'Who knows?' LRT riders tune out timelines as shutdown drags on
After latest surprise, passengers find promises unreliable as the trains
OC Transpo threw a new curveball at its riders on Friday, announcing that it needed at least 10 more days to resume LRT service — but by then, Ebubechukwu Chime had already stopped paying attention.
"I didn't even know that, because the delays and interruptions happen so much," he said, after disembarking from a replacement bus from Tunney's Pasture Saturday.
"My confidence is really, really low," said Chime. "It's like the interruptions are part of the service."
Ottawa's light rail system has been shut down since July 17. The trains' bearings are to blame, but the city has not explained why they keep failing.
Renée Amilcar, the city's general manager of transit services, was still expressing confidence on Thursday that eight single-car trains — a fraction of the overall fleet — could return to the Confederation Line tomorrow.
But that fell apart Friday when she announced crews would have to make minuscule adjustments to the line's restraining rails. Those rails prevent derailments, but they could be rubbing against train wheels and fatiguing their bearings.
Amilcar said OC Transpo has now pinpointed the problem and is "so close" to a solution. But with so many dashed hopes, Chime isn't the only one tuning out her assurances.
"We were all geared up to go on Monday," said Michael Suddard, who was waiting for a replacement bus downtown Saturday with his daughter Dora.
Suddard said he's isn't counting on Amilcar's rough 10-day timeline for service to resume. His personal estimate?
"Optimistically, probably Labour Day," he said, adding he doesn't believe OC Transpo has found the root cause of the nearly two-week shutdown.
"Now we're just finding out that maybe the problem is the restraining rail's off by a few millimetres," he said. "We didn't find out till now, and we had all these experts supposedly looking at it 10 different ways till Tuesday. And that was it, maybe? Who knows?"
Winning back riders a battle
Members of the advocacy group Ottawa Transit Riders are just as skeptical.
"We're looking now at other issues that we weren't initially expecting," said Laura Shantz. "We were told that [they just have to] check the bearings, verify them and then get going. Now we're told, 'Oh, maybe there's larger problems.' That signifies a pattern of problems that goes back to 2019."
In her view, OC Transpo's communication has improved — with frequent updates and daily press conferences — but that only goes so far when every message is bad news.
She said it will be an uphill battle to win back people who have already abandoned transit.
"There's only so much public patience," she said.
John Redins, another Ottawa Transit Riders member, said Friday's announcement is especially hard on people with disabilities who can't easily squeeze onto packed R1 buses.
"I'm basically stuck with Para Transpo because of it," said Redins, adding he has to plan ahead 24 hours for any trip, even to buy a carton of milk.
"I just shake my head," he added. "I think it's going to affect people's mental health."
He too finds the 10-day estimate unrealistic, and feels OC Transpo needs to take action to keep riders using transit amid the collapse in confidence.
"They have to do something, especially with the fares," he said. "Because August 1st is this week, and you think people will want to pay for a monthly bus pass for a system that's not working?"
'A complicated question'
Suddard said he "reluctantly" paid for his pass this weekend. He wonders if he'll be compensated, should OC Transpo offer some sort of free service to win people back.
Questions about compensation are tough to answer, said Coun. Glen Gower, who chairs Ottawa's transit commission.
He noted that OC Transpo's budget is already about $39 million in the hole.
"We rely on fares for a large portion of the transit service. We budget about $8 million a month, so we need to make sure if there's any kind of compensation that there's a source that that money can come from," he said.
"It's a complicated question, but definitely something we're looking at."
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