Alayne McGregor
An online update from the meeting is included below. Note the need for haste to ask for any changes.
As The BUZZ was going to press this week, the city’s Transit Commission received a major rewrite of OC Transpo’s bus routes around Ottawa.
That’s right – received. Not approved, or rejected, or amended. The report was on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting to be received for information. At the same meeting, the commission would approve (or amend) Transpo’s draft operating and capital budget, which included $10M in operational “efficiencies” coming directly from those bus route changes.
But as the agenda stood, there was no way for citizens to object to bus route changes that affected their daily lives and be assured that the commission would act and have changes made. Some undoubtedly would have signed up and made presentations, with no guarantee of any effect.
With other city decisions, citizens can appeal to city council to overrule unwise staff recommendations, Why not with transit routes?
Particularly in Centretown, many residents rely on buses as an essential service. So what changes are most likely to affect those living in this ward?
- Preston Street will now be served by a new route 8 travelling from Dow’s Lake Station to Gatineau.
- Route 85 will now run from Bayshore all the way down Carling to Chamberlain and then to Lees Station, replacing route 55, which is being discontinued.
- Route 11 will no longer run on the Somerset Street Bridge. It will turn on Bayswater to go to the Bayview Station, and then return to Somerset via Preston. It will also be extended to run east of downtown to St. Laurent Station. This may add extra time and reduce reliability on a route that is already notable for bunching.
- The section of route 16 west of Parliament Station will be removed.
- Route 56 will be increased to operate all day, seven days a week, over the full route. This route is notorious for running almost empty on most runs.
And there are many more changes to other routes.
When I attended several of OC Transpo’s consultation sessions last spring, I didn’t hear requests for these wholesale changes, a bunch of which are unrelated to LRT Line 2. What was most wanted was better connections and more reliability, and I don’t see that here.
If city councillors don’t reconsider these changes, they will be abrogating their responsibility to manage the transit system.
Update after the Transit Committee meeting:
As expected, the city transit commission received (rather than approved) OC Transpo’s route reductions/changes to be implemented next spring. At the meeting, it was revealed that the overall effect would be to reduce costs by $10M and service hours by 74,000.
You can read the proposals and see a draft map through the link on Councillor Jeff Leiper’s Kitchissippi ward site (you can also get it at pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/ Transit Committee of Nov 15, item 6.1, but it won’t be as up to date): kitchissippiward.ca/content/oc-transpo-route-review
17 speakers presented on this item, some of whom were seriously devastated by the possible changes, especially to routes 82 and 90, but to other routes as well in terms of not being able to use transit or having huge walks to get to the nearest stop. A number pointed out they could not afford cars and had no alternative to get to school/work.
Transpo representatives said that these changes would improve reliability, but some councillors and several speakers were doubtful. Councillor Leiper was concerned that extending the route 11 to St. Laurent Station, through the very congested traffic on Rideau, Montreal Road, and St. Laurent, would make that route even more unreliable. Transpo staffer Pat Scrimgeour said that there were problems with ending that route downtown
in terms of finding time point places for buses on Kent at Albert, which slowed down operations even more.
It was revealed that city councillors had been talking to Transpo staff and achieved some changes, including restoring route 82, before the meeting.
Near the end of the meeting, Scrimgeour said that Transpo would be finalizing the changes by mid-next-week. It was clearly indicated that if anyone wanted any further changes they needed to lobby their city councillor to lobby Transpo to make any changes.
The changes will never come to City Council for approval — unlike other city major decisions.
So, if you look at the changes and find the transit routes you use have been deleted or changed, you only have a few days to lobby your city councillor: ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/mayor-and-city-councillors