3:41 The under construction building in the station is for a coffee shop of the same brand as in rideau station. It and the one under construction at tunney's pasture station were paused due to the pandemic. I'm not sure of when they are supposed to open now.
Happy Goat! It's nice that Ottawa is prioritizing a good local business instead of contracting out to a Tim's Express or Starbucks. Between Happy Goat and Bridgehead, Ottawa has good choice for local coffee chains.
@@RMTransit Tunney's Pasture is also getting a Happy Goat Coffee shop on the concourse level and I wouldn't be surprised if more locations open up in new stations on the east/west expansion once they're up and running too.
Not the best station design. Eye catching and big yes, but the amount of walking (or running) you need to do to catch a bus connection is sometimes really annoying. There's only a portion of the platforms that is covered by a roof and it's a glaring issue during inclement weather. Should have been built over top of the a bus loop rather than next to it, but It's my understanding that the NCC wouldn't give them more land to the east to work with.
It truly is a horribly designed station, and I don't understand giving it praise other than for its grandeur. Those open staircases are dangerous in the winter/spring with the amount of snow and rain that can come in
The bus stop terminus is absolutely awfully designed for transfer. The plaza to the platforms comes into the platform at ONE END of the platform. And then the bus base Extend away from the platform. This means riders have long walks to catch busses and riders will congregate at one end and board one of the cars of the train. The designers of the OTrain Fcked up horribly on the people flow management in the stations. You want the station platform entrances in the middle of the platform not one END. This is a wide spread design flaw at most of the platforms at a majority of the stations including all the central heavily used ones, Hurdman, Rideau, Bayview. The mayor said that Bayview was already at capacity BEFORE line two was started to be expanded!! There are big people flow upgrades required in the system as a whole.
I use Hurdman station daily. This was designed for looks not use. 1) as many have pointed out, long long long walks. If you are taking the transitway south, walk 1/3 the distance, if you want anything local, walk to the far end. 2) signage, yes there are timetables at each stop, but if one is getting off the train, and wants to know if a bus is about to leave, you either go to the entrance, walking away from the buses, or you wait until you walked to your stop. 3) platform size O Train. at this time great, but pre covid often the platforms would be packed. If they are running only single track, which happened a lot in the early days, then no room at all. 4) walkways, that scaffolding was not originally there. That was put in about the second to third week because people had no choice but to walk on the road. this at least doubled the walking area. 1 big change and two minor changes would have made the difference. A flow through platform, with stairs going down to the middle of the bus area would have been a big change but would make the station more commuter friendly. Signage on the stairs coming down telling you buses as you are walking to the stop. Putting the bus stops under the tracks for protection from the elements. Shiny and pretty it is, designed for people to walk/cycle to yes but for the daily commuter, terrible. Maybe after the southern transitway gets trains it will become better fewer buses needed here and more people walking/cycling up.
The old bus terminal was a center oval, which allowed for more shared (and heated) bus shelters, and shorter walks between platforms. But this layout didn't work with the LRT. There also isn't really much of a neighborhood near by, I lived in Alta Vista and the only reason to walk home was buses had stopped running late at night, otherwise its a 20 minite walk or a short bus ride.
The TOD plans for hurdman hope to change that. Their is a huge plan for more residential buildings near Hurdman. Unfortunately it slow to be introduced.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 problem is the TOD plans are from 2014 and not much has been done to them. Most Tod the focus is on Tunney’s and Lebreton and those haven’t seen much progress yet
Hurdman is one of my favourite stations on the route and probably the one that makes the line feel more like a light metro than an LRT - at least until you get to track level :) I agree with the other commentators on the bus bays being too far apart.
I do like the entrance plazas with large gathering spaces. That's missing on the Edmonton LRT. Even when they rebuilt Clareview they left no space at entrance level, just stairs and ramps that lead to an area that in winter becomes a scary/sandy ice rink...
I've got bad memories of this iteration of Hurdman when I lived in Vanier (which is North of this station). Despite it being the closest station to the neighbourhood, the bus servicing it is at the far end of the bus platform, which can be five minutes away through crowds on the narrow platform and narrower scaffolding during rush hour in winter. Once on the bus, it's ten minutes up the Vanier Parkway, but you usually are stuck waiting a full cycle for the next bus at the station. Does it still arrive around 3-5 minutes after the digital schedule says it's supposed to?
