The state of transit in Ottawa

City doesn't care about transit users

Image description: photo of a decrepit OC Transpo Bus

OC Transpo is putting the price of single adult fares up to $4.00 per ride with monthly passes at $135. This means that government workers who take transit three times weekly to get to the office will have no reason to buy a pass. It means that it will cost my husband and I, who ride the bus together to do our shopping and attend events, will be paying $8 one way, giving us impetus to either switch to Uber or Lyft or do our shopping online and stop supporting local businesses.

I am so sick and tired of OC Transpo. Ever since I moved here, I have found the attitude of “customer service” to be deplorable. We are treated not like customers but like pesky insects, riding on the backs of dogs who didn’t ask for our presence. One time when my husband complained about buses routinely stopping in front of a pole by the back door so that it was difficult to get off the bus safely, he was told by a “customer service” agent that they could just remove the bus stop entirely.

They’ve made a complete mess of the LRT and transit in general. The new LRT lines will require riders to take multiple trains to get from the airport to downtown. Can you imagine the reaction of tourists to that?

They increase fares, they take away routes. There is no way to take transit within downtown in an east-west direction. If you are in Chinatown and you want to go to the Manx Pub for example, there’s no bus that can get you there.

There have always been problems with OC Transpo but it is now becoming an untenable and irrelevant service. We are supposed to be reducing our environmental footprint but the City of Ottawa has ensured that people will buy cars if they can afford it, or avoid doing business in places where they can ill afford to go through transit. It has increased passes for seniors by 60% instead of the original 120 % it had threatened. When it tried to increase youth and university/college student passes, it learned that this wasn’t possible due to agreements with student unions and having already received the money for the fares from the Ottawa Student Transit Authority.

Bus drivers are so sick of their terrible working conditions and the way they are treated by OC Transpo that they let passengers on for free often. They open the back door of buses where we are not supposed to enter from the back or they cover the payment slots with tape. And in many cases the Presto/Metrolink payment system is broken. They’ve added payment via credit card and debit card but that is fraught with problems also. While STO has a lower fare for those who use their e-wallet, OC Transpo doesn’t give regular riders a break. That’s the constant attitude of OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa.

According to Ottawa Transit Riders, a local association, most decisions are made in back rooms and presented to the public as a fait accompli. There is never any true consultation with riders.

Ottawa, we desperately need transit reform in this city. The next municipal election is not until 2026. I very much doubt that any elected official is going to make transit a priority. Mayors fiddle while the planet burns. Transit riders don’t matter in the City of Ottawa.