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16 hours ago, dudebrains said:

The Catherine Street Greyhound station is in the process of being obliterated by demolition crews.

IIRC Brigil bought the land, so I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another massive tower of expensive condos go up here soon.

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I remember the times having to go through Ottawa Central Station and how it was pretty limited service back when it was 101 when I went by around a decade ago. I know Route 6 is nearby within walking distance and operating pretty late versus how the 101 (current 55) operated every 20 minutes, but only until around 10 PM except for Sunday which was no service back then in 2012.

Ottawa Central Station open from 5 AM until 2:30 AM the next day.

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8 hours ago, GTAmissions1 said:

I remember the times having to go through Ottawa Central Station and how it was pretty limited service back when it was 101 when I went by around a decade ago. I know Route 6 is nearby within walking distance and operating pretty late versus how the 101 (current 55) operated every 20 minutes, but only until around 10 PM except for Sunday which was no service back then in 2012.

Ottawa Central Station open from 5 AM until 2:30 AM the next day.

I remember visiting Toronto for my wife's grandmother's birthday about ten years ago.  I had no vacation time left at work, so in order to make it to work the next day we came home on a Greyhound red-eye trip that arrived in Ottawa at 3 AM.  Needless to say, my wife and I took a taxi home that night. ?

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But at least everything was together Montreal, Toronto, Kingston, North Bay etc. Now you to go to Montreal you need to go to the train station, to Toronto ST Laurent Station, before everything was in one place, you could get food, buy your tickets at the counter(not this on-line crap), was A/C in summer & heat in winter and the waiting area was inside a building. I'll miss the old Central Station. Now if I go to Toronto I'll pay more and take the train at least I can pay at the counter and not worry about trying to get tickets via computer.

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OC Transpo is planning on rolling out a marketing campaign to encourage people to take transit. 

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/oc-transpo-hoping-to-win-riders-back-with-new-ad-campaign-1.6065225

At the same time, they are expected to run a $85 million dollar deficit. Because ridership is not meeting budgeted projections due to the Freedom Convoy and COVID-19 omicron variant. 

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/oc-transpo-projecting-85m-deficit-by-year-s-end-if-province-feds-don-t-help-1.6064186?cid=sm%3Atrueanthem%3Actvottawa%3Atwitterpost&taid=631fb2f20e77c60001f6c50f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

 

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4 hours ago, GTAmissions1 said:

OC Transpo is planning on rolling out a marketing campaign to encourage people to take transit. 

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/oc-transpo-hoping-to-win-riders-back-with-new-ad-campaign-1.6065225

At the same time, they are expected to run a $85 million dollar deficit. Because ridership is not meeting budgeted projections due to the Freedom Convoy and COVID-19 omicron variant. 

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/oc-transpo-projecting-85m-deficit-by-year-s-end-if-province-feds-don-t-help-1.6064186?cid=sm%3Atrueanthem%3Actvottawa%3Atwitterpost&taid=631fb2f20e77c60001f6c50f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

 

The best marketing for public transit is its riders, not banners, videos, and advertisements.

As for the deficit, early in the pandemic, you can say it was out of OC's control, but almost three years in, with no pivot to changing travel patterns, it's now OC's fault.

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On 9/13/2022 at 12:16 AM, Waiting for 30 Minutes said:

As for the deficit, early in the pandemic, you can say it was out of OC's control, but almost three years in, with no pivot to changing travel patterns, it's now OC's fault.

