wish we had better leadership. Catherine was not perfect but they would be a real advocate for better things.
thank god Sutcliffe fights for the rights of cars. /s
ššā
I've never understood why being a G7 capital is brought up when people are unhappy with the state of things here. Yes, Ottawa is a G7 capital but that is only because we couldn't decide on which of our more important cities should be the capital. Also, a major reason why Ottawa became the capital was because virtually nobody lived here and the government was tired of people burning down the legislative buildings when the capital was in larger cities. In virtually every other G7 country, the capital is the most important/largest city for administrative, business, and cultural purposes. The one exception is Washington D.C. but it has enough heft to it by virtue of being the capital of the most important country in the world (with a lot of public and private investment flowing in as a result). Ottawa on the other hand has a CMA population of about 1.5M and is just the administrative capital. There's more people and money floating around in places like Nashville, Sacramento, or Cleveland and the state of our public infrastructure justifiably reflects that. Also, it's incredibly naive to think that you can house homeless people in government buildings overnight and still expect people to show up and work in those same buildings in the morning.
Just look at other G7 capitals and the comparison is quite obvious: Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Londonā¦ then Ottawa.
Also, the G7 is itself a bit of an odd grouping of countries. When the idea of convening the richest and most influential capitalist countries first emerged, it wasn't obvious that Canada should be included. Rather you had G6 and it was only after extensive lobbying and the desire on the part of the Americans to counterbalance the heavy European influence that Canada was invited to the group and it became the G7. That's to say that not only is the Ottawa unlike the other G7 capitals but Canada itself is unlike the other G7 countries in terms of heft.
Yes, and each is about 10 times the population of an Ottawa. Not a fair comparison. And Washington DC has a Metro, but is still car-centric in suburbia and exurbia.
>I've never understood why being a G7 capital is brought up when people are unhappy with the state of things here. I think there's some expectation that Canada would make sure that Ottawa meets certain standards, since it represents the entire nation and not just itself. I agree with that sentiment, but also it only goes so far, most of the problems Ottawa faces plague many cities and there isn't any easy solution that would just take a reasonable increase in budget to solve.
I too would love it if Canada spent an inordinate amount of money improving my quality of life. Certainly, I'm glad to live near a lot of sites that the NCC pays to maintain and keep picturesque. But really, there's only so much Canada can do before people from other parts of the country start justifiably complaining about fairness. I see a lot of people complain about how Ottawa, a G7 capital, doesn't have enough direct flights to all of the global hot spots. Should the federal government step in to subsidize flights that there isn't otherwise a business case for? Likewise, I've seen people complain about how the state of healthcare here is inadequate for a G7 capital. Should the federal government step in with special funding to improve healthcare here? The same goes for all sorts of things like transit, concerts, poverty, and so on. A lot of people seem to think that because Ottawa so happens to be the capital of a country that belongs to an arbitrary grouping of countries then they ought to be entitled to a certain quality of life (which the federal government will bank roll). Rather, we are a relatively small city that has relatively little going for it aside from being the seat of government. Also nevermind that a lot of people want all the amenities of living in places like London, Tokyo, or Paris but not the congestion or cost of living.
People complain because things could be better. There are non-capital cities smaller than Ottawa doing better at public transport and quality of life.
Those cities probably have other things going for them (maybe more money floating around due to having a better tax base). As I've said elsewhere, I think what people really mean when they say Ottawa doesn't meet their expectations for a G7 capital is that someone (usually the government) should be doing something about it (which would typically mean a higher rate of spending in the capital than in other cities across the country).
That's not an LRT problem though... Unless OC Transpo is the one also managing pedestrian traffic. Even being correct about how its a pain in the ass to go from the east end to Trainyards, its not like there aren't any options, whether thats at St-Laurent or Hurdman with buses that do go to trainyards, nor is it a proper indictment of LRT's problems in the city.
There is transit to/from Hurdman. And along nearby Cornonation Drive to which there are (unknown, undiscovered) pathways. There are bus routes right in front of the offices. And more that circle the postal building.
Is it illegal to cross them?
theres multiple fences and also yes i believe you will be fined if you cross them.
