All buses are now low-floors and have Next Stop Announcement System

Mayor Jim Watson, transit commission chair Diane Deans, and OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier announced on Tuesday morning the full accessibility of its bus fleet and the installation of the Next Stop Announcement System on all of its buses.

All old high-floor buses are now retired, so the bus fleet consists of only low-floor buses. Deans and Mercier said that the number of types of buses is down to four, which should reduce maintenance costs and overall, make it easier for them to maintain. I suspect there were specialty parts for the older buses that were not mass produced anymore, which likely made them more costly to maintain.

This change in the bus fleet is apparently three years ahead of schedule, which is a pleasant surprise for people with disabilities and transit users in general.

Angry driver gives OC Transpo a bad name

It seems like everyone is talking about the video that's surfaced recently of an OC Transpo operator absolutely ripping in to a rider on his bus, not just laying down some ridiculous personal insults but unleashing some pretty ugly profanity (all within earshot of young kids, no less). Some have come to the defence of the operator in question, including transit commission chair Diane Deans and acting ATU 279 president Mike Aldrich, stating that without knowing the full context of the event, there can't be conclusions drawn. I take issue with that, because no matter the context, the operator acted unprofessionally and disrespectfully. The rider, it would seem, did the same, but the rider isn't an employee of OC Transpo, so he isn't expected to uphold the service standards. Anyone who's worked in the service industry knows that customers can be disrespectful; that doesn't give you license to go off the handle on them.

But what I really take issue with is the reputation this (very isolated) incident gives OC Transpo operators. It's a sad reality, but negative press like this gets a lot more pick-up than positive press; already, this relatively minor story has received more mileage than the recent one of Peter Paquette, the OC Transpo driver who heroically stopped his bus to run into a burning house and help evacuate three people who were inside. In fact, in my experience, the friendly (or at least neutral) bus operators outnumber the surly (or downright disrespectful) ones by a decent margin.

The problem with this driver's actions, though, is not just that it's disrespectful to that individual rider, but it also gives the impression that disrespectful drivers are the norm, rather than the exception.

OC Transpo fare hike likely this year

As reported on 580 CFRA, Transit Commission chair Diane Deans suggested another OC Transpo fare hike is likely in this year's budget.

The head of the new Transit Commission is warning the City of Ottawa will likely have to increase transit fares for a fourth straight year.

OC Transpo fares increased 7.5 per cent last March, the third straight year transit fares increased.

Council hiked fares in the 2010 budget in a bid to reach a
50-50 split in covering the cost of OC Transpo operations between fares and property taxes.

I'm not terribly surprised there's going to be another fare hike; no one's ever denied there would be one, and with the aforementioned 50-50 split in funding OC Transpo, fares will go up to keep pace with ever-increasing operating costs. Should fares hold steady one year, it would mean either a reduction in service, or an increase in funding from property taxes.

Deans said she's hoping to minimize the hike, though, which is (aside from being an obvious statement) a good thing to hear. She's hoping to keep the rise to around the inflation rate.

A change of tone between the OC Transpo and the union

Well this is a refreshing dose of positive news.

Less than a week ago, I posted about early jockeying between the city and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 279 as the two sides were preparing to negotiate an extension to their agreement to keep OC Transpo buses running. It seemed the hostility between the two sides hadn't faded at all, and didn't bode well for negotiations.

But now, things seem to be a little different. Mayor Jim Watson met with acting president of the ATU 279 Mike Aldrich on Monday to discuss the future of Ottawa public transit (and preventing another transit strike), and Transit Commission acting chair Diane Deans is to meet with Aldrich on Tuesday for the same thing. The two had earlier said their interest was in smoothing relations between OC Transpo and the union, but hadn't done anything to put substance behind their words; opening up communication is a good place to start.

But it takes two sides to negotiate, and it looks like Aldrich is ready to do so now, too. On Monday, in an interview with the Ottawa Sun, Aldrich seemed to be moving forward with the negotiations:

Aldrich said he’s “looking forward” to the upcoming negotiations and hinted that things will be different with the ATU now under his leadership and not that of former president Andre Cornellier.

“It will be a whole new way of negotiating. We’re going to get rid of the adversarial attitude and get along. We (the ATU and the city) want to have a world-class transit system,” he said.

“This is the public’s transit system and I don’t want to use the public as pawns, we had 54 days of that s**t. It’s the last thing we want.”

There's some passion there, and it's a passion to find a proper agreement before push comes to shove and a strike seems inevitable. All of a sudden, I'm fairly optimistic these two sides can figure this thing out.

Jockeying starts early for city, union in negotiations

Although the contract between the Amalgamated Transit Union 279 and OC Transpo doesn't expire until March 2011, and with the winter 2008-09 53-day transit strike still fresh in our minds, both sides of the labour agreement have already started posturing to gain advantage in the upcoming labour talks.