To be honest, I'm glad they haven't done anything yet. We'll get a new council that will actually bring us back to our roots, hopefully by bringing back bus service pre-2011 or even 2004 levels of local service, minus all the Connexion/Express. They can package the changes as 1 major service change. That being said, the new commission that will become afterword's *really* needs to study their userbase and traffic patterns of all demographics (cars, bike users, etc.)  and evaluate things like rural service (which we had in 2003, every 2hrs to Richmond, Rideau Carleton Raceway, Manotick, and Carleton Lodge, etc.), and better cross regional transit, so I can go from Bayshore to Blair in 40 minutes (even though it's 15 mins by car), and same with other points of the city. Nepean North to Nepean South, Nepean South to South Keys, etc. Things like that, incentivize ditching the car for a bus. I did it for 13 years, but if they're gonna cut my routes over and over again, jack the fares because they believe I should be charged the same fare going from Blair to St. Laurent on the 12, while someone takes the 283 from Tunney's to Munster, meanwhile having a 50% on time performance record, if it even shows up, and to top it off, to have multiple transfers on my route that was not needed before? Yeah, I rather the expenses of that the car comes with, even though as a collective, it's much more damaging to the environment, infrastructure, etc.

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12 hours ago, Loud-Invero said:

To be honest, I'm glad they haven't done anything yet. We'll get a new council that will actually bring us back to our roots, hopefully by bringing back bus service pre-2011 or even 2004 levels of local service, minus all the Connexion/Express. They can package the changes as 1 major service change. That being said, the new commission that will become afterword's *really* needs to study their userbase and traffic patterns of all demographics (cars, bike users, etc.)  and evaluate things like rural service (which we had in 2003, every 2hrs to Richmond, Rideau Carleton Raceway, Manotick, and Carleton Lodge, etc.), and better cross regional transit, so I can go from Bayshore to Blair in 40 minutes (even though it's 15 mins by car), and same with other points of the city. Nepean North to Nepean South, Nepean South to South Keys, etc. Things like that, incentivize ditching the car for a bus. I did it for 13 years, but if they're gonna cut my routes over and over again, jack the fares because they believe I should be charged the same fare going from Blair to St. Laurent on the 12, while someone takes the 283 from Tunney's to Munster, meanwhile having a 50% on time performance record, if it even shows up, and to top it off, to have multiple transfers on my route that was not needed before? Yeah, I rather the expenses of that the car comes with, even though as a collective, it's much more damaging to the environment, infrastructure, etc.

OC would likely have to reach out to the rural City Councillors (and then to the constituents) whether or not there is any buy-in for rural local service. 

The rural areas have a different transit tax levy than the urban parts of Ottawa, which also another touchy issue. 

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1 hour ago, JCL said:

The rural areas have a different transit tax levy than the urban parts of Ottawa, which also another touchy issue. 

That's fair. Though, we did it before when even less people as a population had to burden the whole levy for rural areas. I'm sure it'd be much more manageable than it was in 2003. They can probably get provincial funding too for that, who knows. 

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On 9/12/2022 at 5:25 PM, MCIBUS said:

But at least everything was together Montreal, Toronto, Kingston, North Bay etc. Now you to go to Montreal you need to go to the train station, to Toronto ST Laurent Station, before everything was in one place, you could get food, buy your tickets at the counter(not this on-line crap), was A/C in summer & heat in winter and the waiting area was inside a building. I'll miss the old Central Station. Now if I go to Toronto I'll pay more and take the train at least I can pay at the counter and not worry about trying to get tickets via computer.

Whatever became of plans floated about 10 years or so ago to move the bus terminal to or near the VIA station?

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On 9/14/2022 at 12:30 AM, Loud-Invero said:

To be honest, I'm glad they haven't done anything yet. We'll get a new council that will actually bring us back to our roots, hopefully by bringing back bus service pre-2011 or even 2004 levels of local service, minus all the Connexion/Express. They can package the changes as 1 major service change. That being said, the new commission that will become afterword's *really* needs to study their userbase and traffic patterns of all demographics (cars, bike users, etc.)  and evaluate things like rural service (which we had in 2003, every 2hrs to Richmond, Rideau Carleton Raceway, Manotick, and Carleton Lodge, etc.), and better cross regional transit, so I can go from Bayshore to Blair in 40 minutes (even though it's 15 mins by car), and same with other points of the city. Nepean North to Nepean South, Nepean South to South Keys, etc. Things like that, incentivize ditching the car for a bus. I did it for 13 years, but if they're gonna cut my routes over and over again, jack the fares because they believe I should be charged the same fare going from Blair to St. Laurent on the 12, while someone takes the 283 from Tunney's to Munster, meanwhile having a 50% on time performance record, if it even shows up, and to top it off, to have multiple transfers on my route that was not needed before? Yeah, I rather the expenses of that the car comes with, even though as a collective, it's much more damaging to the environment, infrastructure, etc.

