Blair station 'nightmare' fix approved — now it needs money

The main problem at the Blair LRT station occurs during the afternoon rush hour as east-end residents try to transfer to buses to get home.

After getting off the LRT at its eastern end, throngs of commuters scurry down one flight of stairs to catch their buses on a narrow platform, often pushed into the shelters that dot the platform or choosing to venture onto the roadway as they jostle to get on a bus. 

Orléans resident Elia Villamayor said she has bumped into people going in the opposite direction and will try to walk behind the shelters where there is a half-metre gap — but it's a tight squeeze.

"It's a little slow going when it's busy," she said.

OC Transpo has stationed supervisors in fluorescent yellow jackets at Blair to try to maintain safety and stop people from venturing onto the road where the buses drop off and pick up.

Changes are coming in mid-April with the new spring schedule.

Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo's director of transit customer systems and planning, said bus stops will be reconfigured at Blair to group people travelling in the same direction.

Orléans Coun. Matthew Luloff says it will bring order to a chaotic transfer point.

"It's been a complete nightmare," he said.

"Splitting the traffic on the way out the door [means] people that are going to the west and to the north of Orléans will go left and everybody else will go right. It will make a massive, massive difference." 

Removing shelters

OC Transpo also has plans to increase space on the platform by removing the shelters and replacing them with a long canopy and wind barriers.

Money for the proposed canopies has yet to be earmarked.

Management is looking at a new set of stairs on the other end of the station to disperse commuters as they exit the LRT. 

Meanwhile, Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney is pushing for a new pair of elevators on the north side of Blair station.

There is only one elevator on the north platform and it was installed when the transit station first opened in 1989.

Tierney said the "rinky-dink" elevator often breaks down and when it doesn't work, OC Transpo has to call in a bus to take people who can't easily take the stairs to the south platform to board the LRT and back again.

The distance between the two platforms is about thirty metres.

"Adding in a brand new elevator [means] when one breaks down you'll still have a second one," said Tierney.

"There's a lot of opportunity there. It's going to change how that station operates and with the amount of volume there right now, frankly it's required. I want to see it come sooner rather than later."

Building a new set of elevators will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. OC Transpo said it hopes to get the money from the city's infrastructure budget, but that spending has to be approved by city council.

Tierney said he's confident council will vote in favour of the elevators and new canopy, but it could be months before the improvements are made.