Quote:
Originally Posted by c_speed3108
What I never understood is why so many STO routes need to come into downtown Ottawa. Why just run something along the lines of OC's 180 Hull Shuttle and have it connect to all these Hull buses at some bus station in Hull.
This way the buses can be completely full rather than have a ton of half full buses clogging up rideau street late (or early) in their run.
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Such arrangement would force STO users to transfer, which would cause great inconvenience and no doubt result in a ridership loss.
If such arrangement were put in place, STO users would need to get something in return in order to offset (at least partially) the increased inconvenience. To me that would be gaining access to a corridor that is more centrally located than the terrible Rideau/Wellington corridor – i.e.,
• The Mackenzie Bridge. This would require reserving the entire bridge to transit during peak periods. This would significantly improve the integration of STO/OC services and allow OC to create separate platforms to segregate regular routes from express, thus reducing bus congestion at the busiest station.
• Albert/Slater or Queen. The former option would require placing new stops on blocks that currently do not have them and giving an extra lane to buses. The latter option would require banning all parking (at least during the peak) and the narrow sidewalks would make it difficult to find good spot for stations. I doubt that downtown business owners would agree to this.
To balance out demand, it would make sense for this new service to be used by both OC and STO users that cross the River. Perhaps, an articulated bus each minute would be sufficient to meet current demand at peak.
The service would also have to be extremely reliable, serve both Portage and Chaudière, and link up with Lebreton. I don’t know where the STO transfer station would be in Hull. It would have to be fairly large.