OC Transpo tinkers with Route 12 changes
After public outcry over east-end bus run, rider sees move as ‘weak compromise’
Facing criticism from transit riders and politicians alike, OC Transpo has tinkered with changes coming soon to a popular east-end bus route.
Service on Route 12 between downtown and Blair station is often plagued by delays, cancelled trips and overcrowded buses.
Starting Sept. 2, down town bound buses were to end their journeys at Confederation Square instead of Bank and Slater. Buses will also connect with the Rideau station when the new Confederation LRT Line opens.
But the prospect that some downtown workers would eventually be forced to switch to the train to go further west by as little as one stop if they needed to get to Parliament Hill or the central business district irked some.
On Friday, Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury tweeted that a compromise had been reached: The 12 will now end at Queen and Metcalfe streets, about a block away from the last stop initially proposed, bringing riders that much closer to their destinations in the downtown core.
In an interview, Fleury said 95 per cent of passengers who ride the 12 now get off before Rideau station. Thus, this change helps the remaining riders who need to get west of Elgin and didn’t like the prospect of transferring to the train or walking an extended distance.
“That’s what this corrects,” the councillor said.
Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo’s director of transit planning, admitted the change came about as the result of public outcry. “We’re happy to hear from customers and see what we can do to make their travel better.”
Shortening Route 12 to avoid congestion on Wellington and Bank streets should make service more reliable, but, Scrimgeour noted, the route traverses many busy urban streets where there will always be a certain amount of variability.
“It will always have challenges to keep on a published time, but it will get better in September with these changes,” he said.
That remains to be seen, says Vanier resident and frequent Route 12 rider Sam Boswell.
She wasn’t expecting OC Transpo to budge at all, particularly because the new route maps were already printed and posted at bus stops. But once the change sunk in, she concluded it’s a “weak compromise.”
She would have preferred to see the 12 continue down Wellington Street from Rideau station and terminate at Lyon station. “To me, that would have been a better compromise.”
Boswell also questions the various excuses used to justify the route’s poor service, including traffic congestion. “The 12 is unreliable around the clock; that’s not rush hour’s fault,” she said.
Although there will be no LRT station in Vanier, the opening of the Confederation Line has forced OC Transpo to massively rethink how it connects local bus routes to the train line.
Fleury and Scrimgeour contend the result of these changes should be better and increased service and smoother connections to LRT stations.
Routes 18 and 19 will be revised to provide more direct trips to St-Laurent station, while a new local route 20 will serve Montfort Hospital and the Richelieu-Vanier Community Centre on Des Pères-Blancs.
Once Queen Street is reopened this fall, the 19 will be shortened to end at the Parliament LRT station instead of Bank and Albert, and Route 17, which was created to serve the new Wateridge development on the former CFB Rockcliffe lands, will also connect to Parliament station, though Fleury said the ultimate plan is for the 17 to continue on to Place du Portage in Gatineau.
Other changes coming Sept. 2 include renumbering Route 4 to become Route 10, though the actual routing doesn’t change, and shortening Route 11 at both ends. Lincoln Fields will become the new terminus in the west end and Confederation Square, instead of the Rideau Centre, will be the last stop downtown. Route 11 will connect with Parliament station so its riders heading to the By Ward Market will have to get off and transfer to the LRT.