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Bayview station is being turned into a light-rail hub. It’s already the north end of the O-Train line and will be a transfer point for passengers on the east-west LRT starting in 2018. The path goes through an area that’s supposed to become a “fare-paid zone,” like a TTC or Métro station, which means blocking access to the station from all but a few controlled points. You certainly won’t be able to ride a bike through it, or stroll through on your way somewhere else.

Somehow the path has to go under or over the tracks. Under — where the path goes now — is impossible if a new station takes up all the space.

So an initial plan went with over. That meant a climb of at least 30 feet, maybe more, which required a huge veer off to one side to make the slope manageable, plus some kind of overpass arrangement. Officially, there’d be a path. Practically speaking, it would break the link we just spent $4 million improving. People who saw that draft flipped out.

Coun. Jeff Leiper’s ward, Kitchissippi, is just on the other side of the O-Train tracks and many of his constituents use the path. Temporary detours around the current construction generate enough complaints, he said — a permanent detour that would be much worse is “obviously completely unacceptable. … We have to preserve that straight north-south shot as much as possible.”

“The City is currently working with the contractor, Rideau Transit Group, to design an accessible routing for pedestrians and cyclists around the future Bayview station,” acknowledged Steve Cripps, the head of the city’s rail office, in an email relayed through the city’s communications department. “Work is still ongoing and plans will be presented once the work has been finalized.”