O-Train Line 2 [Stage 1 | Bayview to Greenboro] | In Service

[Richard Eade]

I agree that the old Red-tube and Glass Transitway shelters had some good points in their design.

I liked that the metal was mounted up on a concrete knee-wall. This saved it from a lot of damage during winter maintenance operations. Plows and salt would have destroyed the Red-tube and Glass in no time, had it not been protected. That said, the knee-wall could have been thicker, or included a suitable ‘lip’ so that it could also provide some additional seating.

I appreciated the fairly large amount of benches provided in the old shelters, and that they didn’t have dividers every few feet (to prevent lying down). There could have been some places that provided arm rests, however, because they are helpful to some who have difficulty getting up from sitting.

As stated, there was a combination of closed and open sections. The closed sections were relatively small, so they were easier to heat. [The long shelters provided at the ‘Temporary’ Baseline Station are useless for heat.]

I found that the glass roofs of the old Red-tube and Glass shelters was a bonus. The extra light they let in made the shelter seem less confining. When OC Transpo began exchanging the glass panels for aluminum ones (because of cost) the shelters began to feel much more ‘cave-like’. [I find it interesting that glass panels are again being used for over-head cover at the LRT stations. I suppose that OC Transpo figures that the replacement cost will fall on RTM. Of course, a big difference is that the new ‘shelters’ don’t use curved glass – so the new panels are much less expensive.]

But those old shelters were not perfect. The ‘Water-fall’ design of the roof was just that; a water-fall – or snow-/ice-fall – when there was precipitation. This was not pleasant for transit customers who wound up getting stalled during boarding – with water, or snow, being poured down their neck. The over-head shelter should have extended to over the buses. [Unfortunately, these might have needed modification when OC Transpo switched to Double-Deckers, since they would, likely, not have been originally built much higher than the, then current, buses.]

[I know that some will now bring up the tragic collision of the Double-Decker with the Westboro Station’s overhang. I suggest that, had the stations been properly designed, there would have been a proper ‘deflector’ included when the station was built. Such a safety requirement would have absolutely prevented any vehicle from mounting the platform.]