Lees station

Preceding station	OC Transpo			Following station
uOttawa toward Tunney's Pasture		Line 1		Hurdman toward Blair

Lees is an OC Transpo light rail transit station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It had previously been a transitway station, which closed in January 2016 and was converted into an O-Train station.^[2]

Location

It is located south of the Highway 417 just to the west of the Rideau River. It serves the Lees Avenue and Sandy Hill Heights communities, as well as the Lees Campus of the University of Ottawa.

History

The transitway station has had quite a notorious history for serious incidents. Soon after the station was constructed, coal tar began seeping into the station and it was closed for two months. It was soon discovered that this industrial waste was under much of the Lees Avenue area, necessitating a $6 million cleanup operation.^[3]

The station was also the site of a deadly accident on July 18, 1994, when a 30-tonne transport truck plunged off the exit ramp of Highway 417 onto the transitway, killing two women and leaving a nine-month-old with permanent brain damage. The driver was later found guilty of dangerous driving.^[4]

In July 2003, an eastbound bus approaching the station lost control due to a mechanical breakdown, and slammed into the station. No one was seriously injured, but it took months to repair the station^{[citation needed]}.

In December 2015, the Transitway from Lees station to Blair station was closed; it reopened on September 14, 2019, when Confederation Line service began.^[5]

Layout

Lees is a side platform station located at grade in a cutting. Above the platforms, the station's entrance building contains the ticket barrier and gives access to a plaza on the north side of Lees Avenue.

The station's artwork, Transparent Passage by Amy Thompson, features a series of forest designs on the station's glass platform walls, backed by sculptures of birds in flight along the retaining walls behind them. ^[6]

Service

The following routes serve Lees as of October 6, 2019:^[7]

v t e
	O-Train
E1	Shuttle Express
R1   R2   R4	O-Train replacement bus routes
98   39	Rapid routes
N75	Night routes
40   11	Frequent routes
55   162	Local routes
284	Connexion routes
405	300s: Shopper routes 400s: Event routes 600s: School routes
Additional info: Line 1: O-Train Confederation Line Route 2: Trillium Line (currently a bus route)   Routes 5 to 99: connect to Line 1 and/or Route 2 Routes 100 to 199: connect to Transitway Routes 200 to 299: Connexion (peak periods only) Routes 301 to 305: Shopper (limited rural service) Routes 404 to 406: Canadian Tire Centre events Routes 450 to 456: Lansdowne Park events Routes 602 to 698: high schools   Route R1: replaces Line 1 when out of service Route R2: alternative name for current Route 2 Routes N39 to N97: night service (replaces Line 1) White backgrounds: service may be limited   Last two digits represent service area: 00s and 10s – Central 20s – Gloucester 30s – Orléans 40s – Ottawa East 50s – Ottawa West 60s – Kanata, Stittsville 70s – Barrhaven 80s – Nepean 90s – South Keys

Stop	Routes
West O-Train
East O-Train
A Lees Avenue, Southwest	16   N39   N45   55   56   N97   R-1
B Lees Avenue, Northwest	16   55   56

Notes:

• Routes  N39  and  N45  heading towards Rideau station do not serve this station.

References

External links

• Lees station page
• Lees area map