Latest news with #88Hurdman

Ottawa Citizen

How OC Transpo's New Ways to Bus is making commuting from the suburbs worse

Article content Buses like the 88 Hurdman are now overcrowded and only reliable during peak hours, Ledgley said. The routes should be replaced with the previous ones and OC Transpo should 'reverse this route review,' he said. Article content 'Everything has gotten worse since April 27,' he said. 'What we are hearing from these residents, mostly, is that it was fine before (OC Transpo) made the cuts.' Article content Coun. David Hill for Barrhaven-West ward says the New Ways to Bus system has 'essentially changed the concept of busing' in the city. It would be difficult to revert back to the old routes when the investment into making an efficient bus system has already been made. Article content 'We're making evolutionary progress and improvement,' Hill said. 'What we need to focus on is identifying the issues that are coming up and fixing those.' Article content Article content Hill says OC Transpo and the city need to prioritize winning transit riders' trust back when it comes to bus routes. He's introducing a motion to the city's transit committee to increase the current 90-minute transfer window to ensure riders aren't paying twice for the same trip. Article content Article content 'The challenge is that there's an additional transfer that happens locally that didn't used to happen, and that's the reason why someone could potentially be getting double charged,' he said. 'It just shouldn't be the case where somebody going from point A to point B ends up paying twice for their ride.' Article content Hill mentions mitigating factors that could delay a commuter's ride, like ongoing construction, rush hour traffic and general delays. With the New Ways to Bus system, an additional transfer occurs for Barrhaven residents locally. Article content 'The core issue we need to focus on for the New Ways to Bus system to be effective is those afternoon peak buses that are leaving Tunney's Pasture,' he said. 'If those are reliably on time and consistent, then we won't have the problem with the transfer window issues and then ultimately …it can be a better system.' Article content Article content But Ledgley says no route should take longer than 90 minutes in the first place, especially when it takes around 25 minutes to commute from the suburbs to downtown Ottawa by vehicle. Article content 'That's only solving one part of the problem,' Ledgley said. 'It's also that nobody wants to be taking two and a half hours for their commute, right?' Article content Hill says transit coming through Tunney's Pasture station could be more reliable for commuters, alongside extending the transit fare windows. Article content The transfer window becomes an issue when commuters run errands around the city and encounter unreliable bus frequencies and delays, says Nick Grover, an executive member with Free Transit Ottawa. Article content 'It's not an enjoyable experience, even before New Ways to Bus,' he said. Article content In a July 23 emailed statement, Katrina Camposarcone-Stubbs, a public information officer with OC Transpo, said that they were analyzing the 'potential impacts' of extending the transfer window in response to Hill. Article content 'This analysis will include a review of whether any routes consistently exceed 90 minutes,' she wrote. 'At this time, the scheduled duration of the majority of customer trips take place in less than 90 minutes; however, staff will be investigating travel times further.' Article content Article content Transfers also became an issue when a route was eliminated and replaced by at least two others, Grover says. Article content 'If you're going from A to B, there's more transfers involved, resulting in longer commutes and also a worse last-mile challenge,' he said, referring to bus stops that were removed and installed five or 10 minutes away. Article content With Ottawa's weather behaving in uncertain ways — like increasing heat waves, smog and thunderstorms — Grover says people are 'checking out' of the public transit system and opting to purchase personal vehicles. Article content Article content 'Or they're having to suffer through it because they have no other choice,' he said. 'For some people, that just means going out less … We're leaving people isolated and with less access to the city.' Article content Off-peak service is another essential area where OC Transpo could improve, so commuters relying on transit outside of peak hours can travel around the city more easily, Grover says. Dedicated bus lanes could also help alleviate traffic, causing the route delay, and free fare for certain demographics within Ottawa could be considered. Article content These things are necessary so that people 'so poorly treated by this transit system' may think about returning to it, he said. Article content Villeneuve-Elson, must account for the extra time they would spend on an OC Transpo bus if they left work a little later and missed an express bus back to Stittsville. Article content 'My commute home changes from being about an hour to an hour and a half to being well more than two hours,' they said. Article content Article content How did we get here? Article content Coun. Wilson Lo, representing Barrhaven East, says there were 'several layers' that got Ottawa's public transit to where it is today. As a former OC Transpo bus operator, some of the reasons he's experienced delays are as simple as 'hitting the right combination of red lights.' Article content 'It's created a lot of frustration (and) a lot of burden on our passengers,' Lo said. 'A lot of people have left transit.' Article content Discontinuing some express buses has hit residents hard, especially those relying on them during peak weekday hours. Factoring in the ' trauma of the LRT launch' and transit users reminiscing about a time when transit was efficient, Lo says the changes have been 'negative' for a lot of commuters. Article content The 'psychological barrier' of more transfers down the line has been a drawback for residents, and the promises of reliable transit have not 'panned out' as planned. Article content 'That unfortunately overshadowed a lot of the positive, good changes that have happened,' he said, referring to improved off-peak local travel in Barrhaven. Article content With the New Ways to Bus route changes, Camposarcone-Stubbs says OC Transpo understands that each commuter's journey is 'unique' and that some may be experiencing longer travel journeys, additional transfers or a longer walk to the bus stop. Article content 'Since New Ways to Bus launched, staff have been monitoring ridership levels across the network, gathering feedback from customers, and collecting observations from frontline staff,' she wrote. Article content That feedback is used to inform future adjustments to OC Transpo's bus network through service change processes, Camposarcone-Stubbs says, which take place four times a year. Article content Article content No, there are not. Article content Article content A maintenance backlog continues to impact OC Transpo's fleet, with a number of defects found during inspections. Their current fleet is set to surpass its 15-year life cycle and must be retired by April 2026. Article content In addition, they've been facing challenges in procuring e-buses due to production delays affecting deliveries to the Ottawa market. These are some of the factors outside of OC Transpo's control, Lo said: 'This is an industry-wide issue.' Article content Theoretically, if Ottawa can get the delayed vehicles right now, it would be an 'easy fix.' But there are not enough buses to return to the old network, Lo added. Article content Villeneuve-Elson says OC Transpo's buses are constantly breaking down, which leads to route cancellations or not enough buses to cover all the city's required routes, impacting people's commutes and delaying bus schedules. Article content 'It cascades through the day, kind of like a set of dominoes,' they said. Article content Article content Horizon Ottawa has been consistently advocating for free transit every year, Ledgley said: 'It should be run as a public service, not as a business.' Article content When the New Ways to Bus system first launched towards the end of April, OC Transpo offered free-fare service for the first weekend of May. At the time, then-transit service manager Renée Amilcar said it was a way to introduce the 'new OC Transpo' and encourage riders to try it out. Article content During Bluesfest's nine-day stint, OC Transpo saw ' strong ridership ' throughout the festival, with an estimated 650,000 customer trips on Line 1 and 87,000 trips on Line 2. This was the first year when Lines 2 and 4 ran alongside Line 1 during the festival. Article content Grover says these were examples of when ridership on public transit skyrocketed. Article content 'It's a great way to remove a barrier while also compensating for the fact that the service has been incredibly subpar,' he said.