Rideau is a station on the

O-Train The O-Train is a light metro transit system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by OC Transpo. The O-Train system has two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line (Line 1) and the diesel-operated Trillium Line (Line 2). Since May ...

Confederation Line The Confederation Line (french: Ligne de la Confédération), also called O-Train Line 1 (french: Ligne 1 de l'O-Train), is a light rail line operated by OC Transpo in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as part of the city's O-Train light rail system. It ...

Rideau Street Rideau Street (french: Rue Rideau) is a major street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and one of Ottawa's oldest and most famous streets running from Wellington Street in the west to Montreal Road in the east where it connects to the Vanier ...

on the border of the Sandy Hill and ByWard Market neighbourhoods in Central

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada.

Location

The underground station is beneath

in Central Ottawa. Originally, Rideau station was to be built under the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

, with a station at

Confederation Square Confederation Square (french: Place de la Confédération) is an urban square in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is considered the second most important ceremonial centre in Canada's capital city, after Parliament Hill. Roughly triangular in area ...

, closer to

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their archit ...

. It was decided to relocate the station to the east in partnership with

Cadillac Fairview The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a Canadian company that invests in, owns, and manages commercial real estate, mainly in Canada and the United States. As of March 2017, the company had 73 properties, encompassing 38 million square fee ...

, the owners of the

Rideau Centre The Rideau Centre (french: Centre Rideau) (corporately styled as CF Rideau Centre) is a three-level shopping centre on Rideau Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It borders on Rideau Street, the ByWard Market, the Rideau Canal, the Mackenzie K ...

, where it would serve more people and provide access to the ByWard Market. There are two entrances from the

on the south side and another built into a

Scotiabank The Bank of Nova Scotia (french: link=no, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (french: link=no, Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada ...

on the north side of Rideau Street, at the threshold of the ByWard Market. Through the Rideau Centre, riders can walk to Hudson's Bay, the Westin Hotel, the Shaw Centre, the Transportation Building and the National Defence Headquarters without stepping outside. The station serves destinations such as the ByWard Market,

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

US Embassy The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

, Shaw Centre,

Government Conference Centre The Senate of Canada Building (french: édifice du Sénat du Canada) is located at 2 Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and serves as the temporary seat of the Senate of Canada. The building served as Ottawa's central railway stati ...

, National War Memorial,

Château Laurier The Fairmont Château Laurier is a hotel with 429 guest rooms in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive and designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to compl ...

and

National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) (french: Centre national des Arts) is a performing arts organisation in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre building. History The NAC was one of a number of p ...

, as well as retail shops, restaurants and hotels.

Layout

Rideau is an underground

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a railway platform, platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or bus rapid transit, transitway. ...

station. Two concourses located above the two ends of the platforms contain the

ticket barrier A turnstile (also called a turnpike, gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce one-way human traffic. In addition, a t ...

s and give access to the Rideau Centre (west concourse) and the William Street/ByWard Market exit (east concourse). Both concourses feature elevators to the surface and the platforms. The station is the deepest on Ottawa's network, with the platform 26.5 metres underground. It also has the longest transit escalator in Canada at 35.3 metres. The station features two artworks: ''FLOW/FLOTS'' by

Geneviève Cadieux Geneviève Cadieux (born 17 July 1955) is a Canadian artist known for her large-scale photographic and media works in urban settings. She lives in Montreal. Education Cadieux was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1955. She received her BA in Visual ...

, a set of two glass screens on the station concourses overlooking the platforms; and ''The shape this takes to get to that'' by Jim Verburg, a set of murals in the access stairwells. Additionally, an exhibition area called "Corridor 45, 75" is located along the corridor connecting the west concourse with the access to the Rideau Centre.

Service

The following routes serve Rideau station as of December 20 2020: Route 12 is temporarily truncated west of St. Laurent Boulevard due to the Montreal Road revitalization project.

Sinkhole

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

unexpectedly appeared on June 8, 2016 on

adjoining the excavation for the underground station.

References

External links

Confederation Line: Overview of Rideau station
{{OC Transpo Confederation Line stations Railway stations located underground in Canada Railway stations in Canada opened in 2019 2019 establishments in Ontario