The Case Of The Missing Buses … SOLVED!

10/22/2024

Had a chat with Deep Bus, the Bulldog’s extraordinary source on all things transit.

Deep explained exactly what happened to those amazing disappearing buses a number of which were missing trips Monday morning.

You see we scribes here at Bulldog World Headquarters were skeptical that the buses, which Transpo blamed for their disappearance, were the cause of many missed pick-ups on Monday morning. How do buses play hookie?

We spellers here at the global epicentre of news produced by dogs did some figurin’ and conjured up the fact that, despite the explanation of Transpo, buses are inanimate objects (incapable of thinking … much like the phalanx of editors at Headquarters) so they can’t make decisions unlike the senior managers of the Ottawa transit operation.

So Bulldog management immediately called off Sherlock Holmes and the Bank Street Irregulars from The Case of the Missing Buses. Even Moriarty would not have pulled this stunt.

Deep said that buses must be inspected before they are allowed on the road. However, Transpo closed one of its inspection stations on Mondays so there were not enough buses out there in the morning to complete their appointed rounds. That’s a simple equation that people caused because they are not inanimate objects. People can think. They can make OC Transpo better and they are not.

And as Ottawans, we should not be standing for gruesome mistakes on LRT and buses. We pay taxes. We obey the law. We respect democracy. We work hard. If we pay for something, we expect it to be good. Because we are Ottawans who pay for a service and demand our money’s worth. Because we are good at doing things

Instead city hall looks down on us. City hall should not be looking down on anyone. They should be looking up at us because Ottawans, on their worst days, do better than this city hall or Jim Watson’s city hall … if he has left it.

We expect our bus service to work. We expect our train service to work. And Ottawans are not so stupid that we believe the buses did it. That reflects poorly on those at fault.

Stop the excuses. If you did something wrong, say so. You might not look good admitting a mistake but at least you’re being honest. Honesty is an important trait. Buses don’t understand that because they don’t have brains. People do.

City hall might not be good. Correction. It is not good. But it can be honest. It should be honest.

The buses did it? Come on. Two can play that game. The dog ate my homework. That is at least within the realm of the possible.

Is city hall so bad that it can’t even lie well?

Ken Gray