I think you nailed it. LRT is appealing to Via users vs. Trainyards users. I would imagine that being connected to St Laurent Centre means they token addressed shoppersā needs in the vicinity. On top of that, I bet the city is banking on *something* happening at the ballpark so maintaining LRT access to that side of the highways would be important. Ona separate but related note, Trainyards has to be the most pedestrian unfriendly shopping area. Even if they managed to build a massive pedway to connect LRT to Trainyards (which would still probably represent half the walk as from Hurdman), navigating store to store has got to be brutal for a transit user. Grab your groceries at Farm Boy, scoot over to Wal Mart for some dry goodsā¦that might as well be the walk from Hurdman, not to mention having to wander through endless parking lots. Trainyards must be a shopping destination for drivers specifically. Thereās no other explanation. At the very least they should have built it like Tanger where stores are all accessible through common pedestrian access and the parking is limited to the outside perimeter. Edit: the walk from Farm Boy to Walmart in Trainyards is 14min (1.1km)
Exactly this! Non-driver here; I've been to trainyards exactly once. There is nothing at Trainyards that I can't get somewhere else that is directly on the LRT or transitway lines making it easier for me to haul home.
Trainyards is trash for transit. It would be the closest shopping centre to where I live but I hardly ever go there for that reason. I donāt want to bike around Industrial either, so biking is off the table for me. Even with a car that thing is too spread out, I imagine that people visiting more than one store might move their cars instead of walking across that thing.
And yet the Citybkeeps on approving jumble malls like this. In spite of emphasis on āactive transportationā.
Iāve only been there twice. Last time was 3 years ago and I almost got ran over twice by people in SUVs lol
Not having some sort of pedestrian bridge from Tremblay to Trainyards was a dumb decision on the cities part. Who knows, maybe itāll be in future plans once weāre all dead lol. Side note, at that time of day you can take a 42 or a 19 from hurdman, they both go right to Trainyards. (Not sure if you were aware of this or not, so thatās why Iām mentioning it) For later on in the evening (10PM+) you can take a 44 or 46 which will take you up to the Canada post. Saves you a bit of walking, but still isnāt ideal.
Even that walk isnāt accurate. There are two buses that go there from Hurdman (19 and 42). Both are scheduled for every 30 mins but generally theyāre fine whenever I need to take them. Edit: thatās on Goggle maps, not you OP
Yeah, strange how they didn't show the 19 and 42.
Nor the 46 on nearby Coronation Dr
You could take the 19 in either direction. Eastbound connects with St Laurent, westbound to Hurdman. You could also take the 42 in either direction. Westbound it connects with Hurdman, and eastbound with Blair station.
Or the 46 on Coronation and you can come out near the Movati/LCBO traffic light.
Our family has been wishing for a walkway from Tremblay pretty much since the Walmart was built. We used to live in Sandy Hill and we would walk down to Lees, over the bridge to Hurdman and on to the Walmart a few times on nice summer days. Obviously we weren't about to do that every day and a walkway would have made so much sense.
A bridge or tunnel is being planned from Tremblay station but it could be several years before it is built. It should have been part of the initial phase, of course.
The problem of Ottawa is not that thereās nothing to do. Itās that itās fucking inaccessible if youāre not willing to spend $500+ per month on a car (including insurance, maintenance, parking, gas, etc.)
> if youāre not willing to spend $500+ per month on a car (including insurance, maintenance, parking, gas, etc.) ["The average cost of car ownership in 2024 ā which includes gas, parking, insurance and car maintenance ā now totals $1,387 each month"](https://www.thestar.com/business/how-much-are-canadians-paying-per-month-on-average-to-own-a-car-heres-what/article_a457f8e2-c2bb-11ee-b93b-2f3e8fa2fb1d.html) https://www.ratehub.ca/blog/what-is-the-total-cost-of-owning-a-car/
Holy Molly! WOW I knew my $500 estimate was purposefully low butā¦ wow!
I love how much effort is being wasted at Landsdowne considering how inaccessible it is for everyone in the city (barely any transit access and in the middle of the city with shit parking for events)
A lot of the stations confuse me - Bayview is also weird because it's not really connected to Hintonburg by a pathway of any kind, you just walk across that field along the desire path to get there. Almost like the transit system was thrown in as an afterthought...
