Station Design / Architecture

[DBellerive]

Small observation, but it seems nowhere on the network map or signage a station is refered to as "XXXXXXX station", but only as their name.

Except for one spot.

I cannot seem to find any picture of another station with a signage that matches this, but it will probably have to wait for us to be able to enter the network.

Also, each underground station has an "accent colour" on the platform level, likely an easy way for users to notice which station it is from a quick glance.

• Rideau: Blue
• Parliament: Green
• Lyon: Yellow

The accent colour is reflected on doors and walls at platform and concourse level, though it doesn't seem to be reflected in the entrance or outside, as this is uniform across the alignment.

[Corvulpes]

1 hour ago, DavidBellerive said:

• Rideau: Blue
• Parliament: Green
• Lyon: Yellow

The accent colour is reflected on doors and walls at platform and concourse level, though it doesn't seem to be reflected in the entrance or outside, as this is uniform across the alignment.

As a mnemonic device, I refer to them as river blue, copper patina green, and lion yellow. The colors are pretty close.

[J.OT13]

Walking down to uOttawa station last week, I noticed water fountains at the lower concourse level. That to me is a good feature and an important one, but I was disappointed that the fountains did not include water bottle filling stations that our common at City facilities. 

It got me thinking, do all stations have water fountains? Looking at the 3D tour of Blair, water fountains are provided near the washrooms in the bus level concourse. I was unable to find fountains at Lyon Station using the 3D tour nor did I see any at Cyrville in the video posted by Tim Tierney on Twitter July 27, 2019. 

I'm not particularly surprised for a low volume station such as Cyrville, but an important station such as Lyon should  have water fountain available. 

[Corvulpes]

I've only seen them at Blair and Bayview, but they're probably around at a few others. I think they didn't use the bottle filling type because they wouldn't work well when exposed to the elements (also vandalism), but that's just a guess.

[Jim Henry]

8 hours ago, Corvulpes said:

I've only seen them at Blair and Bayview, but they're probably around at a few others. I think they didn't use the bottle filling type because they wouldn't work well when exposed to the elements (also vandalism), but that's just a guess.

Speaking of vandalism, I walked by Lees Station on Sunday afternoon and saw one of the Glass panes beside the MUP had been destroyed. I don't know this was vandalism but wouldn't surprise me if it was.

[Corvulpes]

Many of those (a couple dozen at least) have broken throughout the line, not sure the cause. Too bad that one has art on it.

[DBellerive]

Yeah it is not the first time I see a broken one at Lees.

RTG / RTM still has a requirement to replacement them, both in regards to safety but also a requirement to keep everything “clean”.

What surprises me is how “courageous” some of them are to do vandalism on those things given the quite large number of cameras at each station! It’s one of the risks with any outside structure, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was considered by RTG while submitting their maintenance costs.

[J.OT13]

On 7/24/2019 at 4:13 AM, DavidBellerive said:

Small observation, but it seems nowhere on the network map or signage a station is refered to as "XXXXXXX station", but only as their name.

Except for one spot.

I cannot seem to find any picture of another station with a signage that matches this, but it will probably have to wait for us to be able to enter the network.

Also, each underground station has an "accent colour" on the platform level, likely an easy way for users to notice which station it is from a quick glance.

• Rideau: Blue
• Parliament: Green
• Lyon: Yellow

The accent colour is reflected on doors and walls at platform and concourse level, though it doesn't seem to be reflected in the entrance or outside, as this is uniform across the alignment.

I hadn't noticed the addition of "Station" on that lantern, at least it hadn't clicked that it was an oddity until you pointed it out. Can't say I've seen that anywhere else. Strange. 

Sad to see so much vandalism on the line. What a waste of resources. You would think people would at least respect the Lees art work. I hope OC Transpo monitors cameras at night and sends officers or OC security whenever they see someone  vandalize a station. Best consequences for anyone caught would be fines that cover the repairs (even if it is collected for RTM) or community service, such as cleaning the stations and/or pathways. 

[Corvulpes]

I'm not so sure it was vandalism. I've seen them broken in all kinds of locations, most inaccessible to public and some inaccessible to even staff. No way to be sure, but in my opinion it's most likely manufacture/install defect in most cases. 

[Shane]

Could it be due to torsion or too much tension on the glass from the mounts that eventually shatter/fracture the glass? Or an issue of the amount of glass being used that the framing of the stations has a tedency to torque the glass to break? Just speculation...

[Matth69000]

I believe it could be related to the heat we had during the last couple days. Heat puts stress on glass and some glass panels have "imperfections". Those "imperfections" are commonly related to the way the glass was treated, and often results in the apparition of air pockets (miniscule/microscopic but still there). When the air stuck inside the pockets expands with the heat, if the glass has too much of them, it could result in the glass shattering like in the photo. It's a phenomenon that happens quite frequently and that can't really be avoided. They'll have to replace them until they only have unfaulty ones everywhere on the entire system.

Also it cannot be the result of vandalism since there is no impact trace on the glass.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Matth69000

[DBellerive]

24 minutes ago, Matth69000 said:

Also it cannot be the result of vandalism since there is no impact trace on the glass.

At Lees it is the “inside” pane that was broken anyway, so even with an impact it would like result from work on the platform.

[Corvulpes]

I don't think it's heat related, I've seen broken glass in every month of the year. But some instances certainly could be.

[J.OT13]

Looking at Mike's render vs reality posts on the "Stations" sub-forum, some of those are pretty dramatic. While Blair is pretty close to the initial and evolved renderings, we can see the value engineering done to the Tremblay's ceiling. St-Laurent's rendering were never quite realistic since most of the brick had already been taken down a few years before the contract was awarded for Stage 1 (in an expensive refresh that was unnecessary considering the conversion was only a few years away). I do wish they would have maintained the bare-concrete ceiling instead of installing what looks like a cheap, partially completed ceiling. Designs for Cyrville and Rideau were severely valued engineered. Even compared to the final renderings for Rideau, the job looks rushed and materials suffered. From the ceiling material and geometry (discussed at length after the destruction of the ash wood) to the missing white panel over the escalator. 

Stage 2 designs have already been simplified to simple flat roofs. They could at least added a proper pitch, reducing maintenance, or greenery on the roofs as part of an effort to make the city more sustainable.  

[Shane]

It has been in the news quite a bit since last week... the floor tiles and stairs that become slippery when wet at Parliament and Lyon Stations.

I was out last Wednesday and I can confirm that they are slippery. While I did not fall, I did find the grip on the surface to be less than I would have expected or would want.

While riding today I did some observations and most if not all the stairs at Parliament and Lyon, as well as the floors are using this type of tile. However there seems to be a difference at Rideau Station, specifically the stairs going up from the "Longest Escalator" to inside Rideau and to the Rideau/Sussex entrance. I am not 100% sure but there seems to be something different with them, as they don't appear to be quite the same.

From my own experience, the office where I work (Federal Government), the floors are "apparently" anti-slip, which is usually the case. There was one winter where they had polished and sealed the floors and they became extremely slick that I slipped and went flying not even two steps off the elevator. I filed a complaint and they rectified the situation and never put the same polish on the floors again.

This brings me to my main point. Clearly the floor tiles in place are probably there to stay, as it would be a massive undertaking now that the stations are open to remove the tiles, and redo it all over. Massive but not impossible. As an alternative, from my experience at work, there seems to be compounds or sealants or whatnot that can be applied to floors for adhesion or traction. Is something like this able to effect the necessary change in the floor surface to reduce or rectify the wet floor grip issues?

Any other ideas how this could potentially be rectified, without a requiring a floor replacement?