One problem with this station is that some routes that go south (e.g. 97, 98, 99) are at a different stop from others going south (e.g. 44, 46, 90, 92). The stops are far enough apart that you can't wait for buses at two or more simultaneously. They should organize the stops so each stop is for buses going in a different direction.
I think you're supposed to wait in-between platform stops when you have a choice between two routes that serve adjacent stops... At Tunney's, I have to choose between 4 stops which is the best route to next take....
Thanks to cost cuts, that covered walkway behind the bus shelters is now gone, if your bus leaves from the 5th shelter down... good... f*cking luck ig idk lol
why is there so few people, it's because the footage is recorded so early on the morning or is it really this "crowded" xD. So empty for such a big station
Ottawa is a government town where a significant portion of people commuted from the suburbs to downtown for work. With Covid, LOTS of people are working from home, so the system has not recovered its usual ridership. It's sitting at 30-40% of its usual ridership.
Hurdman is a busier station... but, in summer, students also aren't in school; and spring, fewer post-secondary students are in school. When I'm at the station, I usually do see dozens of people at a time.
In response to ml.mielke, we must also add that they chose these trams because they got a "good" deal as the first city to operate such vehicles and station construction is slightly cheaper.
I wish they had designed this station like Sheppard West station in Toronto, where the bus loop goes around the building. It cuts down on so much walking.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 Only the tracks east of the station are on raised earth. The rest of it is elevated with space to drive and exist underneath.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 I don't accept that reason... It would have been better to have BRT under and LRT traverse east and south via the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor instead.
@@mlmielke I agree, and they could have raised the whole structure. Someone else (maybe you) said the NCC wouldn't grant them the land they needed to do that. I was just saying as the LRT was built there isn't a way to go under on the east.
The Happy Goat Coffee shop is STILL NOT OPEN and under construction...it's been over a year now. As a regular transit user that uses this station all the time I now call it "Turdman". There is SO much wrong with this station its an embarrassment. The bus loop is a terrible design meant to make things more convenient for the buses, not the people using them. The platforms up top are a wind tunnel and freezing in all but the middle of summer. The coffee place looks like it will never open and is permanently under construction (which sucks because I need coffee in the morning!) and the "temporary" scaffolding that serves as a walkway has been up for four years now and show no signs of being replaced. It's ugly and now falling apart because it's temporary scaffolding. I should also point out it's directly next to an elevated guideway...why not just put the walkway under the guideway?!? The station is terrible from a transit user perspective and no one is taking responsibility to improve it.
such a crap design when you have to go 200m to catch a bus after taking the train, should have had the O-train centralized and buses stop directly under and all around a la previous hurdman. Also the "construction" is for a Happy Goat Coffee place that was supposed to be done ohhhh nearly 2 years ago but typical "covid" excuses.
The bus shelters and platform design have major issues. Hurdman is pretty desolate because it's an old landfill site so not much can be built on it and there aren't many large trees so the wind can be quite bad in the winter. The platforms are super exposed to the wind so in the winter it can be a very uncomfortable wait. But the bus shelters are even worse. The semi-temporary walkway behind them was put in because pre-pandemic the station was super busy and those bus stops are very exposed to the elements and didn't have enough room to allow people to circulate to their buses at rush hour. It's basically just a miserable station in the winter all around. They should have put the walkway under the guideway and enclosed it with some glass to give more shelter. There's nothing currently under the guideway in that area so it's a mystery to my why they built scaffolding instead of just pave a walkway under the guideway.
The walk way at the back was added because they hadn’t planned for falling ice The stairs being open to elements get slippery way to easy And the walk is way to long it’s pretty rough to watch a disabled person have to walk a whole field distance just to be independent
The Bus area was very crowded in the before-times, especially if you needed to grab a bus at the far end of bus area. That scaffolding caused more trouble than it was worth as it reduces flow
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 Before-times refers to before COVID (sorry should have specified that). It was way worse with the LRT because a lot of the walking space in the old oval configuration was taken up by the LRT station.
I wish they kept the bus loop and just connect it to the station. I mean the loop area is still there, why not just fill in the hole, put the bus station their and connect it to the station via a crossing.
It's always struck me as odd that the station wasn't designed with access to the bus loop originating from the back concourse headed underneath the elevated guideway.
They control access to they buses so that people don’t need to pay or show passes or transfers when boarding. It allows the buses to be boarded faster. That’s why one needs to pay to get into the fare zone even if they are just taking a bus. It’s terrible because one could lose up to a third of the available time of the transfer window if they just missed their bus and it only shows up every half hour. It’s even worse on weekends.