Through his mayoral campaign and since, mayor Jim Watson has been stating his intention to mend the relationship between the city and the union; on the day she was selected as chair of the transit commission, Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans talked to CTV Ottawa about "a new era of co-operation" between the two sides. Although it's still very early in their respective mandates (Deans was just approved as chair of the commission yesterday), neither has done much, if anything, in the way of tangible action to change anything.

Meanwhile, OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier has initiated a survey of workers to get to the bottom of the seemingly ever-present low morale issues at OC Transpo--a survey which, according to acting president of the ATU 279 Mike Aldrich, is identical to one which was done five years ago, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen. Aldrich said issues are the same as were determined in the previous survey--"running times, scheduling and poor morale throughout the company"--and didn't approve sending the survey out.

On the other side, the ATU 279 leadership is using some more strongly-armed tactics, putting pressure on the city to make changes even before the union will agree to come to the table. Aldrich has complained that the negotiating team--led by Mercier--is the same as it was during the last negotiation, and that he wants to see some "changes" before proceeding with negotiations. From the CBC:

"We have the same players negotiating the same proposals," said Aldrich, referring to the 51-day strike in 2008-09 that shut down buses in the city.

"We know what happened last time. I'm not interested in going down that road."

[...]

"One of [Watson's] campaign promises was to repair the poisoned atmosphere at OC Transpo but so far nothing has been fixed," Aldrich said. "So until we see some changes, or improvements, we'll wait."

Although posturing such as this isn't really uncommon in labour discussions, it's still a little unsettling to hear that issues remain, and that these issues are enough to delay advance negotiations. On the plus side, both sides have said they want to avoid a strike; Aldrich told the CBC that there is "no way the union wants a strike".

Getting a steal on light-rail land

The possibility of getting land owned by the federal government needed for building the city's light-rail transit plan for a symbolic $1 fee came up a while back, slipped below the radar, and is making headlines again now that politicians are commenting on it.

First off, Diane Deans had asked the federal transport minister, Chuck Strahl, where his government stood on the issue. Deans interpreted Strahl's rather vague e-mail with an air of victory, saying (as quoted by 580 CFRA) "if you don't ask, you don't get." But the comments were pretty non-committal; here's the section where he actually addresses Deans' request, as presented on Ken Gray's Citizen blog The Bulldog:

In your correspondence, you inquire about transferring federal lands along the Ottawa Light Rail Transit phase-one corridor-including rights-of-way and a station at Tunney's Pasture-at a cost of $1.00. Where possible, and as the law permits, the Government of Canada will explore opportunities to facilitate the City of Ottawa's request; however, some limitations may exist where the immediate disposal of federal real properties must be made at fair-market value.

A day after the e-mail was released, Strahl clarified his comments by couching them with a lot of ifs and buts. Ken Gray is calling it a 'flip-flop', although it seems like Strahl never really made any promises in the original e-mail, anyway. So now Strahl is saying there's nothing written in stone, and that the one-dollar deal wasn't something the government has agreed to (although he stopped short of saying it's something the government would never agree to). From the Citizen:

"Let me be clear. At no time did we indicate that a straight transfer of land for one dollar was an option that the government of Canada would agree to," Strahl wrote Thursday to Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans.

Election leaves transit committee gutted

One interesting outcome from the municipal election just a few days ago: The City of Ottawa's transit committee has been absolutely gutted. Five of the eight councillors on the committee will not be returning, as Alex Cullen, Georges Bédard, and Christine Leadman were defeated in their wards by incumbents, Clive Doucet lost his run for mayor, and Jacques Legendre stepped away from political politics.

Bigger than the names that will be missing from the list? The fact that every councillor representing an urban ward will not return, while Marianne Wilkinson, the vice-chair, from Kanata North Ward, and Rainer Bloess, from Innes Ward, represent suburban wards, and Doug Thompson represents the largely rural Osgoode Ward (a ward which has about five OC Transpo routes running through it).

So there will be at least five new faces on the next Transit Committee. What might this huge change mean for OC Transpo, and for public transit in Ottawa?

Well, it's possible it won't mean too much for too long; part of mayor-elect Jim Watson's platform called for the establishment of an arm's-length transit commission, with five or six councillors and a few members of the public. But this transit commission, if it happens, won't happen right away. And when it does, most of the councillors joining it will likely be those people already on the Transit Committee, and familiarizing themselves with the transit ticket. So who might step up onto it?

It's obvious that there will need to be an urban presence, as transit issues are most pressing in urban areas. And of the new councillors to join the ranks, David Chernushenko, as likely the most left-leaning newcomer, seems like a natural fit for the committee. While we're all still getting to know some of the other new council members, the apparent prevalence of fiscally conservative members may make some individuals interested in joining the committee in an effort to bring down the operating costs of the city's highest budget item, transit services. Some longstanding councillors may also step up to the committee, as well, including Diane Deans. Deans has been outspoken on certain transit issues in the past, and has taken the lead on some items of the transit ticket, so there may be a fit there.

Whatever happens, though, there will be new faces on the transit committee, and there may be a learning curve. However you felt about Alex Cullen, he was the chair of the Transit Committee, and David Reevely thinks he'll be hard to replace. I suppose we will see.