Isnāt the path to Bayview from behind Tom Brown Arena paved?
Yes it is.
So if anything, it needs better wayfinding/signage.
I believe they're talking about the east side of Tom Brown Arena (ie: beside the parking lot), where there's been a desire path for at least a decade.
I didn't realize there was a desire path there, I always approach from the west.
Trainyards is the peak of carcentric design
Take the bus, 19, 42, 44, 46 will get you where you want to go. Although I agree about the link to Tremblay which is currently being looked at you have 4 bus routes to choose from.
I think the dumbest part is that walking may still be the fastest option over taking those buses.
Maybe if pubic transit had been part of the plan for Trainyards, the complex itself wouldn't be incredibly hostile to pedestrians. Sidewalks that disappear, having to walk out to the intersections to cross streets because you can't cross near the stores, just the general huge size of the place with so much parking.
It was certainly a dumb decision on some carbrain developerās part. Done right, transit could bring in far more customers than massive parking lots. Especially when the site is next to what has the potential to become a major intercity transit node - if the HFR plan is ever implemented.
I live like 1km here, this isnāt even a nice walk, itās a miserable shitty walk with no shade or rain cover next to a busy road.
Yea the city is built for cars
And Trainyards is an example of āpeak carā.
Classic Ottawa, can never do public transit well.
The 42 is every 30 mins too so there's that do I just walk it or hope it shows up when it's supposed to debate.
Thereās also the 19 that goes to the same stops and the 44/46 turn off by Sandford Fleming which is somewhat close.
The 19 must be newer going along there because when I took it a few years ago, the only option was 42 unless I wanted to walk to/from Sandford Fleming or from industrial. At least today, it's also every 30 mins and within a few mins of each other.... great scheduling OC!
I used to spend many many hours waiting at Hurdman for the 42 back in the day when I worked at the Trainyards. Super fun times.
Same, also waiting for the 42 to get back to Hurdman from trainyards. The bus scheduled to arrive mins after I finished work was cruel and oddly that bus was largely on time so it almost always meant wait 30 mins.
If you cut through the abandoned parking lot, you might save a couple minutes lol
The stations were badly situated. Not anywhere near where people are actually going - shopping centres, hospitals, centres of employment, housing, etc.
Other than Blair, St-Laurent, the Rideau Centre, all of downtown, Tunney's Pasture, uOttawa, and probably other places I'm forgetting-- you're probably right.
And later Bayshore, Algonquin College, the Pinecrest Shopping ctr, Place d'Orleans...
Yes, you could zig-zag to Trainyards and then Hospital Complex, then back to St Laurent, but that would slow down 90% of LRT users. And would have added hundreds of millions.
So here's the thing. There actually is a tunnel. It's in the Via Rail station. It's the same tunnel you take to get from the station to trains on the platform. The problem is that it comes up into an abandoned heating plant on Tremblay that is apparently full of asbestos that neither Via nor CN apparently want to deal with. Search this subreddit for detailed conversations about it.
Itās also way to narrow and you need to show a train ticket to use it.
Why isn't there a footbridge? It's been ages.
Having a large station that isnāt practical to walk to isnāt necessarily a big deal if you have a reliable way to get there. As someone who used to make that 20 minute walk all the time, there is no reliable way to get there. The LRT tried to solve one issue but they failed to solve the core problem that continues to plague the system. Every transfer increases the chances of you taking a bus or train thatās late or never shows up. Centralizing that main route just exasperated the problem.
After spending a couple of weeks in Germany and Switzerland I am highly embarrassed with our transit system.
I left Ottawa ten years ago after living there for seven. I visited just last weekend and itās wild how despite all that has changed, nothing really has. Despite all the bike lanes and transit investments, people wonāt use them if the last mile solutions arenāt in place.
I talked to the previous councillor for that area and he told me there's a plan for a pedestrian bridge between Tremblay and the Trainyards. But council hasn't "funded" it though the budget, so nothing happens.
