Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
The city and OC Transpo deserve a big fat F for the lousy service and total chaos that existed today.
The city told everybody to take transit to get downtown and they should have known that this was going to be a big event especially with favourable weather.
When everybody did take transit, they were caught unprepared.
There were simply not enough buses running and they were not finding a way to keep the buses running efficiently.
It is also time for the city to grow up. Canada Day is a special day and offering Sunday service is simply no longer acceptable. With all the other chaos, it was impossible to time your trip to make transfers and with Sunday service offering only hourly service on some feeder routes, how could you reliably get home????? Wait for next year, when even fewer buses will be running on Sunday. In our community of 15,000 to 20,000 people, there will be but one bus per hour on Sundays starting in September. Ridiculous.
When I reached South Keys station this morning, there was at least a full busload of passengers waiting. There was even more waiting at Greenboro and another bus load waiting at Billings Bridge. Three buses in a row could not accomodate all the passengers. If you had the misfortune of waiting at Hurdman or some of the smaller stations, good luck. Obviously, the buses were too crowded which slowed everything down. Fare collection was a problem. It took too long to get the passengers on the buses and it took too long to get people off who were not travelling to downtown.
The trip home in late afternoon was much worse. There were dozens of buses on the MacKenzie King Bridge. Nothing was moving. Of about 25 buses lined up eastbound, only one was going to the southend and it was blocking everything else because they were trying to stuff every possible passenger on. It could not accomodate the demand. There were hundreds of people waiting on the bridge. When we approached the University of Ottawa, they had stopped all westbound buses, dozens of them and hundreds of people were let off the buses on the Transitway between stations with fencing blocking access to sidewalks. I am no sure why they were doing this other than it appeared that nothing was moving westbound on the bridge either. A passenger in a wheelchair at Hurdman had been waiting for an hour and a half. Only 5 southbound buses had passed in that time and every one was full. Why so few buses? We couldn't accomodate him either, and I knew that none of the next 25 buses were going in our direction. Why were there not inspectors at Hurdman and Lebreton making sure that gaps in service were eliminated by adding extra buses?
It was impossible to time your trip and with only the help of the driver who stopped the local from leaving on schedule, I would have had a long walk home.
You have to wonder what will happen tonight after the fireworks. I hate to imagine.
When we were on the bus, I wondered what will happen in 2017, which I expect will be a very big celebration on Canada Day. How will our transportation system operate with the Transitway out of commission and still no train in operation? You can extend this to every day use during peak periods when the Transitway is undergoing conversion. It is frightening to think of what will happen when we potentially push our transit system over the edge. What happened today is a taste of what is to come.
I believe it illustrates the folly of our current transit plan. Would we close the Queensway for an extended period of time to upgrade it? This is the same thing. Our plan should have never considered closing the Transitway when we were building rail. Build rail by all means, build a tunnel, but build it somewhere else, anywhere else, that does not close down what we have today. Our transit system is too busy to close down the trunk routes going into downtown.
I will be calling Diane Deans office at the start of the week to express my displeasure.
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I agree, that is TOTALLY unacceptable.
If such a huge crowd ever occured again:
* Albert and Slater would have to remain open throughout, and buses only on those corridors. Crossing would only be permitted at 2 or 3 designated locations on green lights.
* ABSOLUTELY NO vehicle traffic, except for buses, city vehicles, emergency vehicles and official vehicles, would be permitted in the downtown core, north of Somerset Street, east of Bronson Avenue and west of King Edward Avenue.
* In addition, ONLY local residents may park downtown outside that area between the Rideau River and Tunney's Pasture and between the Ottawa River and Billings Bridge, as well as on Ile de Hull. Everyone MUST either take public transit or bicycle if coming from outside downtown.
* Suburban shopping areas and institutions would be heavier publicized as park-and-ride facilities, and direct buses to downtown from them should be offered. That may be problematic next year as July 1 is a Sunday and the statutory holiday is Monday, July 2 (so retailers are open on July 1), unless the provincial legislation is revised or the city overrides such with their own ruling (which they should).
* Bus service should be as follows based on the 2012 service plan:
** Base schedule would be a
Saturday schedule for local routes
**
DIRECT express service would be provided from all the designated Park and Ride facilities - about 30 in all (non-stop) in addition to local service, at least every 30 minutes plus overloads after the fireworks (regular fare before 10 pm)
**
Some express routes would also operate from suburban communities to downtown, at least every 60 minutes inbound from 9 am to 7 pm and outbound from 2 pm to 12 midnight, with overloads after the fireworks (all such trips on Canada Day before 10 pm would be regular fare), in order to reduce the load and need for more 95s, 96s, etc.
** Some local routes with peak extensions would operate the peak period pattern
**
Extra service would also be provided on Routes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 85, 86, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and the O-Train
** Routes 93 and 99
would be extended downtown during the periods mentioned for express service as well
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