Although I'm a big fan of public transit - and the Ottawa LRT - I believe so much of the Confederation Line is of missed opportunities. Why are so many of the stations open to the elements? A simple overhead covering would have done so much to improve LRT use at the above-ground stations. And, yes, there's a lot of space around Hurdman but none of it for parking - paid or otherwise - and no "kiss-and-ride". Ottawans who don't have regular bus service, e.g., evenings and week-ends, have no convenient way to access the LRT stations then.
I'm so mad that the LRT project has dismantled the Island bus stations at major hubs that made transfers efficient, like with cross platform train transfers. Hurdman and Baseline to name specifics - and Baseline isn't even getting LRT for several more years yet about a decade ago they turned it from an efficient island to walkability hell. There's so much room at Hurdman, why isn't the station itself in the middle of an island? So. Mad. I love trains but this is so dumb, I feel hated. I miss the iconic red shelters
I lived in Alta Vista towers before I moved away from Ottawa, so Hurdman was "my stop" at the time. Interesting to see it now that the O-Train is coming through! The bus loop always felt like a long walk coming in at one end of it from Alta Vista st, but at least it was double sided at the time... :)
I went to this station numerous times since the first day of otrain opening, primarily for work to Gatineau, but have been living in Toronto for close to 2 years now because of COVID lol, government allows me to work from home for the time being so yeah...
The station is really nice. It was a regular part of my commute for the last year I lived in Ottawa. All busses dumped you right by the entrance to the station and the whole building is lovely and bright. My only blight with the station is how long the bus terminal is. When I was going to school my bus connection was the second last station so I always had to sprint for the bus. Which really sucks in the winter
This station has the common theme of the LRT where the Train portion of the station is excellent and the bus portion seems like an after thaught of just a few free standing shelters slapped down like they forgot the station needed to serve busses. The bust portion is so badly designed that they needed to add the scafolding path at the back because there where so many people on the platform that people where walking on the road to get to busses. The orginal hurdman bus station was 100x better then the current bus portion of the train station with lots more sheltered areas and seating. Having all the bus platforms in a row is really terrible if your bus is at the last one. or closer to the end. YOu can be at the station and still miss a bus due to the distance.
This is because it was built in part of the Greenbelt of protected lands surrounding downtown. It's certainly not ideal, and as a result of the station’s isolation it was notorious for crime in the past. At night there were few eyes on the station and few people hanging around waiting for buses. This made it easy for teen gangs to swarm passengers, steal things and be gone before transit police could arrive on scene. I’m not sure if that’s still the case with the new station. Any kind of development nearby that would encourage people to pass through the area - especially at night would certainly help to mitigate this problem. But because the land is protected, it can’t be sold to real estate developers. It’s a tricky situation.
One thing I noticed which I thought was odd, given that you said that the station gets a lot of ridership each day, is that there are no shops, and not even a vending machine of some kind. This really seems like a missed business opportunity to me, given that there doesn't appear to be any kind of mall or city center near to the station where passengers can otherwise get there food and drinks.
As others have said, a Happy Goat Cafe is planned for the station, but COVID delayed its opening. The land around the station is an abandoned landfill owned by the NCC, and likely won’t be developed for over a century, given the pace that they operate.
It’s a nice looking station and at least it ties buses into the station complex, but I just don’t understand this North American allergy to building transport to places people actually want to get to. It looks deserted apart from the extremely tall condo buildings in the distance, could the station not have been tied into the centre of that area. To be fair, I don’t know the area so it could be there is a population centre just out of sight, but every time I’m in n america it always seems so odd how the airports aren’t tied into the subway system properly or large cities have mainline train service on the edge of the city. Shame too because NY, Philly, DC, LA etc have some of the most beautiful (& huge) stations in the world
It comes down to how the transitway was designed. The station placement is in an old landfill area, so construction is limited by pollution factors. As well, the north and west of the station is a riverside park that follows the Rideau River north to south, so no development nor roads there except for pathways. And finally, because of the way the transitway(BRT) towards the south was designed as well as the road access to the east was designed, buildings are unable to be built much closer. Therefore, apart from bus connection or bike connection, it is not possible for Hurdman to be highly developed until the municipal government and the NCC (a federal organization that owns the park) come to an agreement to change the rules. But it has to be said that Hurdman by it's design serves as the station for most of South-East Ottawa
How often does the Green Line stop the entire line.... here in Ottawa, it's continued operations (with a temporary diversion other cities only wish they could do); STM often totally stops the line, end to end. Point: reliability is a perception, and there are things that go into that perception that make a less reliable system appear more reliable and a more reliable system appear less reliable.
