‘Furious’ mayor promising immediate LRT fix

In the midst of yet another miserable morning for Ottawa commuters, Mayor Jim Watson took to Twitter to promise both short- and long-term fixes for the problem-plagued transit system.

Confederation Line service was disrupted from 5:30 a.m. until 8:40 a.m. Friday by separate problems east of the downtown tunnel, according to OC Transpo’s timeline of events.

Fare gates were also stuck open at several LRT stations, but anyone who took advantage of the free ride faced a long wait for a train.

Friday marked the 12th disruption of more than half an hour in less than four weeks.

The city’s general manager of transportation services, John Manconi, had already promised a significant briefing on Wednesday, including:

• “Key causes of train faults and actions being taken to improve reliability.”
• “Direction given to (builders) RTG on improvements and requirements to enhance reliability.”
• “Short and medium-term actions being taken to improve bus reliability.”
• And “other actions taken to improve the customer experience.”

CBC