OC Transpo, you had just one job

“You had ONE job ...”

Of all the angry, disappointed, sad, resigned or plain flabbergasted social media messages sent to OC Transpo Tuesday, the one above seemed to best capture the gestalt of the reaction to the new and “improved” O-Train service — launched just a day before — shutting down unexpectedly for more than two days (after also stalling on launch day, Monday, as TV cameras rolled … er, digitally recorded).

Now, granted, Tuesday may not have been the best day to get a read on the city’s opinion of OC Transpo, what with all the people complaining they’d missed their midterm exams or were late for work. Others mentioned poor customer service after the glitch, or buses that were too small to carry all the stranded train passengers.

Even so, it’s not like the transit service’s feed is normally a utopia of kittens and ice cream cones. Transit users consistently complain about packed buses whizzing by them without slowing down, or pulling away even as the driver makes eye contact with some poor commuter sprinting in a futile attempt to board (all of which is no treat for the many friendly, hardworking bus drivers who then have to deal with irate customers). Or about the bus that failed to show up because it snowed in the capital of Canada, or about the Presto cards and machines that broke because it’s cold in Canada. Presto, meanwhile, has been a disaster (though that falls on the province, rather than the city). At a time when it takes seconds to book a flight or hail an Uber car or load a Tim Hortons card, people are still boarding buses to find that the credit they bought online still isn’t there the next day — and in some cases, days later.

Transit systems have one job, and that’s to get people to where they need to be, on time.

Public transit has many benefits: it’s better for the environment, it reduces traffic congestion and, depending on where you live, it can be very convenient. But if it can’t do the one thing it’s supposed to do, it becomes harder for people overlook the obvious shortcomings (trudging through snowbanks, freezing at the bus stop … body odour). This is the kind of thing that can’t happen in this city right now. Ridership numbers have dipped at times over the past couple of years (though a recent bump could signal the end of that trend), and there is traffic chaos on the horizon. Later this year, Ottawa will start closing parts of the Transitway as work continues on the light-rail Confederation Line, pushing buses off their dedicated roads and onto city streets. Managing this years-long transition will be the greatest test the organization has ever faced, so it is doubly disheartening to see OC Transpo fail, in spectacular fashion, what should have been a fairly straightforward one with the train launch.

Transit systems are incredibly complex, and of course there will be glitches. The problem is the number of glitches that seem to pop up with this one. Management of OC Transpo must improve.

Ottawa will start closing parts of the Transitway as work continues on the light-rail Confederation Line.