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Ottawa’s transit agency has pledged to put customers first under its newest strategy and dozens of riders showed up at a city hall information session Tuesday night to test that commitment.
For roughly an hour, Rick Leary — OC Transpo’s recently hired general manager — fielded a range of frustrations, questions and concerns from about 40 people in attendance at the first of five summer town halls.
One woman said it takes her three hours to travel to her doctor’s office by bus.
A man shared his exasperation with the lack of express and direct options in the south end.
And another asked why $20 million has been earmarked for a Park & Ride rather than being spent on transit priority lanes, arguing reliability is always going to be a problem if buses are stuck in traffic.
After the meeting, Leary said he and the staff who took part may not have had answers to every question, but the conversations they had ensure OC Transpo knows what issues people are facing and can look to make changes.
“You can hold me accountable. We’re making commitments based off of facts, with the data that we have, making the adjustments,” he told reporters.
“There’s so much more to do, and we’re honest to the public about that, but we’re addressing the reliability that they’re asking for.”
Rick Leary is general manager of OC Transpo. He fielded questions for about an hour during Tuesday night’s customer information session. (Dan Taekema/CBC)
Haoyan Mai travelled from Kanata to listen and said on paper the changes look “really good,” especially for riders from the suburbs.
“I am hopeful and skeptical at the same time because I know that we’ve had fleet availability issues for a long time in our bus network,” he said, explaining he worries how adding new routes will impact service elsewhere.
Eye on September
Griffin Schokking was among those with reservations.
They don’t work a nine to five job and said the new schedules seem geared to those who do, rather than anyone operating other hours.
Schokking said that has them feeling “worse” heading into the fall.
“I look at the weekends, and if I’m not working, I just stay home unless I can get a ride because I can’t go anywhere,” they said.
Leary highlighted plans to have 91 more buses in service this fall compared to the summer and that 25 per cent of the fleet will be new and electric.
The agency is also making changes to 30 schedules, which should provide improvements for more than half of the its ridership, Leary added.
Riders filled a board with suggestions during the first OC Transpo information session. Four more, including one that will be held virtually, have been scheduled before the end of the summer. (Dan Taekema/CBC)
He and other staff were on hand to share details of what they’re calling the Customer-First Action Plan, part of an effort to prepare for an expected surge of students and public servants in September once many vacations end and classes resume.
All told, the city is forecasting an additional 65,000 weekly trips to the downtown core this fall.
“We still have our challenges. We know there’ll be congestion, but we’re working hard at it,” said Leary.
Another info session will be held virtually on Zoom from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 13.
There will also be stops at the Nepean Sportsplex on Aug. 11 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orléans from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 19 and at the John G. Mlacak Community Centre in Kanata on Aug. 25 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.