Ottawa station
Ottawa station, or Ottawa Train Station, is the main inter-city train station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located east of downtown Ottawa, adjacent to Tremblay O-Train station in the neighbourhood of Eastway Gardens. The station is operated by Via Rail and serves inter-city trains connecting to Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Quebec City on Via Rail's Corridor Route. It also serves as an intercity bus stop for several bus operators.
Location
Ottawa station is located at 200 Tremblay Road, which lies directly south of Ontario Highway 417 near Exit 117 and east of Riverside Drive in an industrial park area. The station's main entrance faces north towards Tremblay Road.To the northeast of the station area lies the Max Keeping Pedestrian Bridge, which provides pedestrian and bicycle access north across Highway 417 to Ottawa Stadium, the Courtyard by Marriott Ottawa East and Hampton Inn by Hilton Ottawa. These two hotels are connected to each other by the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre and are located within a short walking distance to the west of the stadium parking lot. All of these locations are within a 10–15 minute walk from the station.
South of the station, across the railroad tracks and Terminal Avenue lies the Ottawa Train Yards power centre shopping complex which includes a number of big-box stores. There is no direct pedestrian connection south across the railroad tracks to the Ottawa Train Yards, so they may only be accessed by a longer route via Belfast Road. Currently, the City of Ottawa is evaluating proposals to create a pedestrian and cycle crossing across the tracks from Tremblay O-Train station to Terminal Avenue.
Far to the northeast of the station, across the 417 highway cloverleaf and next to the Rideau River is an office complex of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Ottawa station is located approximately north of the Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport. It takes 30 minutes to get there by public transport and 19 minutes by car or taxi. The station is also conveniently accessible from the Confederation O-train LRT Tremblay station, located 50 meters away. An O-train trip from a downtown Ottawa LRT station, such as Parliament or Rideau station, to Ottawa train station and vice-versa takes 13 and 10 minutes, respectively.
History
The first passenger rail services in Ottawa began in 1854 with the opening of the Bytown and Prescott Railway. Several other railways subsequently began operations, and their services were eventually consolidated at Ottawa Union Station, which was active from 1912 to 1966. This station was located on Rideau Street, directly across from the Château Laurier Hotel at Confederation Square and near the Parliament buildings. In 1966, railway services were relocated to Eastway Gardens, east of downtown and the Rideau River.The current Ottawa station is the result of an urban renewal plan by the French urban planner Jacques Greber. The plan was commissioned by Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King, who sought a re-imagining of the city following World War II.
Track relocation
Among the proposals in Greber's city plan was the relocation of railway tracks outside the downtown core. This was not the first proposal to relocate trackage away from the central sections of Ottawa, as it had previously been discussed as early as 1915 and 1924. At that time, Ottawa was crossed by 11 train lines with over 150 level crossings, causing numerous traffic disruptions. Many of the railroads that crossed the city at the time were originally built in the nineteenth century to serve the lumber industry and were no longer appropriately sited. The tracks divided neighbourhoods and were considered unsightly.Additionally, trains at that time were pulled by steam locomotives, which brought their noise and soot to the downtown Union Station and rail yard. As Time Magazine noted in 1948:
"Ottawa, dominated by the anachronistic Gothic buildings of Parliament, has remained frowzy, a city where trains run through the center of town and chuff smoke into the foyer of the best hotel."Greber sought to clean up the downtown by relocating rail traffic outside of the city center. Part of this involved the construction of a new train station.
The final decision to remove tracks from the downtown core was finalized in 1950, a time when transitioning to cleaner diesel locomotives seemed like a distant future possibility. Despite the transition to diesel occurring earlier than expected in 1960, plans for track relocation and a new station continued. A land swap was arranged between the Federal District Commission and the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways in which they gave up their downtown railyards east of the Rideau Canal and railway rights of way through Ottawa in exchange for land near Walkley Road, where the Walkley Train Yard would be extended. This reduced the number of trains travelling through the downtown core, opened up new land for development downtown and provided the east-west right of way for what would later become the Queensway.
The new Ottawa station
The construction of a new railway terminal on of land near Hurdman Bridge was announced in May 1961. The site was chosen because Ottawa's population was moving southward, it offered easy access to the Queensway, and there was ample room for parking. Additionally, the land that would make up the proposed site was already largely owned by the railways and the Government of Canada. It was thought that the terminal would become the hub of a new commercial and industrial area. The cost of the new train station, tracks and equipment amounted to around.The new Ottawa station was built to accommodate the passenger services of the Canadian National Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was the last of the monumental union stations to be built in Canada. It was seen as an attempt to project a modern and futuristic image of rail travel in an era when it was being increasingly superseded by other means of transportation.
The station was designed by the modernist architect John Cresswell Parkin of John B. Parkin & Associates in collaboration with the Montreal firm Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud & Sise. Their design reflects a mix of modernism and Beaux Arts planning principles. The station opened on July 31, 1966, just a few months prior to the start of Canadian Centennial celebrations. The first train to arrive was the Canadian Pacific Railway's Rideau from Montreal, which left shortly afterwards at 9:04 a.m.
Per a sign located inside the station:
"The Ottawa Station was completed in 1966 as part of a plan for the relocation and consolidation of many railway lines built between 1854 and 1916. The new arrangement was based on the plans of the noted urban planner, Jacques Greber, and was constructed by the National Capital Commission. The Canadian National Railway and the Canadian Pacific railway are owners and operators of the new installations."
Throughout its history, the station has won several architectural awards. It won a Silver Massey Medal for Architecture in 1967. In 2000, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada named the station as one of the top 500 buildings produced in Canada during the last millennium, and in 2007 it was awarded the Landmark Award by the Ontario Association of Architects.
Criticism
While the relocation of Ottawa station seemed like a good idea in 1948, the move to the outskirts of Ottawa put rail travel at a comparative disadvantage to other forms of transportation in the city. Although passenger rail travel collapsed across North America following World War II, the downtown station may have maintained a higher market share over time and been useful for commuter rail due to its close proximity on foot to many destinations.Prior to the establishment of Via Rail in 1977, there was a trend in several Canadian cities, including Quebec City, Saskatoon, and Victoria, to close downtown stations and rebuild them in suburban areas. At the time, it seemed to many local governments that the benefits of removing tracks and railyards from downtown areas outweighed the benefits of providing rail access directly to downtown, as passenger rail appeared to be declining and increasingly irrelevant.
These decisions helped accelerate the decline in passenger rail popularity further, as direct-to-downtown service was one of the few remaining advantages trains had over airplanes. This could be seen at Ottawa station. While Via Rail provided a shuttle bus to the city centre, the increased distance added up to 25 minutes in travel time to the fastest train to Montreal and reduced its competitiveness with other forms of travel.
In 1985, Via Rail President Pierre Franche estimated that Via lost around 15 to 20 percent of their Ottawa business because of the closing of Union Station.
In addition to its more distant location, public transit service to Ottawa station was absent or minimal for its first 15 years of existence, making it difficult for non-car owners to access. This was partly remedied in 1983 when OC Transpo constructed a Transitway bus rapid transit station across from Ottawa station, which would be replaced by Tremblay O-Train station to the west of the Ottawa station building in 2019.
Continued service reductions in the late 1980s and early 1990s further compounded the declining popularity of train travel in Ottawa. Services to Toronto and Montreal were reduced, and Ottawa lost transcontinental service to Vancouver on the Super Continental when the train was cancelled in 1990.