Ottawa Transit Riders / Le groupe des usagers de transport en commun d'Ottawa

Having relied on local transit in both Toronto and Brampton, Ottawa transit service is baffling at how little consideration or reasonable thought is given to routes NOT downtown. Look up the route to get from Baseline & Morrison or even Greenbank & Baseline to anywhere South or South East. A trip to my dentist would take 29 minutes by bus including 22 minutes of walking because there is no direct line north/south on Greenbank. Direct routes up and down major roads seems fundamental to transit planning. But not in Ottawa? Detours through residential neighbourhoods are common rather than acting as feeders to main routes. Going from Greenbank & Baseline to Auriga Drive (Prince of Wales & W. Hunt Club) takes over an hour in ideal traffic and includes a detour to Tunney’s pasture? Is there a voice for non-LRT, non downtown transit riders because I’m not hearing any discussion about this large population.

The service has been a joke. So much for the Mayor calling it “a world class system”. Before the LRT my daily commute was around 3 hours. Now it is around 3 1/2 and climbing. I’ve been lucky enough to already be at work during this week’s failures.

As someone who has mobility issues the LRT has made things worse. Wait times for buses are at least 20 minutes – I now take 3 buses and the train. Trying to get on the bus some nights is nearly impossible. Last night, I arrived at Tunney’s at 16h37, waited until 17h04 for the #57 getting pushed and shoved almost the entire time. The only reason I got on that bus was thanks to a security guard and the bus driver. They told people if they didn’t have a requirement for priority seating to move to the upper deck. Total commute time yesterday was 3 hours and 38 minutes. with 65 minutes of that spent waiting for buses.

OC Transpo is relying too much on the train and have WAY too few buses. For example, the 39 from Blair to Orleans (Trim and Millenium). Imagine 500 people get off at Blair, and say half of them want to continue to Jeanne D’arc. How many of those people will have to wait for the next bus, and how often does that bus come?

Then there was the “delay” this morning. Was there an alternate means to get downtown? They almost put in that parallel R1 bus in already, but there is no permanent alternative that you can use. That’s just not good.

It has been a complete GONG SHOW. There continues to be regularly cancelled buses at peak hours, with the next bus scheduled in 30 minutes. The 57 (new version of 97) continues to be as unreliable during peak hours as it was before the LRT. What happened to all those extra drivers that had their layoff’s rescinded? Where are these missing buses???? Cancelled buses CONTINUE to be a regular occurance. NOT ACCEPTABLE. As for the LRT… Tunney’s has been a nightmare. This morning (at 7:00) we were directed to platform 1 when in fact, the train pulled up about 8 minutes later at platform 2! By the time the next train pulled up at platform 2, there were enough people to fill the train (although some would say it was not ‘at capacity’). Luckily this was shortly before the mayhem started shortly thereafter regarding the train delays due to yet another door ‘malfunction’. As for the return home – I left the office a half hour early, thinking things wouldn’t be so bad before 3:30 – NOPE. By the time I got to Tunney’s, there were crowds at stops B and A…and I had to try to wade through the crowd to the furthest stop (A). This was at 3:24. How much earlier do I have to come into work to avoid this mayhem? 6:00 a.m.? 5 a.m? I understand there are ‘tweaks’ to be made, but between the design issues at the LRT stations, the ongoing issues with the door mechanism causing delays, and the CONTINUANCE of unreliable bus service… I feel very much like a second class citizen today – and if I had a choice and could afford to drive, I would! I predict MORE people will drive to work to avoid the catastrophe that is OC Transpo. Shameful ‘public service’, SHAMEFUL!