Been wondering for a while now. In the Montreal Metro, each station is staffed with at least one person in a fare booth selling tickets or whatnot and answering questions. Same in Toronto TTC subway.

From what I can see from the station designs most if not all in Ottawa will be unstaffed. But I thought I had read there would be one or two stations that would be. 

Any word on what the actual plans are?

im sure unstaffed is ok but there are times when a permanently staffed position can be beneficial as having a completely automated fare gate and entry system could leave people at a loss if they are having trouble getting in. I do suppose that the video chat on the vending machines is the planned solution to address this. 

I do think there should be a customer service physical presence in the stations or at least some of them. 

No, customer service staff.

Supervisors to help deal with traffic, crowding and etc are hired.

6 hours ago, CanadaGoose said:

No, customer service staff.

Supervisors to help deal with traffic, crowding and etc are hired.

Also, the ticket machines will have a help button that will connect you to a live attendant who can take control of the machine.  

I'd like to point out Vancouvers stations have been unstaffed from Day 1 and we've had faregates for a few years now, I've never heard of ANY issues. There are roaming safety officers etc on trains and some stations though.

Also worth noting Toronto is winding down having collectors in the stations and will be replacing them with roaming customer service people in stations. (Much better imo)

54 minutes ago, reecemartin said:

I'd like to point out Vancouvers stations have been unstaffed from Day 1 and we've had faregates for a few years now, I've never heard of ANY issues. There are roaming safety officers etc on trains and some stations though.

Also worth noting Toronto is winding down having collectors in the stations and will be replacing them with roaming customer service people in stations. (Much better imo)

Most (if not all) tube stations in London don't have collectors anymore either, but they do have a security guard at most (if not all) entrances who can help you if needed.  A much more flexible solution as they are free to deal with other issues since they aren't confined to a booth.

6 hours ago, Roger1818 said:

Most (if not all) tube stations in London don't have collectors anymore either, but they do have a security guard at most (if not all) entrances who can help you if needed.  

That is not the case. They are passing out fare collectors but all or most stations are constantly staffed with at least several members of staff. Not sure what you are referring to by security guard, but the British Transport Police does not count as they roam the system, and are not tied down to certain stations except with exceptions like large events, or if it is a very large station. In fact, they have added many staff in stations (mainly busy core stations) to be platform staff, to send off trains and to make platform announcements from the platform. Also, most stations have a control room that is constantly staffed. Another example of a city that is hiring new platform staff is the NYC subway.

4 hours ago, Charlie said:

That is not the case. They are passing out fare collectors but all or most stations are constantly staffed with at least several members of staff. Not sure what you are referring to by security guard, but the British Transport Police does not count as they roam the system, and are not tied down to certain stations except with exceptions like large events, or if it is a very large station. In fact, they have added many staff in stations (mainly busy core stations) to be platform staff, to send off trains and to make platform announcements from the platform. Also, most stations have a control room that is constantly staffed. Another example of a city that is hiring new platform staff is the NYC subway.

I was in London a month ago and many of the stations I went to didn't have ticket booths  (though looking back, there was one at Waterloo station).  I am not sure what his official title was, but on two separate occasions I saw the same "security" person (may have been British Transport Police, but I don't know) working at the same Paddington tube station entrance, and on both occasions he helped me with a transaction that I wasn't sure how to do (I also saw him similarly help others), so I assumed he was posted there to help and keep an eye on things.  I did notice a large security presence at the entrances.

I guess my original question was more staff at stations in general (I used the fare collectors as an example as they are typically one of the most visible staff presence). 

The overall picture I’m getting from the responses is the stations will not be staffed and assistance is available via the video chat on the vending machines. 

I guess the station layouts don’t lend themselves to having a permanent presence anyways. 

It's OC Transpo, everything they do is based on "budget". If it doesn't make sense to the public, it's because they needed to cut costs to fit their budgets.

Having staff will mean less cost savings to report to the city council.

Having cost savings and being under budget helps the city maintain their political targets of maintaining a 2% increase of property tax (that clearly doesn't match the inflation of their costs)