I wish Florida had inclosed bus stops! The heat is NUTS! I know FL dosent get as bad as other places that snow but we do get bone chilling cold. its basiclly the same thing.
The construction was planned to be a happy goat café, such as the one at rideau station. This was however pre-pandemic and who knows whats the plan atm.
I have good memories of the stations when I worked at OC Transpo. I can tell you that the customer planning people are fine folks, and the stage 2 stations are going to be real treats! To answer you're question, I believe the hut under construction may be retail space, but I do not remember exactly which of the stage 1 stations have retail footage.
I discovered your channel recently and have been enjoying your videos. Would love to see a vid on Lisbon metro. Unique system with the metro and cable trams.
@@mlmielke ya but I thought the happy goat contact was for when the confed line was finished. I could be wrong I don't exactly worry about what coffee company is In the station lol 😅
@@coleclemenhagen6546 No, they won the Stage 1 contract, and already serve Blair and Rideau; just have to open up a finished build at Tunney's Pasture and Hurdman.
Backed up for kilometres upon kilometres.... Hurdman was a choke point, direct cause. I've seen many bus messes at Hurdman as a result of that arrangement.
The layout was better because the buses went around the station, so the average walk to a stop was much shorter. But they decided they'd rather make the station so it has a stagnant pond in the middle. Too bad they couldn't have put the LRT station right in the centre and have the buses go around it.
It was pretty good back then. But in 2011 Mayor Jim Watson implemented what he called "optimizations" (cuts) to the system and the service took a bit of a nose dive. Hasn't been the same since, imo. Edit: typos.
@@danc1513 I wasn't aware. To me, at the time, that was a good gold standard for transit. Unfortunate that they cut it like that... it was shaping up to be a world-class system that was great!
@@BattlestarCanada A lot of those... I would say were planned to be altered before 2010 due to suburban growth; Watson just happened to be the Mayor at the time during its execution. Prior to that 2011 execution, it was just a slower cut process; 2011 just pushed a bunch more all at once.
So much room all around the station for mixed use high density development. Where are the coffee shops, and bodegas? the offices and the apartments? Someone is missing a huge trick.
3:41 The under construction building in the station is for a coffee shop of the same brand as in rideau station. It and the one under construction at tunney's pasture station were paused due to the pandemic. I'm not sure of when they are supposed to open now.
Happy Goat! It's nice that Ottawa is prioritizing a good local business instead of contracting out to a Tim's Express or Starbucks. Between Happy Goat and Bridgehead, Ottawa has good choice for local coffee chains.
Love a good in-station coffee shop!
Just thought I'd add that there was also a Happy Goat kiosk at Blair station last time I was there, which was admittedly quite a while ago.
Happy goat won the contact for the kiosks on the whole system
@@RMTransit Tunney's Pasture is also getting a Happy Goat Coffee shop on the concourse level and I wouldn't be surprised if more locations open up in new stations on the east/west expansion once they're up and running too.
Not the best station design. Eye catching and big yes, but the amount of walking (or running) you need to do to catch a bus connection is sometimes really annoying. There's only a portion of the platforms that is covered by a roof and it's a glaring issue during inclement weather. Should have been built over top of the a bus loop rather than next to it, but It's my understanding that the NCC wouldn't give them more land to the east to work with.
It truly is a horribly designed station, and I don't understand giving it praise other than for its grandeur. Those open staircases are dangerous in the winter/spring with the amount of snow and rain that can come in
Definitely easy on the eyes if not very efficient!
But I would say that the walk is minimal and transfers to the nearby hospital is excellent
The bus stop terminus is absolutely awfully designed for transfer. The plaza to the platforms comes into the platform at ONE END of the platform. And then the bus base Extend away from the platform. This means riders have long walks to catch busses and riders will congregate at one end and board one of the cars of the train. The designers of the OTrain Fcked up horribly on the people flow management in the stations. You want the station platform entrances in the middle of the platform not one END. This is a wide spread design flaw at most of the platforms at a majority of the stations including all the central heavily used ones, Hurdman, Rideau, Bayview. The mayor said that Bayview was already at capacity BEFORE line two was started to be expanded!! There are big people flow upgrades required in the system as a whole.
