LRT commissioner blasts OC Transpo after being stranded

OC Transpo once again had the unfortunate luck of stranding one of its own commissioners in the middle of a 30-minute stoppage Monday afternoon.

Sarah Wright-Gilbert, one of five citizen commissioners on the city’s 12-member transit commission, began tweeting at about 12:20 p.m. that the eastbound train was stopped in Cyrville Station, with passengers provided only the bare minimum of information on the cause or ETA for service resumption.

“Currently stuck on an #LRT train at Cyrville station (EB track),” Wright- Gilbert tweeted.

“The train started to leave the station and then came to an abrupt halt. The announcement from the operator (after about three minutes) was ‘please expect delay. We will be moving shortly.’”

There followed a series of messages as Wright-Gilbert searched for an OC Transpo “ambassador” at the station to provide more information, to no avail.

After about 10 minutes she tweeted: “No @OC_Transpo ambassadors on train platform. I ran up to the bus platform and found one and he has no information.”

“None of the staff at Cyrville station (including ambassador and supervisor) were able to give me any information,” she tweeted. “The ambassador refused to come down to the train platform to talk to folks (even after I suggested it might be a good idea). This isn’t his fault. He needs the info.”

A replacement train finally arrived, and finally began moving, slowly at about 12:50 p.m.

“Ironically, there are three @ OC_Transpo bus drivers on this train that were delayed at Cyrville. At least one of them is now late for his run,” Wright-Gilbert noted.

Wright- Gilbert said the incident shows Transpo has made little headway on the rider communications problems that have been raised by her and others.

“Today’s lack of clear and timely communication from OC Transpo to its customers shows that there is still much work to do to ensure that customers are not left feeling stranded during outages and delays,” Wright-Gilbert said.

She said she intended to bring the incident to the attention of the transit commission and transportation boss John Manconi.

The City of Ottawa had no immediate details on the event.

Wright- Gilbert has been a strong critic of communications with the public on the new LRT. Last month, Transpo management said it will “continue to work to improve our communications and ensure alerts are communicated to customers as soon as possible,” after some LRT customers complained they were stranded at Tunney ’s Pasture Station for up to an hour on Sept. 26 without a clue as to the problem.

“(Thursday), between 3 and 4 p.m., some customers may have experienced longer commute times on Line 1, ranging from 5 to 20 minute, depending on the location they boarded the train,” said Pat Scrimgeour, director of transit customer systems and planning, in a communiqué issued by the city.

Scrimgeour said the service had planned “external alerts” for its website and social media regarding delays on O-Train Line 1.

“However, we recognize that in this instance there was a delay in issuing the (social media) alerts.”