Discussions on South Keys Station

I am not sure I understand. But will people travelling to and from the Airport have to change train at South Keys?

I guess that's what you get when you absolutely want to hire the lowest bidder.

Did they think about people with disabilities and senior citizens having mobility issues?

It is to be expected that a lot of people arriving at YOW will also have to change at Bayview to either go East or West. And there can be a bus or two involved later in the journey to get home.

I always thought all trains would share the same platform at South Keys and the boards would let passengers know if the next train goes to the Airport or to Limebank.

6 hours ago, Phil said:

I am not sure I understand. But will people travelling to and from the Airport have to change train at South Keys?

I guess that's what you get when you absolutely want to hire the lowest bidder.

Did they think about people with disabilities and senior citizens having mobility issues?

It is to be expected that a lot of people arriving at YOW will also have to change at Bayview to either go East or West. And there can be a bus or two involved later in the journey to get home.

I always thought all trains would share the same platform at South Keys and the boards would let passengers know if the next train goes to the Airport or to Limebank.

This isn't a matter of lowest bidder, it was all part of the original design. The track north of South Keys has a limited capacity meaning that trains can only run every 12 minutes. If trains continued on to the Airport, then that means there wouldn't be one headed to Riverside South for another 12 minutes and there'd be a 24 minute gap.

With that said, South Keys will have an island platform so the transfer from the airport train to the main line train (or vice versa) is done by simply walking across one platform.

2 hours ago, occheetos said:

This isn't a matter of lowest bidder, it was all part of the original design. The track north of South Keys has a limited capacity meaning that trains can only run every 12 minutes. If trains continued on to the Airport, then that means there wouldn't be one headed to Riverside South for another 12 minutes and there'd be a 24 minute gap.

With that said, South Keys will have an island platform so the transfer from the airport train to the main line train (or vice versa) is done by simply walking across one platform.

They could do it in a way where there's no gap, but that way would require a transfer as well. Time it so that there's a trains that just goes between limebank and southkeys  that gets there (or around) when the airport train would get to southkeys from bayview. Obviously the better option in this case would be to keep the mainline of the line be the one without the transfer, since there's a higher projected ridership coming from south of southkey rather than to the west of it.

When the decision was made to add the airport link, they should have dropped the plan to double platform (and train) lengths and instead double track the line so that both the Airport and Riverside South could have service direct to Bayview. Quite honestly, that should have been the plan from the get-go; service frequency is always the better option over larger vehicles. That's what attracts riders.

What a lost opportunity for direct service. A debate we will no doubt have for a long time , likely until it changes.

10 hours ago, J.OT13 said:

Quite honestly, that should have been the plan from the get-go; service frequency is always the better option over larger vehicles. That's what attracts riders.

I also believe freqency would have been a better investment than per-vehicle capacity. Decreasing to a 8 minutes timetable between train along a double alignment would have provided still more capacity overall and room for expansion. It just seems like a compromise so they don't have to include a widened bridge and tunnel around Carleton station.

Line 2 is, and for a while, will remain more of a commuter train than a real "light rail" system to me for as long as they don't increase frequency. I am still happy service to the airport is being added as part of Stage 2, and not being built as a separate higher-fee service such as UP Express or others around the world as it provides better connectivity for people. For myself, the transfer at South Keys is not the end of the world, but I can totally see why people are not a fan of it. At the very least, the current implementation allows for future extensions, and does not preclude from any option in the future, which is IMO a good start.