It feels like Hurdman was designed by a vehicle traffic engineer and an accountant and not a true transit engineer.
I use Hurdman station daily. This was designed for looks not use.
1) as many have pointed out, long long long walks. If you are taking the transitway south, walk 1/3 the distance, if you want anything local, walk to the far end.
2) signage, yes there are timetables at each stop, but if one is getting off the train, and wants to know if a bus is about to leave, you either go to the entrance, walking away from the buses, or you wait until you walked to your stop.
3) platform size O Train. at this time great, but pre covid often the platforms would be packed. If they are running only single track, which happened a lot in the early days, then no room at all.
4) walkways, that scaffolding was not originally there. That was put in about the second to third week because people had no choice but to walk on the road. this at least doubled the walking area.
1 big change and two minor changes would have made the difference. A flow through platform, with stairs going down to the middle of the bus area would have been a big change but would make the station more commuter friendly. Signage on the stairs coming down telling you buses as you are walking to the stop. Putting the bus stops under the tracks for protection from the elements.
Shiny and pretty it is, designed for people to walk/cycle to yes but for the daily commuter, terrible. Maybe after the southern transitway gets trains it will become better fewer buses needed here and more people walking/cycling up.
The old bus terminal was a center oval, which allowed for more shared (and heated) bus shelters, and shorter walks between platforms. But this layout didn't work with the LRT.
There also isn't really much of a neighborhood near by, I lived in Alta Vista and the only reason to walk home was buses had stopped running late at night, otherwise its a 20 minite walk or a short bus ride.
The TOD plans for hurdman hope to change that. Their is a huge plan for more residential buildings near Hurdman. Unfortunately it slow to be introduced.
@@Kishanth.J I haven't seen those! That's great news, I hope they build something actually dense.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 problem is the TOD plans are from 2014 and not much has been done to them. Most Tod the focus is on Tunney’s and Lebreton and those haven’t seen much progress yet
Hopefully more will come!
@@RMTransit We'll see how many developers are willing to with the NCC and flood plain constraints... not to mention, being an old landfill.
I really like that the station requires a good cardio workout for catching your bus after getting off the train.
3:46 I think that's where a Happy Goat coffee shop is supposed to go.
Hurdman is one of my favourite stations on the route and probably the one that makes the line feel more like a light metro than an LRT - at least until you get to track level :) I agree with the other commentators on the bus bays being too far apart.
I do like the entrance plazas with large gathering spaces. That's missing on the Edmonton LRT. Even when they rebuilt Clareview they left no space at entrance level, just stairs and ramps that lead to an area that in winter becomes a scary/sandy ice rink...
was just here last night. love this station.
I've got bad memories of this iteration of Hurdman when I lived in Vanier (which is North of this station). Despite it being the closest station to the neighbourhood, the bus servicing it is at the far end of the bus platform, which can be five minutes away through crowds on the narrow platform and narrower scaffolding during rush hour in winter. Once on the bus, it's ten minutes up the Vanier Parkway, but you usually are stuck waiting a full cycle for the next bus at the station. Does it still arrive around 3-5 minutes after the digital schedule says it's supposed to?
One problem with this station is that some routes that go south (e.g. 97, 98, 99) are at a different stop from others going south (e.g. 44, 46, 90, 92). The stops are far enough apart that you can't wait for buses at two or more simultaneously. They should organize the stops so each stop is for buses going in a different direction.
I think you're supposed to wait in-between platform stops when you have a choice between two routes that serve adjacent stops... At Tunney's, I have to choose between 4 stops which is the best route to next take....
Thanks to cost cuts, that covered walkway behind the bus shelters is now gone, if your bus leaves from the 5th shelter down...
good... f*cking luck ig idk lol
why is there so few people, it's because the footage is recorded so early on the morning or is it really this "crowded" xD. So empty for such a big station
Ottawa is a government town where a significant portion of people commuted from the suburbs to downtown for work. With Covid, LOTS of people are working from home, so the system has not recovered its usual ridership. It's sitting at 30-40% of its usual ridership.
Hurdman is a busier station... but, in summer, students also aren't in school; and spring, fewer post-secondary students are in school. When I'm at the station, I usually do see dozens of people at a time.
With massive infrastructure like that, why are they using a low floor tram style vehicle?
Because extensions were planned to be at-grade.
