HELLO OTTAWA
🚊 As you probably know, the Confederation Line was suddenly and unceremoniously shut during the afternoon rush hour yesterday. Passengers on every train were hustled off at the next station. The O Train remains closed.
A routine inspection found a bearing with too much grease, after which OC Transpo general manager of transit services Renée Amilcar said the system was stopped ‘in an abundance of caution’. A rail replacement service by bus has been implemented.
We listened to the entire press conference this afternoon and we are sorely disappointed – we heard nothing but buck passing and platitudes. Nobody would give a yes or no answer if the system would be back tomorrow, despite letting it slip that a train with testing instruments would be operating for ‘days’.
Imagine a world in which Renée Amilcar or Mayor Mark Sutcliffe took responsibilty for the O Train and didn’t hide behind the designers, or maintainers, or the myriad other layers of O Train factotums.
Maybe then we could start trusting what OC Transpo says.
Correction: Yesterday, we wrote about OC Transpo attempting to fix its worst bus route. The worst route is actually Route 85, not 65 like we wrote. Route 65, like the O Train, does not exist. (Thank you, Ed)
And while we are in a mea culpa mood, last week we wrote about how the Federal public service rose 40 per cent, or 21,000 people since 2015. The public service rose by 21,000 employees last year, and by 98,000 since 2015. (Thank you, Trevor)
– Martha & Darren
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