TAKING US FOR A RIDE
On Wednesday, at the exact time the transit commission was holding its tense marathon meeting at city hall, a woman tumbled off the train platform at Rideau Station, scant blocks away. She was rescued from the train tracks by another commuter and an OC Transpo worker — just before a train pulled in.
That near-disaster somehow seems emblematic of all that is amiss with Ottawa’s chaotic introduction to light-rail. What else, we are all asking, can go wrong?
For more than a month now, commuters have endured the agony of abruptly delayed or cancelled trains, crowded platforms, Transpo routes that no longer exist, overloaded buses and missed or unreliable connections. Naturally someone would, at some point, fall off a train platform.
Meanwhile, at the commission’s six-hourplus meeting, senior city and transit staff patiently reviewed LRT’s onboard computer hiccups, jammed doors and malfunctioning track switches. And the theme most repeated by transportation services general manager John Manconi and city manager Steve Kanellakos was that blame for all this rested with the builder, Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and its maintenance arm, RTM. “The level of service RTG provided is unsatisfactory and they have failed the city and its residents,” Kanellakos intoned. The city had pushed the company to sort out the problems. Manconi had even called a senior RTG boss at 5:30 a.m. to send a technician to fix a switch. Maintenance-contract payments to the company were now being withheld, with a stern warning that RTG/RTM needed to be ready for winter. RTG/RTM was
The level of service RTG provided is unsatisfactory, and they have failed the city.
guilty of “inadequate management oversight, poor planning, under-resourcing and failure to anticipate predictable issues.”
To be sure, city brass also apologized for the state of the line, and insisted that, of course, it was they themselves who were really accountable. It’s far from clear they meant this part. Or that the mayor and city councillors, who are also accountable since they exercise final oversight, are ready to take much blame either.
One can sympathize slightly with the city over this mess. Light rail is new, and glitches were bound to occur. The city did not launch the system thinking that passengers would be navigating slippery platforms or enduring smelly train stations. As Manconi noted, public-private-partnership arrangements can be complicated.
But let’s assume the city has no responsibility whatsoever for the rail-line problems. Who, exactly, is responsible for the bus system breakdown? Hint: Not RTG.
In October, OC Transpo altered 100 of its 139 routes in some way to marry the bus system to LRT. The result has been such commuter misery that Mayor Jim Watson hastily announced — even prior to this week’s city budget — that an extra $7.5 million would be spent, and 40 buses would be added. Another 19 will boost the fleet in 2020.
Councillors are quickly finding out this isn’t really a fix, however. The buses will hastily plug the worst gaps in transit caused by the initial route changes.
Which wards will get the extra buses? That’s not clear. Are there enough? Not clear either. The ad hoc feel to this rescue plan prompted one councillor to speculate that elected officials now face a “Hunger Games” of competition for precious buses.
A long winter looms. Not just for commuters waiting for late trains and buses, but for the public awaiting a long-term transit plan. And by the way, your transit fares are going up.