In response to ml.mielke, we must also add that they chose these trams because they got a "good" deal as the first city to operate such vehicles and station construction is slightly cheaper.
@@jonb3286 I'd be curious more of that, if true?
First
Congrats!!
🥇🎉
Before the LRT, my Mantra was All Buses Lead to Hurdman
Now it's more like, "All trains lead to Bayview".
I wish they had designed this station like Sheppard West station in Toronto, where the bus loop goes around the building. It cuts down on so much walking.
The issue is the track is built on raised earth and not a bridge, so you can't drive a bus, or exist, under it.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 Only the tracks east of the station are on raised earth. The rest of it is elevated with space to drive and exist underneath.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 I don't accept that reason... It would have been better to have BRT under and LRT traverse east and south via the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor instead.
@@mlmielke I agree, and they could have raised the whole structure. Someone else (maybe you) said the NCC wouldn't grant them the land they needed to do that. I was just saying as the LRT was built there isn't a way to go under on the east.
There’s definitely better ways to design a more efficient bus interchange!
The Happy Goat Coffee shop is STILL NOT OPEN and under construction...it's been over a year now. As a regular transit user that uses this station all the time I now call it "Turdman". There is SO much wrong with this station its an embarrassment. The bus loop is a terrible design meant to make things more convenient for the buses, not the people using them. The platforms up top are a wind tunnel and freezing in all but the middle of summer. The coffee place looks like it will never open and is permanently under construction (which sucks because I need coffee in the morning!) and the "temporary" scaffolding that serves as a walkway has been up for four years now and show no signs of being replaced. It's ugly and now falling apart because it's temporary scaffolding. I should also point out it's directly next to an elevated guideway...why not just put the walkway under the guideway?!? The station is terrible from a transit user perspective and no one is taking responsibility to improve it.
such a crap design when you have to go 200m to catch a bus after taking the train, should have had the O-train centralized and buses stop directly under and all around a la previous hurdman. Also the "construction" is for a Happy Goat Coffee place that was supposed to be done ohhhh nearly 2 years ago but typical "covid" excuses.
The bus shelters and platform design have major issues. Hurdman is pretty desolate because it's an old landfill site so not much can be built on it and there aren't many large trees so the wind can be quite bad in the winter. The platforms are super exposed to the wind so in the winter it can be a very uncomfortable wait. But the bus shelters are even worse. The semi-temporary walkway behind them was put in because pre-pandemic the station was super busy and those bus stops are very exposed to the elements and didn't have enough room to allow people to circulate to their buses at rush hour. It's basically just a miserable station in the winter all around. They should have put the walkway under the guideway and enclosed it with some glass to give more shelter. There's nothing currently under the guideway in that area so it's a mystery to my why they built scaffolding instead of just pave a walkway under the guideway.
The walk way at the back was added because they hadn’t planned for falling ice
The stairs being open to elements get slippery way to easy
And the walk is way to long it’s pretty rough to watch a disabled person have to walk a whole field distance just to be independent
The Bus area was very crowded in the before-times, especially if you needed to grab a bus at the far end of bus area. That scaffolding caused more trouble than it was worth as it reduces flow
Before LRT or before Covid? Either way, yes
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 Before-times refers to before COVID (sorry should have specified that). It was way worse with the LRT because a lot of the walking space in the old oval configuration was taken up by the LRT station.
I wish they kept the bus loop and just connect it to the station. I mean the loop area is still there, why not just fill in the hole, put the bus station their and connect it to the station via a crossing.
@@Kishanth.J I agree, but Ottawa transit hates people walking on thier pavement it seems
Great insight!
It's always struck me as odd that the station wasn't designed with access to the bus loop originating from the back concourse headed underneath the elevated guideway.
They control access to they buses so that people don’t need to pay or show passes or transfers when boarding. It allows the buses to be boarded faster. That’s why one needs to pay to get into the fare zone even if they are just taking a bus. It’s terrible because one could lose up to a third of the available time of the transfer window if they just missed their bus and it only shows up every half hour. It’s even worse on weekends.
Although I'm a big fan of public transit - and the Ottawa LRT - I believe so much of the Confederation Line is of missed opportunities. Why are so many of the stations open to the elements? A simple overhead covering would have done so much to improve LRT use at the above-ground stations. And, yes, there's a lot of space around Hurdman but none of it for parking - paid or otherwise - and no "kiss-and-ride". Ottawans who don't have regular bus service, e.g., evenings and week-ends, have no convenient way to access the LRT stations then.
