Council members attending a special briefing Wednesday questioned the fairness of the city’s plan to get Ottawa’s buses driving again.
Ottawa’s transit director Alain Mercier highlighted key dates when buses will be phased back in.
Mercier said local routes, school service lines and lines serving major employment areas would take precedence. Some of those areas will resume nearly full service right away, while other areas of the city and communities beyond the greenbelt won’t have access to any buses at all until April 6.
Counc. Marianne Wilkinson said she thinks Mercier made a mistake by calling the system “fair and balanced.”
“Why did you choose a system where some areas get service and others none at all instead of a system that offers limited service to everyone?” she said.
“It’s a long way to walk if you have to walk through the Greenbelt.”
Mercier said he and his staff tried to structure a plan based on passenger intensity. Routes with higher passenger traffic had higher priority for getting bus service back.
Counc. Jan Harder said she was concerned with the city’s capacity to deal with the increased demand on parking lots expected to be used more heavily when express routes aren’t available.
“We do not have the ability to keep up with all the anger from this city. It’s going to be a nightmare at our park and rides,” she said.
Citing the city’s lack of manpower to handle the rush of people to parking lots in areas like Fallowfield, Counc. Harder said she will be encouraging people to wait to ride transit until the full system is back.
Transit committee chair Counc. Alex Cullen acknowledged the committee’s concerns and encouraged staff present to investigate suggestions made at the meeting. He commended Mercier for his quick action with limited resources.
“There’s just no way around it. In response to these concerns all we can do is make the best judgement possible in the circumstances.”
City staff said it will tweak the plan based on use of services as they are gradually phased in. Daily updates on where and when routes are running can be found on www.octranspo.com .
Compensation:
December pass refunds available until Feb. 15 at service centres and passenger ticket offices (open Thursday, Feb. 5)
Some outstanding December passes valid to March.31
Service resumption highlights:
Feb. 7: Saturday service begins
Feb. 8: Sunday service begins
Feb.9: All midday and evening and most peak period service begins
Feb. 23 – Mar. 16: More peak period service resume
April 6: Full service on all routes