David Bellerive

You Want People to Care About Infrastructure? Make Them.

June 18, 2025 · 4 min read

Doors Open Ottawa is one of the oldest events of its kind in North America, and one I always look forward to. It offers rare access and wide-ranging opportunities.

Each year, OC Transpo usually opens one of their facilities: in 2023, it was the upcoming Stadler FLIRT train at Greenboro Station, as well as a secondary site: the Belfast Road training facility where people could test drive (!!!) the simulators for Lines 1 and 2. A really unique opportunity!

For the 2025 edition, OC Transpo unveiled their contribution somewhat later than usual: Trim Station. Future eastern terminus of Line 1 and Line 3, the station is set to open (hopefully) by the end of 2025. It is not every day you can visit a not-yet-opened transit station.

However, OC Transpo did it, and it was great.

Some thoughts about Trim Station

While some will lament the “less inspired” design philosophy that guides Stage 2 stations along the East-West lines, Trim Station still includes many familiar visual features from O-Train stations: “wood” ceilings with integrated lighting, large windows (with bird-friendly patterns), angled trims, and glass elevators.

The most notable element of Trim Station might be the 80-metre enclosed bridge from the station entrance to the platform. This bridge is the perfect example of a self-imposed compromise during planning, meant to accommodate a median alignment of Highway 174, along with features like a bus loop and park-and-ride.

Thankfully, the flow of passengers throughout the station is well thought out. The bridge itself is almost 7 metres wide, noticeably wider than any of the original Transitway bridges. It feels bright and surprisingly comfortable, even in the hot summer weather. Once you reach the middle of the 174, you can either take the stairs or elevators to reach the island platform. Most will likely take three to four minutes to reach the platform.

Overall, this station will be a great addition to the eastern end of Ottawa and (I hope) one that will get more people on board the O-Train, regardless of whether they live in Orleans or further east. If you want to see more thoughts about Trim Station itself, check out Shane’s video over at Rail Fans Canada, a great walk-through!

All in all, I am really looking forward to seeing passengers use this station, and will certainly encourage people to go check it out.

The Hidden Appeal of Infrastructure

Doors Open Ottawa, and other similar events in an increasing number of cities worldwide, brings light to a largely invisible part of our daily lives.

Infrastructure is designed to be invisible. We don’t think about it when it works. We notice it when it’s late. When it breaks. When it floods. When someone cuts the ribbon, or when someone demands a resignation.

These are the most vocal and visible moments in an infrastructure project’s life:

• The grand opening
• The first major disruption
• The final breakdown

However, we can change that narrative.

People can care, if we let them.

What stuck with me the most during my self-guided tour of Trim Station wasn’t the architecture, or layout, it was the crowd.

Even the city noticed how successful the event was, with more than a thousand visitors throughout the day.

That lined up with everything I observed. I saw people of all ages, families, seniors, teenagers, transit fans, and even those who admitted they never ride the bus, walking through with genuine curiosity. Some were taking photos; others were just happy to finally see what was being built for them.

And here’s the thing: Trim isn’t meant to be a showcase. It’s not glamorous. It is the necessary end point to a transit line that has faced its share of criticism and debate.

However, for this one special day, the station belonged to all of us, not just city staff and their contractors.

This is what we forget, time and again, in infrastructure planning and delivery: the opportunity to let people feel connected to what’s being built for them.

We often hear about trust in the public systems, about the need for “social approval” and “buy-in” before we commit large sums to do work that is necessary to keep our cities going. We so often try to reduce the impact of those projects to numbers and projections, but this is not what drives people.

People care when they are invited in, not just left wondering what is going on.

This is what I try to do with Rail Fans Canada: highlight infrastructure as the unsung hero it has always been. Sometimes, the visuals speak for themselves. Other times, we become the narrators of its quiet, complicated life.

Regardless, the goal is always the same: to make infrastructure visible, human, and worth caring about.

To a project manager, infrastructure is a complex sequence of materials and actions planned on a timeline that (hopefully) still holds by the end.

To a city manager, it is one more expense to account for in an increasingly complicated budget.

To a councillor, another reason to ask questions about delays, scope creep, and “social buy-in”.

But for everyone who showed up on a warm June afternoon, it was something else entirely: It was theirs to explore.

We only make infrastructure visible when it’s brand new or breaking down. It doesn’t need to be reduced to glossy renderings, endless committee meetings, or slogans on roadside signs.

If we keep acting like infrastructure is too complex, too fragile, or too boring to share, we’ll keep getting what we have now: apathy, outrage, and a deepening divide between the public and the public realm.

The remedy is simple.

Open the door. Let people in. Let them care.