Where did you conclude that Hurdman has no Kiss-and-ride? It does.
I'm so mad that the LRT project has dismantled the Island bus stations at major hubs that made transfers efficient, like with cross platform train transfers. Hurdman and Baseline to name specifics - and Baseline isn't even getting LRT for several more years yet about a decade ago they turned it from an efficient island to walkability hell. There's so much room at Hurdman, why isn't the station itself in the middle of an island? So. Mad. I love trains but this is so dumb, I feel hated. I miss the iconic red shelters
Oh and lots of worry-free 1 seat journeys have been turned into 3-seaters with these platform monstrosities at the transfers points.
ive been there, a bit confusing but pretty nice
I lived in Alta Vista towers before I moved away from Ottawa, so Hurdman was "my stop" at the time. Interesting to see it now that the O-Train is coming through! The bus loop always felt like a long walk coming in at one end of it from Alta Vista st, but at least it was double sided at the time... :)
I went to this station numerous times since the first day of otrain opening, primarily for work to Gatineau, but have been living in Toronto for close to 2 years now because of COVID lol, government allows me to work from home for the time being so yeah...
It is terrible that Hurdman is surrounded by fields and expressways.
The station is really nice. It was a regular part of my commute for the last year I lived in Ottawa. All busses dumped you right by the entrance to the station and the whole building is lovely and bright. My only blight with the station is how long the bus terminal is. When I was going to school my bus connection was the second last station so I always had to sprint for the bus. Which really sucks in the winter
Beautiful I hope my country also have this kind of train stations
You should return on a cold winter day to see what the station is like for a typical transit user.
I used to take the O train to that station all the time when I went to the hospital there
This station has the common theme of the LRT where the Train portion of the station is excellent and the bus portion seems like an after thaught of just a few free standing shelters slapped down like they forgot the station needed to serve busses. The bust portion is so badly designed that they needed to add the scafolding path at the back because there where so many people on the platform that people where walking on the road to get to busses. The orginal hurdman bus station was 100x better then the current bus portion of the train station with lots more sheltered areas and seating. Having all the bus platforms in a row is really terrible if your bus is at the last one. or closer to the end. YOu can be at the station and still miss a bus due to the distance.
the under construction part is a coffee shop! a local ottawa one that will be put throughout different stations
Awesome . Go Canadian Transit Go ! Definitely the slanted walls . Great!
Going to be a scape goat coffee shop.
By multiuse path do you mean a bikeway shared with pedestrians? Why don't they give pedestrians their own path?
The term we use is Mixed Use Pathway. It isn't that high volume to necessarily warrant separation, but is quite used.
The distance to the buses is way too long!
As a European the most striking thing about this station is that there is *no development whatsoever* at or around the station itself...
This is because it was built in part of the Greenbelt of protected lands surrounding downtown. It's certainly not ideal, and as a result of the station’s isolation it was notorious for crime in the past. At night there were few eyes on the station and few people hanging around waiting for buses. This made it easy for teen gangs to swarm passengers, steal things and be gone before transit police could arrive on scene. I’m not sure if that’s still the case with the new station.
Any kind of development nearby that would encourage people to pass through the area - especially at night would certainly help to mitigate this problem. But because the land is protected, it can’t be sold to real estate developers. It’s a tricky situation.
One thing I noticed which I thought was odd, given that you said that the station gets a lot of ridership each day, is that there are no shops, and not even a vending machine of some kind. This really seems like a missed business opportunity to me, given that there doesn't appear to be any kind of mall or city center near to the station where passengers can otherwise get there food and drinks.
As others have said, a Happy Goat Cafe is planned for the station, but COVID delayed its opening. The land around the station is an abandoned landfill owned by the NCC, and likely won’t be developed for over a century, given the pace that they operate.
