City considers raiding other budgets to fix transit problems
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: November 13, 2019
Budgets of other city departments could be raided to fix a troubled public transit system plagued by the unreliable LRT system in what would have been an unfathomable scenario a year ago when city hall was giddy about launching the $2.1-billion Confederation Line.
Now it seems city management is scouring every corner of city hall for extra funds to bolster a transit system whose two-month-old cutting-edge rail system is, shockingly, rickety.
“We are dealing with an unknown situation here,” said Coun. Allan Hubley, chair of the transit commission, on Wednesday.
“I can’t turn to you and say I know those trains are going to work every day going forward. I don’t have that confidence, and that bothers me. It bothers me a lot.”
Hubley said the city would have to look at a traffic plan if the city was going to establish new bus routes through the core — essentially reinstating the Transitway downtown.
Even so, the city would need to figure out where to get the extra buses so quickly.
When a replacement bus service goes into effect during an LRT breakdown, those buses are redirected from other routes. The city would need even more buses and drivers to handle the demand.
“It’s not possible to say to you we can put bus service back on a full-time basis tomorrow, or even Monday. It’s going to take some time to look at that. We should be looking at that right away,” Hubley said.
“We’re obviously going to have to go in and make changes to the overall city budget, not the transit budget. The transit budget can’t afford that on its own. We’re going to have to take from other things in that budget to fund that, if that’s what we’re going to do, and I’m open to the discussion.”
Hubley acknowledged that redirecting money from outside of the transit department won’t be a popular idea, considering the amount of work that has gone into writing a $3.8-billion draft 2020 budget.
A few options have been floated to improve the transit network, such as making the replacement crosstown bus service a regular route, relieving pressure on the LRT line, or bringing back suburb-to-downtown bus routes. Currently, most transit customers who are heading downtown from the suburbs have to transfer to LRT at Tunney’s Pasture, Hurdman or Blair stations.
Coun. Jeff Leiper is one of the councillors asking the city to see how Transpo can restore some of the parallel bus service that ran for the first three weeks of LRT operations.
“If the train were to break down, people have an option at that point of how to get around it,” Leiper said.
Leiper said he’s trying to be pragmatic about how to beef up the transit system with bus service, knowing it will take more buses, staff and money. He was encouraged by “a lot of open-mindedness” from the mayor’s office and the transit brain trust on ways to the fix the transit system.
The parallel bus service between September and October cost the city about $1 million per week, Hubley said, and he’s not sure if it would be enough to solve the problem.
The longevity of 40 recently recommissioned buses is also in question, Hubley said. After all, there was a reason those buses were part of the 175 pulled off the road and sent the auction block after LRT launched.
Many of the recent problems at Transpo have roots in the unstable LRT system, which opened Sept. 14. The city blames Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and the company’s maintenance arm.
When a train becomes disabled and slows the rail service, passengers fill station platforms. Longer delays have forced Transpo to activate replacement bus service between stations, forcing customers out of the stations and onto the curb.
Coun. Stephen Blais, who represents the some of the easternmost suburbs in Cumberland ward, said “disappointing isn’t a strong enough word to use.”
“The service is not coming close to meeting anyone’s expectations,” Blais said. “The failure rate is beyond what is acceptable. I think all options are on the table at the moment.”
Blais, who chaired the transit commission last term of council, said big changes can’t happen overnight, since the city would have to find the money and draw up bus routes that mesh with the existing traffic patterns, plus come up with a communications plan.
“We need to have the runway time to make those changes,” Blais said. “We need the co-operation of the provincial government and the MTO to make the changes on the highway. All of this is occupying, effectively, all of the time of the most senior leadership in the city, not just today, but for the past several weeks.”
The transit commission will consider Transpo’s draft 2020 budget next Wednesday.
Transit managers already have to make changes to satisfy a request from Hubley and Mayor Jim Watson to freeze all transit fares for the first three months of the year. The two politicians believe money held back from RTG because of the train problems could backfill money lost in a fare freeze.
Other transit commissioners and councillors are gunning for a full-year fare freeze to compensate riders for the recent terrible service.
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