LRT trains were packed, but not to capacity during the morning commute, transit boss says
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: October 7, 2019
LRT trains weren’t at capacity during the morning peak-period service Monday, even though it might have seemed like no one else could have possibly squeezed on some rail vehicles, the head of OC Transpo said after the commute.
“Trains are busy (but) they’re not at their full capacity,” John Manconi said outside Tunney’s Pasture Station. “I know that seems tight for some of the customers. It’s a new experience for them. That’s what mass transit is about.”
When passengers didn’t board a train, that was their choice, Manconi said. Perhaps they didn’t want to enter a full car, they wanted to wait for the next train or they were following instructions from transit staff on the platform, he said.
“It’s going to take a few days to get through the transition for everybody. It’s running well overall,” Manconi said.
About 100 bus routes changed on Sunday, leading to the first workday morning commute Monday under Transpo’s redrawn LRT-era network map. No longer are suburban transit customers able to board a bus in their communities for a direct-to-downtown trip. Instead, they must transfer to trains for the rest of their trips into the core.
Transpo didn’t have morning ridership numbers available for LRT stations. Manconi said those statistics will be crunched in the coming days and weeks, but there was no doubt there were more people on the LRT system Monday compared to last week.
Manconi said the trains are designed to be busy. Each two-car train can hold 600 people.
Transpo revealed in August it would only need 13 double-car trains to meet passenger demand in the morning and afternoon peak periods, rather than the 15 double-car trains that were anticipated for years up until then.
On Monday, Manconi said the 13 trains were enough to meet peak-period demand. He was at Tunney’s Pasture at the busiest time during the morning commute and he observed that the trains were handling the volume of passengers.
Transpo reported no train breakdowns during the morning commute. Manconi said the only hiccup was a two-minute delay at 5 a.m.
Transit customers, meanwhile, were figuring out the new bus routes connected to LRT stations.
Manconi said Transpo heard of bus delays, overloaded buses and buses not showing up.
There were 18 cancelled bus trips in the morning and Transpo was looking into the causes, Manconi said. Transpo organizes between 2,000 and 3,000 trips every morning.
Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley, chair of the transit commission, said he observed the morning peak-period transit service. He encouraged transit customers “to have a little patience,” since there are many first-time passengers on the LRT system.
Transit officials were also trying to drive home one particular message to passengers: you don’t need to tap your Presto card on buses when transferring from LRT stations to buses in fare-paid zones. Doing that only slows down the passenger flow.
Other councillors watched firsthand how customers managed their morning trips.
Innes Coun. Laura Dudas, who’s a longtime Transpo customer, reported a problem-free transit trip in the morning, taking a Route 25 bus to Blair Station, arriving around 8 a.m., and taking a train to Tunney’s Pasture for an appointment in that area.
Dudas said her train felt “comfortably full” compared to what a jam-packed bus feels like. She collected advice from fellow passengers and transit staff. She wants Transpo to be receptive to feedback.
Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Carol Anne Meehan, who has been trying to promote the public transit system to her constituents through social media, said her bus trip to Tunney’s Pasture was “fabulous,” but she couldn’t believe the crowds at the LRT station. She compared the number of people trying to navigate the station to people leaving a concert.
“It was a mass of people,” Meehan said, noting that some customers couldn’t board a train because it was so full and they had to wait for the next one.
Bay Coun. Theresa Kavanagh, who’s a transit commissioner, said she started her transit trip to city hall by taking a busy Route 85 bus before transferring to a Route 84 bus a Lincoln Fields for the connection to Tunney’s Pasture Station, where she arrived around 8:30 a.m. Transpo staff were helping people navigate the station. She saw no problems.
It might take one or two weeks for people to feel completely at ease with their new transit commutes, Kavanagh said.
“We’re still being trained,” Kavanagh said. “You could feel the sense that we’re all going to get there eventually.”
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