Great video
It’s a nice looking station and at least it ties buses into the station complex, but I just don’t understand this North American allergy to building transport to places people actually want to get to. It looks deserted apart from the extremely tall condo buildings in the distance, could the station not have been tied into the centre of that area. To be fair, I don’t know the area so it could be there is a population centre just out of sight, but every time I’m in n america it always seems so odd how the airports aren’t tied into the subway system properly or large cities have mainline train service on the edge of the city. Shame too because NY, Philly, DC, LA etc have some of the most beautiful (& huge) stations in the world
It comes down to how the transitway was designed. The station placement is in an old landfill area, so construction is limited by pollution factors. As well, the north and west of the station is a riverside park that follows the Rideau River north to south, so no development nor roads there except for pathways. And finally, because of the way the transitway(BRT) towards the south was designed as well as the road access to the east was designed, buildings are unable to be built much closer. Therefore, apart from bus connection or bike connection, it is not possible for Hurdman to be highly developed until the municipal government and the NCC (a federal organization that owns the park) come to an agreement to change the rules. But it has to be said that Hurdman by it's design serves as the station for most of South-East Ottawa
metrolinx really builts ugly stations
This is RTG not Metrolinx, both of which deserve to go into the shitter.
Is the Ottawa LRT bug free and at least as reliable as Montreal Metro
How often does the Green Line stop the entire line.... here in Ottawa, it's continued operations (with a temporary diversion other cities only wish they could do); STM often totally stops the line, end to end.
Point: reliability is a perception, and there are things that go into that perception that make a less reliable system appear more reliable and a more reliable system appear less reliable.
No (to the latter) and I don’t expect it to be as the metro has been open for decades and runs entirely underground!
I wish Florida had inclosed bus stops! The heat is NUTS! I know FL dosent get as bad as other places that snow but we do get bone chilling cold. its basiclly the same thing.
I liked the platform design yet strangely the rest reminds me of Circular Quay station in Sydney Australia
The construction was planned to be a happy goat café, such as the one at rideau station. This was however pre-pandemic and who knows whats the plan atm.
Hurdman station is very nice, I really love how they added the slanted wall it’s really cool!!
I have good memories of the stations when I worked at OC Transpo. I can tell you that the customer planning people are fine folks, and the stage 2 stations are going to be real treats! To answer you're question, I believe the hut under construction may be retail space, but I do not remember exactly which of the stage 1 stations have retail footage.
I discovered your channel recently and have been enjoying your videos. Would love to see a vid on Lisbon metro. Unique system with the metro and cable trams.
Nice video! I wish more outdoor stations would implement those slanted walls, as they really open up the platform area and make it feel less boxed-in.
Really wish they had kept having a store at the station like there was in the BRT days. It’s certainly busy enough to warrant one.
Some stations do have a retail location inside. Hurdman is one of them, but not yet open.
There will be. I believe it's set to open with the stage 2 extension
@@coleclemenhagen6546 Stage 2 is different here... it's whenever Happy Goat can get the construction justified to finish for the current stations.
@@mlmielke ya but I thought the happy goat contact was for when the confed line was finished. I could be wrong I don't exactly worry about what coffee company is In the station lol 😅
@@coleclemenhagen6546 No, they won the Stage 1 contract, and already serve Blair and Rideau; just have to open up a finished build at Tunney's Pasture and Hurdman.
The station was way better before the LRT and I don’t know if you been there but wow was crazy to see the amount of buses on rush hour
Backed up for kilometres upon kilometres.... Hurdman was a choke point, direct cause. I've seen many bus messes at Hurdman as a result of that arrangement.
The layout was better because the buses went around the station, so the average walk to a stop was much shorter. But they decided they'd rather make the station so it has a stagnant pond in the middle. Too bad they couldn't have put the LRT station right in the centre and have the buses go around it.
@@wizardsuth At least Algonquin Station tries to fix the Stage 1 hub Station problems for buses.
i like commuter trains and island platforms
Cross platform platforms, specifically.
@@mlmielke if there are more than one line, then cross platform. if there is one line, just one island platform.
@@goatgamer001 Yep... but have to prepare for cross platforms in design, or best to.
When I was in Ottawa in 2010's, I found the transit to be user-friendly and mostly timely.
It was pretty good back then. But in 2011 Mayor Jim Watson implemented what he called "optimizations" (cuts) to the system and the service took a bit of a nose dive. Hasn't been the same since, imo.
Edit: typos.
@@danc1513 I wasn't aware. To me, at the time, that was a good gold standard for transit. Unfortunate that they cut it like that... it was shaping up to be a world-class system that was great!
@@BattlestarCanada A lot of those... I would say were planned to be altered before 2010 due to suburban growth; Watson just happened to be the Mayor at the time during its execution. Prior to that 2011 execution, it was just a slower cut process; 2011 just pushed a bunch more all at once.
Second
🥈🎉
So much room all around the station for mixed use high density development. Where are the coffee shops, and bodegas? the offices and the apartments? Someone is missing a huge trick.