Toronto Ontario Line: Queen Station | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | HDR

turini2 said:
As we talked about before in the Ontario line thread, for some reason (probably Canadian/US building codes) they won't be using very long escalators to get down there. 5 escalators from street to platform is pretty embarrassing when other cities do that depth in 1 or 2 escalators.
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I mean Westminster Tube Station uses a fair number of escalators, so it isn't THAT "embarrassing".

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Red October said:
I mean Westminster Tube Station uses a fair number of escalators, so it isn't THAT "embarrassing".

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This looks like Space Mountain with the lights on.

Perhaps our history with the Franken-set at Scotiabank Theatre has ruined long escalators for the city. I recently learnt that they were two shorter escalators joined together to create one long one.
 
Red October said:
I mean Westminster Tube Station uses a fair number of escalators, so it isn't THAT "embarrassing".
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This is a constrained site next to Parliament and the river, and the platforms are stacked on top of each other in this location - not a large mined station like Queen.

The Queen station cut through shows that only one or two flights of escalators would really be required, rather than 5 - as in many other places.

Unfortunately, I think Metrolinx and their engineering consultants have decided already - and it's too late to fix this. I just hope the TTC isn't responsible for the maintenance of them!
 
turini2 said:
As we talked about before in the Ontario line thread, for some reason (probably Canadian/US building codes) they won't be using very long escalators to get down there. 5 escalators from street to platform is pretty embarrassing when other cities do that depth in 1 or 2 escalators.
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It's not Ontario building code. Ottawa Rideau station has a 35.3m long escalator which would reach half way to the Ontario Line platform from the surface.

Wheaton Station (Washington) has 70m long escalators (35m vertical-rise) which could reach the Ontario Line platform from the Queen mezzanine level (if horizontal travel allowed for it). They'd probably have to underpin the existing station rather than building vertically adjacent to it though.
 
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Presumably each of the escalator landings will allow for additional busking opportunities!
 
Definitely too late to change the design now, but in theory you would replace 8 banks of escalators with 4 banks of 2x escalators. The length is perfectly doable!
This is why I consider public consultation and meaningful engagement to be useful - rather than the opaque design process that the Ontario line has been using.

Alon Levy does a great bit why a full height mezzanine (in green) is unnecessary - requiring more digging than is necessary. Even recent stations in Toronto have escalators from surface direct to platform level, unsure why this has been put in. I suspect caution regarding fire safety, but recent international projects (cough Crossrail cough) show this not to be the case - esp. with platform screen doors for smoke/fire protection...
Engineers and designers that we spoke to about Second Avenue Subway repeatedly cited the need to evacuate stations in six minutes, per fire code requirements, as a justification for full-length mezzanines, when the same fire codes are used in Turkey and (with light modifications) Spain without this feature.
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officedweller said:
Could be that wear and tear on a really long escalator would be worse with the expected passenger volumes.
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Possibly, but good maintenance solves that problem! Most contemporary escalators/elevator contracts include purchasing maintenance direct from the supplier - i.e. you pay a smaller amount upfront and then $x a month for 20 years rather than than just the upfront cost of the escalators/elevator.

Many transit agencies that have very long escalators that run 20+ hours a day!
 
As per the terms of the contracts, the selected consortium is still in the design process. This means that the designs presented here continue to be subject to change until pens down. The cost saving incentive as part of the innovation aspect of the contract may result in some of the suggestions here to use longer elevator spans to reduce cost.
 
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