In a perfect world. Ideally I want what you and many other want, a massive overhaul of the network to actually work for the city. What we need first is transparency of what we actually have for resources (buses, drivers, service hours) and go from there. A change has to happen before stage 2 and again once stage 2 is running but I’d love to see us adopt a more Translink style or community transit in the US where routes utilize the highways with DD buses. Terry fox to place Dorleans with 2-3 stops in between, Orleans to barhavven, and trips along those lines. Let the double deckers be useful off peak and reallocate the connection routes to where needed 

end of the day though, until OC gets a funding boost then nothing changes 

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6 hours ago, TransitGeek said:

I personally would like to see Line 2 extend northbound to Gatineau using the Prince of Wales Bridge, but I don't know what exactly the plans are on the bridge being opened to the public anytime soon.

If I heard correctly it's suppose to turned in Multi-path Bridge? Walking & Bike paths.

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On 9/15/2022 at 10:53 AM, TransitGeek said:

I personally would like to see Line 2 extend northbound to Gatineau using the Prince of Wales Bridge, but I don't know what exactly the plans are on the bridge being opened to the public anytime soon.

 

20 hours ago, MCIBUS said:

If I heard correctly it's suppose to turned in Multi-path Bridge? Walking & Bike paths.

Work is currently underway to add a pathway to the bridge, and has been ongoing all summer.

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10 hours ago, MCIBUS said:

Interesting? I wonder who they'll get to run the service & what type of Handi-cap accessible buses they'll use, if any? ?

Judging by the website. There will be an accessible shuttle. 

Quote

Accessibility

The school buses providing the shuttle service are not accessible, as they have stairs and a narrow aisle. However, we do offer an accessible shuttle for people with reduced mobility.

The accessible shuttle will be in service on the same days as the regular Fall Rhapsody shuttle, with departures at 9 am and 1 pm from the Canadian War Museum, and at 9:15 am and 1:15 pm from the Canadian Museum of History. The itinerary will be flexible, based on the passengers’ desired stops.

 

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On 9/25/2022 at 8:34 AM, MCIBUS said:

Thanks, still I wonder which school bus company they'll be using?

Probably First Student (former Campeau), as they're the only ones that operate accessible fullsize school buses. (Well, 417 Bus Lines has one, but Campeau had 3)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm for year-round bike racks. Mainly because bike season can start as early as March, yet racks aren't deployed in full capacity until June. Obviously, I'm concerned with how the racks will handle "Ottawa Salt", but otherwise, it better uses mechanic's time not having to remove about a thousand racks off its buses for 5 months just to put them back on.

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13 minutes ago, MCIBUS said:

I'm just curious as to well it'll be used? I suspect some might use it, but all in all I think it won't be as popular as OC might expect it to be?

From my experience.  Rack and roll use dwindles down at this time of year (usually as the amount of equipped buses goes down). This makes the rack and roll program unpredictable.  

With year round Rack and roll service, those who do ride or for those who want to switch to year round cycling can hopefully rely on the bus for the return trip home (if needed on cold wet days) 

 

 

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I hope y'all go out and vote in the Municipal elections on Monday. Especially concerning this forum, there's only one particular candidate who will actually improve the things we have complaining about the last 2 to 10 years. Here's Jim Watson's 2011, Mark Sutcliffe's 2022 Transit proposals and here's Catherine McKenney's transit proposals. Go vote!

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