This morning, OC Transpo GM Rick Leary spoke with the press (ahead of presenting to Transit Committee) about how he intends to stabilize bus service. It’s a little difficult to parse out the specifics, but I’m looking forward to councillors’ opportunity to get more details in public at Thursday’s meeting.
I appreciated hearing that we’re on the right track to restoring bus and train service to what it should be, but we’ve known for a long time that the arrival of new buses approved in the last term of Council will improve things. It’s hard to discern what’s new today. Here are some of the questions I have:
OC Transpo intends to improve bus reliability and timeliness by adding in more time to schedules, but unless they add frequency, math says the buses will run less often. What does adding time to runs (which we need) mean for frequency?
We don’t know clearly from Leary’s comments how double-train capacity will be restored by mid-June. A key question is whether OC will now reduce frequency back to the levels we saw prior to the most recent restrictions? Will the solution be sustainable over the long haul?
Buses that require heavy maintenance will be retired in favour of working on buses that can be fixed more quickly. Will vehicle retirements occur in advance of new buses arriving or only as those replacements are put into service? What are the implications for fleet availability?
Leary spoke, appropriately, about a capital plan for transit that would presumably see more regular bus purchases (at least I hope so). But he also spoke about putting that cost in the hands of the federal government. Does OC Transpo have an ask of the City to ensure we’re never in this position again or does success depend on fed willingness to fund us?
Finally, it has to be re-iterated that today there is no deal with Metrolinx. We don’t know if they’ll accept the terms Council has set out, and we don’t know when or if we’ll get a deal. Ottawa residents want a transit system that works beyond the bare minimum, and this announcement doesn’t address how we’ll restore route comprehensiveness, frequency or implement necessary infrastructure such as transit priority measures.
Residents want a transit system that provides them with flexibility, choice and addresses congestion. There’s little in today’s announcement to indicate that plan is coming any time soon.