Buses Crowding Slater Street, since 2004

In Fall of 2004, OC Transpo posted this notice to alert customers it was reducing the number of buses on Slater street in the pm. Quote:

"Congestion on Slater Street in the afternoon rush hour has increased steadily in recent years causing bus delays and slowdowns. This has affected customers waiting for buses downtown, as well as the reliability of the entire transit system.

One of the problems has been the number of buses on Slater Street which could not handle the capacity of the afternoon peak period. We will therefore be reducing the number of buses on Slater Street in the afternoon in order to speed up service and improve schedule reliability."

Some people still think that "Bus Rapid Transit", which we supposedly have here in Ottawa, is "the way to go".

Unfortunately for them, downtown is at capacity in the # of buses that it can handle. So, trying to increase transit use to or through downtown by jamming more buses through downtown is not going to work.

Surprisingly, OC Transpo admitted this way back in the fall of 2004, when they REDUCED the # of bus routes starting from downtown in the afternoon, and "forced" users of those routes to take some other bus to Hurdman to connect to a local bus. What a concept!

The Friends of the O-Train plan has recognized this and it's one of many reasons to have 3 minute eLRT service from Bayview to Hurdman, with reliable bus "spokes" into local neighbourhoods. The hub and spoke model is the only way forward, and truly rapid LRT in the downtown connecting two modern transfer hubs will make transit fast and enjoyable.