Pimisi station would be less crowded if LRT ran as designed: former transit chair
Diane Deans says the LRT was designed for trains running every 2 to 3 minutes
Crowding at Pimisi Station wouldn't be an issue if the LRT were running as originally designed, a former chair of the transit committee says.
Pimisi station, which was closed for a period of time on Canada Day over concerns about crowd control, was originally designed to accommodate trains running every two to three minutes, according to former city councillor Diane Deans.
Instead, trains currently run every five minutes during weekday rush hour.
"When you think about it, it's really half the service that we had initially planned," said Deans, who sat on council during the planning and implementation of the LRT.
The city paid for 17 trains with a plan to run 15 trains at rush hour and peak times. Currently, OC Transpo often runs fewer, but the city said it was unable to provide a specific number in time for publication.
Deans said she was surprised by the closure because concerns about crowd control were not raised during the planning stages of the station.
"It is a mass transit system. It was intended to carry high volumes of people and this is, for all intents and purposes, really a downtown stop. [It] should be able to accommodate it," Deans said.
"Either it would seem at some point that station will need to be redesigned or they will need to increase the frequency of the trains."
In a joint statement late Wednesday, the city and Ottawa police said the decision to close the station on Canada Day "was made to minimize lineups and manage overcrowding on and around Booth Street, not at the station itself."
But on Tuesday, Ottawa police told CBC Pimisi Station was not designed to handle large crowds efficiently, given that it sits on a lengthy bridge with limited escape routes.
According to police, that "deficiency" became apparent during the Canada Day festivities in 2022, when a medical emergency occurred on the bridge.
"The safety of those stranded on the bridge, as well as the responding personnel and the distressed individual, was compromised," police said.
That statement also mentioned that the decision to close Pimisi station was made with the support of a crowd consultant who was worried about crowding on Booth Street.
Capacity issue could be fixed with another platform
David Jeanes, treasurer of Transport Action Canada, said observers have questioned whether Pimisi station was built with enough capacity.
"Some people feel that Pimisi Station should have had outside platforms like Tunney's Pasture so that it could have, say, four separate exits or even six separate exits," he said.
Jeanes said that if an additional platform were built on the station's south side, it might fix the crowd issue.
But ultimately, he's not convinced the station has a crowd control problem.
"The consultant who decided that it was not safe did not make the correct decision as far as I'm concerned," he said.
Pimisi could have remained open, former police chief says
Former Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Thursday that it isn't feasible to design transit stations to accommodate one-off events with massive crowds.
LISTEN: Former police chief Charles Bordeleau discusses Pimisi station
Instead, people on the ground are needed to direct people where to go, both trains and buses should be running, and they should be running more often, he said.
"I think they could have had the station running at the same time, because you need different points of exits for the crowds. And to funnel everybody on buses only ... it reduces the opportunity to have crowds leave in an orderly fashion," Bordeleau said.
"The key is having people on the ground to manage the crowds .. and if your system is overflowing, having the ability to direct people to other methods of transportation, other exit points, so they don't panic."
Canada Day a different beast
Cathy Curry, vice-chair of transit committee, said she doesn't think crowds at Pimisi station for the Shania Twain concert on Thursday will present the same challenges as those on Canada Day.
"Substantial crowds mean different things for different times," she said. "Canada Day, with people everywhere, is different from Bluesfest, where people are in one location and exiting all in one area."
She said Canada Day comes with different security concerns than other events — such as difficulty predicting the flow of foot traffic and the potential that protesters wearing flags may blend into the crowd.
The city echoed this view in its statement, saying Canada Day and Bluesfest require different management strategies.
"Bluesfest is a ticketed event, with an expected number of attendees. Canada Day crowd numbers are unpredictable and can swell to more than 100,000 people," the statement said.
Curry said a combination of buses and the LRT will be available during Bluesfest to ferry crowds away from LeBreton Flats.
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With files from Elyse Skura and CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning