City councillors defeated an attempt to restore five-minute LRT service frequency during off-peak hours by a razor-thin margin Wednesday.
Last month, OC Transpo reduced frequency on Line 1 to every 10 minutes between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Management said trains are more than half empty during those hours, and the change would save $1.6 million per year as the transit service faces a gaping budget hole.
But Coun. Jeff Leiper tabled a motion to bump frequencies back to five minutes, saying the cuts aren’t worth the savings.
“It’s just one more reason, when residents quickly read the headlines, to believe that transit sucks,” he said. “If we don’t bring riders back, the $120-million hole that we have in our budget is just going to continue to grow.”
The motion triggered procedural manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres, but eventually Mayor Mark Sutliffe voted with a tight 13 to 12 majority to sink Leiper’s idea.
The mayor said OC Transpo will be able to pivot and boost frequency again if demand warrants.
“The end result of today is we’re exactly were we were before, which is that OC Transpo leadership is able to make those decisions,” said Sutcliffe. “We’re not going to make them for them, we’re not limiting them and imposing certain timetables on them for any route or any line.”
‘If we build it, it should run’
But Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster called it “nonsensical” to spend billions building an LRT system only to cut service to save a small fraction of that amount.
Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Jessica Bradley said service reductions leave Ottawa with an expensive system of “shiny parked trains.”
Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King put it simply: “If we build it, it should run.”
OC Transpo management said ridership was at just 39 per cent of capacity during off-peak hours prior to the service cut, which transit services chief Renée Amilcar insisted on calling an “adjustment.” But some councillors were sceptical of that argument.
“What we’re failing to grasp today is frequency and capacity are two different things,” said River ward Coun. Riley Brockington. “We’re not addressing the promise we made to residents, that your billion-dollar system is going to be frequent.
“I fully appreciate the financial challenges we’re under, but when is enough enough for crying out loud?”
Leiper proposed paying for the service boost out of an operating surplus forecast for the city’s tax-supported programs. The city’s chief financial officer warned that a few bad winter storms could quickly erase that wiggle room, however.
Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry said it isn’t fiscally responsible to rely on that money.
“This is just making this up,” she said. “This isn’t money we actually know we have.”
She joined other suburban councillors who said improving service on bus routes with much longer waits is more important than saving riders five minutes on the trains.
“I think it’s prudent on our part to give staff that flexibility to schedule as needed, based on the demand,” said Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo. “We have residents who are stuck on the platform at Fallowfield station because multiple buses go by them full.”