Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! Today, we're going back up to Ottawa to check out
Rideau Station, a central station on the O-Train Confederation Line tunnel.
Rideau is the Easternmost station on the O-Train’s downtown tunnel and is also the deepest station
in the entire system, sitting under the CF Rideau Centre and Ottawa's iconic Rideau Canal.
Let's take a look at what makes this station so special.
[Intro]
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Located deep under Rideau Street just North of the CF Rideau Centre, Rideau Station is
a deep underground station located 26.5 meters or roughly 7 and a half stories underground.
The station is the second busiest in the entire OC Transpo System owing to the numerous attractions
and workplaces nearby such as the CF Rideau Centre, the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, the
temporary Senate located in Ottawa's old central train station, and the National Art Gallery
among others.
This is definitely one of the stations you’ll be using quite often to see the sights if
you’re visiting Ottawa as a tourist.
Arriving at the station on its side platform, we take into view a long concourse that looks
very similar to the other two underground stations on the line, one of them being Lyon,
which we visited before — you can check out that video in the description.
The platforms are quite wide: enough to handle the heavy passenger flow through the station,
and equipped with standard platform amenities such as a transecure waiting area, tactile
ground indicators, and lots of good vertical access.
Definitely not the worst place to wait for a train, and to look at these beautiful Alstom
Citadis trains, even if they have been experiencing some problems.
And if you look up, you’ll see the ceiling opens up to show the two different concourses
of the station, which we’ll check out after this.
[Music]
As we’ve already seen, the station actually has two concourses on either end of its platforms,
one on the east connecting to the William Street/Byward Market entrance, and the west
side concourse connecting with the two entrances in the CF Rideau Centre, which is our next
destination.
Heading up to the west concourse, we can see the blue color scheme of the station running
through the walls and ceilings here, as well as on the walls down below at platform level:
I really love this detail in all of the downtown Confederation line stations.
This is where you’ll be able to find a part of the first art piece of the station:
This glass screen overlooking the platform below, along with its counterpart on the other
concourse, together make up FLOW/FLOTS, an art piece by Geneviève Cadieux, giving a
unique flair to an otherwise pretty standard concourse.
And although we weren’t able to get footage of it, there is also another art piece in
the station by Toronto artist Jim Verburg titled The shape this takes to get to that,
which is a set of murals on the walls of the staircases.
Each of the concourses are of course equipped with lots of Presto fare gates, as well as
Presto machines and maps right nearby for convenient access.
[Music]
But on this west concourse is something quite different and unique to it even in the whole
system, and that is this long corridor right here.
This is an exhibition area called “Corridor 45/75”, comprised of glass display cases
along this 25 metre long corridor.
The 45 and 75 comes from the longitude and latitude of the city, a pretty neat way of
naming a unique existence in the system.
[Music]
Walking down the corridor, and we soon arrive at a set of stairs and escalators connecting
us to the CF Rideau shopping centre above.
Fun fact: This is actually Canada’s longest escalator with 181 steps, beating out Toronto’s
York Mills station by 33 steps, and it really looms over you with its presence.
[Music]
After passing through a set of doors, we take another set of escalators up, thankfully much
shorter this time, and arrive inside of the shopping mall.
There are two entrances to the station here at one of the main shopping malls of the region,
one closer to Rideau Street at the intersection with Sussex Drive, and another inside the
mall near the Shoppers Drug Mart.
Outside on Rideau Street, this busy thoroughfare is occupied by pedestrians and cars, but most
importantly by the litany of buses traveling through the corridor, with more than ten routes
serving the station at one of 4 bus stops.
[Music]
And across the street further to the east is where you’ll find the last entrance of
the station, fit snugly beside a Scotiabank on William Street, right where the Byward
Market area begins.
This east entrance and concourse of the station doesn’t have any fancy exhibits or long
elevators, but it is more spacious, and has the same beautiful glass screen overlooking
the platform, great for some casual trainspotting.
[Music]
Alright guys, that’s about it for our short tour of Rideau station, which has definitely
claimed one of the central spots on the O-Train Line 1 roster of stations, and is a great
place to visit in its own right, if not for all the different sights to see around.
Like, subscribe, and leave a comment down below to tell us what you think about Rideau
station, and what your favourite station on the Confederation Line is.
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Thanks for watching guys, and we’ll see you in the next one!
[Music]