Show Some Courage OC Transpo: GRAY

OC Transpo is on the cusp of admitting defeat in the battle against freezing rain.

The city’s train agency is considering closing the line when freezing rain is in the forecast.

“Shutting down the service is not something we take lightly, but if it means we avoid these types of situations where we’re down for extended periods of time, that’s something we need to consider,” said Troy Charter, the interim general manager of OC Transpo.

This is an outrage.

Who is the public transit system being operated for … the public servants who are tired of being embarrassed by the dumpster fire that is the O-Train or the public which needs transportation when driving is too dangerous?

That statement is a poor reflection of the attitudes of Ottawa’s public servants who appear to feel that the O-Train is run for the convenience of city staff rather than the genuine needs of a commuting public. In other words, what staff appears to be saying is that if the weather is really bad, you commuters find another way to get to work or daycare or other important needs.

The easy way out for public servants is to close the line in bad weather. Easy for staff. Hideous for the public. You’re on your own commuters. Public service is a thing of the past.

Your agent covered the ice storm of 1998 for the Ottawa Citizen that crippled all of eastern Ontario and kept the power out for as long as 24 days. It was an existential threat, not a few hours of piddling freezing drizzle like we saw last week. This OC Transpo in its press releases called it a “severe storm”. That might be good cover-up public relations from Happy Town News but it didn’t reflect reality.

And what did Hydro Ottawa do when the 1998 ice storm reached its peak? It dug in and hooked up the city’s innumerable lines in the worst of weather. Crews from across Canada and the United States drove to eastern Ontario to respond heroically to a real emergency. They saved lives in 1998, not the reputations of weak OC Transpo executives as city public relations is trying to do doing today.

Hydro crews showed courage and perseverance in the face of a gigantic real emergency. OC Transpo shows cowardice. It wants to close the system rather than fix it in an emergency. How can OC Transpo, after seven years of emergency outages, not be ready for a weak ice storm? Has it not had enough outages over this time to learn a few lessons?

OC Transpo is an embarrassment of lack of diligence, competence and courage. How can the city’s politicians allow a transit executive to talk in such a way? Show some spine Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.

How low can morale be at Rideau Transit Management when the man who runs OC Transpo considers closing the line in the face of a tiny bit of adversity? Who does the O-Train run for in this community … the public or transit’s weak top management?

Here’s how 1998 looks in comparison to 2026. Three decades ago hydro workers from all across North America jumped into action in the face of a life-threatening emergency. Today, an OC Transpo official is considering closing the O-Train in the face of no emergency at all.

Transpo’s management, municipal staff and the city’s politicians should be ashamed of themselves as they have allowed the city’s transit system to degrade into a shadow of its former self. Courage has been replaced by cowardice.

If a little ice storm can thwart the fortitude of OC Transpo, no wonder the O-Train has been such an abysmal failure.

Transpo runs and hides in the face of a little adversity. If the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo have any shame left to lose on the LRT file, they should be ashamed of themselves.

Rather than doing its job well when a bit of adversity appears, OC Transpo runs in a hole and hides.

Ken Gray is the editor of The Bulldog.

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