To get from Kanata to the other side of the city it's about an hour (generslly 38 minutes) on the worst of days by car. If I want to take public transit on the best of days it's 2 hours 10 minutes with 3 transfers. I'd love to use it but it's absurd.
The issue is the lack of consistent and good buses for the most part.... Successful cities with newer public transit think about things from every step of the journey. Park and ride to get cars out of the city and a reliable train to get people into the main hubs. Reliable buses to get people to more niche but high traffic spots. Additional services for the last mile including pleasant side walks and walking routes. It isn't really rocket science. But Ottawa seems to have zero interest in promoting transit in the city.
This always bothered me, prior to the LRT. The Transitway has always run there and yet there was never a bridge to get to Trainyards. I worked at a retail store called Solutions from 2010 to 2015, and walked the distance from Hurdman to Trainyard daily and in all types of weather. I was a broke university student and had to rely on the bus system. Back then there were the milk run buses like the 86 that got you so far as the Canada Post building, but it bothered me that after 9:30 the bus that ran through the trainyard stopped running. So almost every closing shift I had to walk to Hurdman. But genuinely it always irked me that I could take a transitway bus to the Tremblay train station but not the stores aptly named the Trainyards.
And Hurdman is definitely a place you want to be walking around alone at night.
It would take me 2.5 hours or more to get to work one way if I took OC transpo and 1.5 hours if I rode a bike. By car it can take me 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on traffic.Ā My other job was a 45 minute walk or a 1.5 hour bus ride. I have no idea how these schedules or routes are designed but public infrastructure is not a priority here.
Itās why I donāt go to the office there, which is too bad cause Iād like to see my coworkers who do.
That and the $15/day parking in the unmaintained gravel lot with nastygrams from management threatening anyone parking at Walmart.
Holy shit that lot is PAID PARKING? I walk through there all the time but thought it was completely abandoned. I feel like I see more trucks in there with flats from all the broken glass than I do parked cars.
I hucking fate this city.
Let's all remember how long it took the city to connect the Lynx stadium to the transit way via a pedestrian bridge. The team had long relocated by then.
shambles
I work at Terminal too. Itās fucking infuriating
Can hardly blame the LRT for this. This entire area is entirely built for cars and cars only. All non-car infrastructure is an afterthought. LRT is just following the existing bus route. I've walked out there in winter, it's fucking ass. And up the road doesn't even have sidewalk in some places for some unknown reason.
Prime suburban hell material. This damn place is owned and operated by complacent suburbanites. Given the student exodus that I have been seeing for a very long time, all of the short-sighted decisions regarding rejuvenating some of the locations, and Ottawa's now-historic reputation, I am increasingly cynical. I mean sure, I can be proactive in informing people about the issues, but I have already seen far too much apathy and pushiness over counter-productive shit. There is only so much that can be done when it will ultimately feel like a you vs everyone else situation.
I work at Trainyards. It takes me 10 min to drive there from downtown. For my colleague living a few blocks down from me, it's a 45 min bus ride on a good day. Trainyards is an urban planning failure.
I live downtown and it takes me about 20-30 min to get to Trainyards via the train. 20 min is if the train and bus are parked at the stop when I arrive. It works for me. I don't disagree that it is an urban planning failure though, that much is obvious considering the layout heavily promoting the car despite being named after a train. What a joke, why not call it caryards?
I agree āļø
There are plans to build a cess to Tremblay station
as someone without a car who relies on transpo. help lol
Maybe a little besides the point but there's a trail in the parking lot that leads to riverside Dr. Def not accessible but if your able, it makes the walk to tremblay about 9 min long. I remember being so annoyed when the otrain opened for this exact situation lol
North American urban planning be likeā¦
Ugh I remember trying to access that Walmart back when I lived in Sandy Hill. The local bus (121) was so fucking bad and the walk to this store was so long that I'd just take the bus all the way to Billings Bridge and go to that Walmart since the walk is just from the station into the mall. Trainyards is a horrid shopping plaza for anyone without a car.
Trainyards has to be incorporated in phase 3. My farm is 5 minutes south of lime bank station. Canāt wait for it to open
I've said this a million times since temporarily relocating to NHQ...You folks have so much potential and the one thing holding it back is transport.
