OC Transpo defends LRT schedule cuts that councillors say aren't worth it

UPDATE: At a meeting on Sept. 18, city councillors narrowly defeated an attempt to restore five-minute LRT service frequency during off-peak hours. 

Doubling the wait between trains in off-peak hours is saving Ottawa's cash-strapped transit service $1.6 million per year, but the campaign to reverse the unpopular decision seems to be gaining steam ahead of a council vote. 

OC Transpo is short $25 million this year, with just $7 million left in the reserves. Next year the budgetary hole is forecast at $120 million with few options to fill it. 

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper doesn't think forcing riders to wait twice as long between trains is right. 

"Every penny will count and it's important to be responsible, but the LRT is our spine," he said at Thursday's transit commission meeting. "It's not worth it." 

Leiper tabled a motion to reverse cutting LRT service to every 10 minutes on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. 

• OC Transpo to cut midday LRT service frequency to 10 minutes
• OC Transpo cuts off-peak evening LRT service frequency to 10 minutes

After a full day of listening to impassioned pleas from riders seeing increasingly long commutes, members punted a decision on the matter to Wednesday's city council meeting. 

Students, shift workers hit hardest

Many of the people who showed up to city hall on Thursday were students and shift workers who rely on taking transit outside traditional rush hours. 

They shared stories of missing classes, work and medical appointments.

"Students can't afford to take those cuts, but neither can Ottawa," Delphine Robitaille, president of the University of Ottawa's undergrad student union.

"Students are the ones staffing the businesses that people in the city depend on, the grocery stores, the small businesses in the downtown core." 

Students can't afford to take those cuts, but neither can Ottawa.- Delphine Robitaille, University of Ottawa student union president

She, and several others, said young professionals are getting the message that they should leave Ottawa — or get a car they can barely afford. 

"The difference between five and 10 minutes might not seem like a lot for people who don't take transit," Laura Shantz of advocacy group Ottawa Transit Riders told CBC.

"But if you're trying to take that train to then catch a bus that runs once every half hour and you risk missing that bus, all of a sudden that five minutes is costing you a large chunk out of your day."

With a shift toward telework remaining a trend, many suggested the service cannot afford to alienate its most dedicated patrons or provide another reason not to take transit. 

"Why would we diminish that one bright spot in our system?" Leiper asked on behalf of those riders. 

No other options, says OC Transpo

Renée Amilcar, the city's transit general manager, said this was a step she had to take, emphasizing that OC Transpo needs to come up with that $120 million. 

"Let me know where I can find that. I will be so happy to deliver the service," she said. "I don't have any efficiencies [to find] anymore. This is the only thing that we can do to be able to have a balanced budget." 

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From now until the end of the year, Amilcar said the schedule change will save OC Transpo $600,000 in decreased costs for operators and per-kilometre payments to the Rideau Transit Group. 

She went on to say that she cannot justify paying drivers to run more trains when cars are only 19 per cent full. 

Still, Amilcar said it's a choice she doesn't want to make. 

"I don't have a choice. I have to make a decision," she told CBC. "I think Coun. Leiper is right by asking to bring that back."

Other councillors likewise echoed Leiper's position, though some questioned if a compromise between five- and 10-minute service could be an option.

If they vote to reverse course next week, the service change wouldn't take effect until the delayed Trillium Line — which still has no definite opening date — is up and running.