OC Transpo launches 'Shuttle Express' buses as LRT returns to service
"This service will be in addition to Line 1 service and will offer our customers an additional travel option during the busiest commuting times."
Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Aug 14, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
Ottawa’s LRT system returned to full line service Monday between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations, the first time in four weeks that the city’s costly Confederation Line has done what it’s supposed to do — or at least most of what it’s supposed to do.
Transit General Manager Renée Amilcar said single-car service will continue, with a train available every four to five minutes during peak periods and every six minutes in off-peak hours and on weekends. And while R1 replacement bus service ends Tuesday, a new bus service called Shuttle Express will operate during peak periods.
Shuttle Express launches Tuesday with morning runs downtown from Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations, and afternoon express runs from downtown to Tunney’s and Blair. The buses will run every 10 minutes.
“This service will be in addition to Line 1 service and will offer our customers an additional travel option during the busiest commuting times,” Amilcar said in a briefing to city council Monday afternoon.
“This will be a service to customers during the busiest times of the day because they asked for it,” Amilcar said.
The morning express will run from 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. with westbound buses from Blair delivering passengers to the Mackenzie King Bridge and Albert Street. Eastbound buses will take passengers from Tunney’s to the Mackenzie King Bridge via Slater Street. Afternoon service will run from the same routes in reverse between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
With current traffic volumes, the east express bus between Blair and downtown would actually be about five minutes faster than the train, OC Transpo’s director of operations, Troy Charter, told reporters Monday. Less time is saved in the west because the express only bypasses two stations between Tunney’s and downtown.
“For customers in the west, they’re probably better off staying on the train,” Charter said. “But we want to give customers options.”
When the fall schedule begins on Aug. 27, OC Transpo will use 13 single-car trains to operate four-minute service at peak power and five-minute service during off-peak hours and on weekends. The Shuttle Express will continue in the fall, Amilcar said.
“I’m hoping that passenger travel will be high in the fall and if that happens we will consider bringing back double train service during peak periods,” she said.
By running single trains, OC Transpo hopes to reduce wear and tear on the Alstom Citadis light-rail vehicles, which have to be regularly inspected and have two of their five axle assemblies replaced after 60,000 kilometres of travel. Under normal use, that’s about every six months, Amilcar said.
“We could easily today use double cars, but we want to be able to maintain this level of service with this new (inspection) routine in place,” Amilcar said.
“It’s a good opportunity because the ridership is not there right now and the system is designed to operate with either single or double cars.”
Meanwhile, commuters got to ride the train for the first time in nearly a month Monday.
Ashlin Bailey is a daily LRT commuter who said using the R1 bus when the train was down added about an hour to her daily commute to and from her afternoon job in the east end. On Monday, Bailey was happy to be riding the train again with a seat to herself and room to breathe.
“The shuttle buses were filled to the brim and you’d have to wait for three of them to go past before you could finally get on,” Bailey said.
The LRT “is down a lot, then it seems like it’ll run for a week before it’s down again,” she said.
About 40 people hopped on and off an eastbound train over the noon hour on Monday. The return run to the west, between Blair and uOttawa stations, was a little more crowded, but the single-car train was far from full on its journey — which slows at each bend in the track because of mandatory speed restrictions. On the tight curve east of Rideau Station, the train travelled a little faster than a quick jogging pace.
“This has been so frustrating,” said Mila Guluyeva, who was heading home from downtown Monday afternoon, a trip she makes every other day.
“The buses are so crowded,” she said. “It’s been very disappointing.”
Programmer Jackson Schoenermarck said he’s lucky that he can usually work from home, with just occasional visits to his Blair Road workplace. Using the R1 replacement buses added an hour to the trip, each way.
“When (the LRT) works it’s good, but when they need to use the buses it’s absolute mayhem,” he said.
“It’s not even the crowding. The buses have to go right through downtown and all the traffic. And then you’re adding more buses and that makes the traffic even worse.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-express-buses-as-lrt-returns-to-service
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