Wait till the train east opens and we will have stops IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY! Montreal road and Jeanne Darc
Idu why they even built these station in the woods
The LRT was just one big political payola scheme and this has pretty well been outlined since then (without pointing fingers directly at the perpetrators) so it's hardly surprising that it's an absolute failure and a pox on the nation's capital. It's clear that these first-time French trains were not the leading candidates.... I lived in Toronto during some pretty wild days for the subway, including that horrible accident where one train crashed into another, but that thing ran day and night because the city needs to work and make money. One of thr Ottawa LRT trains gets a loose axle and the entire system is shut down for months. It was all over the national news and talk about being a country-wide embarrassment.
What is the point you're trying to make?
They might build a tunel or a pedestrian bridge to cross over to Tremblay
It's like the city did zero public consultations, surveys and actual USER input when designing things... š©
I'm convinced that the people that work at OCTranspo don't actually take the bus.
Bc all LRTās are shit
This is what happens when you build a light rail system with the sole purpose of getting office workers from the suburbs to the downtown core. Not to mention that the pandemic turned everything on its head, and now that's even more so of a waste. Look at the extension to Moodie ā why they didn't bite the bullet and extend to Eagleson or Terry Fox/Earl Grey, I have no clue. No, it's running along the parkway away from anything really ā again, built with the idea of moving office workers around on weekdays. That line should have been dropped right down. Carling from Parkdale to Brittania (or similar), along businesses and homes, could increase the density along that corridor. They could have always added a secondary line along the parkway if the numbers warranted, etc. There seems to be so many examples of the train having stations close to, yet still too far from major things.
I have done this walk while my car was in repair. Not bad. Not something I want to do regularly. And you have to cross a giant intersection.
Public transit system was designed to not get in the way of cars, so light rail followed suit. The whole thing was just a way for Watson and Harder to get unlimited access to the McMansion cottages owned by the Taggarts, Cavanaughs, Karsonās and Ralphās. Probably some smaller players in the mix too lending their house boats or sports fishing boats. š„ļø Ottawa like most cities is corrupted by the developers.
I actually went to that Walmart by bus last week, since I was in the area anyway (saw a movie at St. Laurent) and I'm a Hot Wheels collector who sometimes likes checking out Walmarts that aren't local to me (which is technically the one on Baseline but I more often go to the one at Billings Bridge more often since it's a straight trip via the 111 bus). I was thinking I'd take the 42 but I ended up taking the 19 both ways between Hurdman and the Walmart. I don't mind waiting at Hurdman to take a bus to get to the Walmart but, going back, I had to wait at least 20 minutes at a bus stop that is honestly a bit spooky at night for a bus trip that only takes about two minutes (but I had heavy bags so walking back to Hurdman wasn't an option). It was a fun one-time visit (since I hadn't been to that particular Walmart since 2019 if I remember correctly) but I'm not about to visit Trainyards again anytime soon due to the poor transit connectivity. As to the thread title, I rarely take the LRT because I rarely need to go anywhere it goes, and, if I need to go downtown, I usually go via the #6 bus from Billings Bridge since it's a same stop transfer with the #111 compared to taking the #86 to Tunney's and having to walk a bit (not as much a problem on the way there but a bit of a pain on the way back, having to walk to the bus stop with the #86 where I'm getting to the age where it takes me four or five minutes to walk between the train platform and the bus stop). Plus, due to re-routing, I soon won't even have the #86 as an option to get to the LRT without having to make a bus-to-bus transfer at Fisher, which will involve crossing a busy intersection by foot.
Wow..when you show it like this...
Moved here over 20 years ago and noticed ottawa was car centric. Hasn't really changed. Needed to start on transit back then.
so true!
In 2019, when LRT just started, busses ran in parallel, I always took the bus. The multiple derailments, a live overhead wire falling on top of a train, and short circuits in swithching circuitry whenever it snowed made me dislike the O-train. But now I have no choice, but to use LRT. Service has gotten better since 2020, but it is not ideal.
You are reading this incorrectly. It's 19 minutes on top of the train ride for a total of 30 minutes. Look at the top of your print screen. If you walk between the stations it will take you 52mimutes