Council mulling compensation for riders when LRT reboots
Chair of transit commission says he's broached the idea with the mayor's office
The head of Ottawa's transit commission says city councillors are looking at the idea of providing some kind of compensation to riders inconvenienced by the two-weeks-and-counting shutdown of the LRT.
But doing so might entail some financial rejigging, he says.
"It's something we are working on, that we're exploring," Coun. Glen Gower, who chairs the group of councillors who provide guidance and direction to the city's transit services department, told Radio-Canada on Saturday.
"It's complicated because we rely on fares for a large portion of the transit service," Gower continued. "We need to make sure if there is any kind of compensation, that there's a source [of money to make up for it]."
OC Transpo is already in a deficit and fares generate between $7 million and $8 million in revenue a month, Gower added.
The city has offered free rides in the past, Gower noted to CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning — including for one month in 2021 after a derailment earlier that year kept the system offline for almost two months.
A decision of city council
The Confederation Line, the only completed segment of OC Transpo's LRT network, was shut down again out of an abundance of caution on July 17 when a problem was detected with a bearing on a single light-rail vehicle.
The city was hopeful to resume service on Monday, albeit with only a portion of its normal number of train cars, but that didn't pan out because of work needed to ensure wheels on the trains do not contact restraining rails.
In a previous LRT update on July 24, Renée Amilcar, the city's director of transit services, was asked if the city plans to compensate riders.
"We can probably talk about [compensation] later but for now I have to deliver a good service to the residents," she said.
Gower said he's spoken with the office of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and other city councillors about the idea, as offering compensation would ultimately be a decision of council.
"OC Transpo management does not have the authority to change fares without council approval," Gower said. "Transit commission can discuss and make recommendations to council. However, since it is a budget-related question, it would be city council that would have to approve any changes."
Express service lauded by riders
To make up for the lack of LRT, OC Transpo has offered R1 replacement buses, as well as a complement of express buses taking people downtown.
The latter service launched Monday and was met with approval from some riders who spoke to CBC News that morning.
WATCH | Riders weigh in on free transit
One rider, Lynn (who declined to give her last name), said taking an R1 bus meant about two and a half hours of commuting to and from work and "a time loss with my family," whereas an express bus vaulted her from Blair to downtown in about eight minutes on Monday, she said
As for OC Transpo's financial predicament, "I totally get it, but it still doesn't matter," she said.
"If you want to restore some type of faith with customers, it's not our problem that you're in a deficit, that you created this mess with the LRT. We're all paying for it in one way or another, and I think they just got to bite the bullet and just give us something."
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With files from Radio-Canada, Ottawa Morning and Arthur White-Crummey