There were many (MANY!) service changes announced at today’s Ottawa Transit Commission meeting, but this one caught my eye.
Oh, and if you don’t live in the Alta Vista/ Elmvale Acres / Urbandale areas of Ottawa, you won’t care at all about this:
Route 149
Service would be reduced to operate only until approximately 8:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, with one late evening trip after retail closing time and evening classes. The service in the midday would be reduced to three trips. There would be no weekend service.
| Section | Time period | Change |
|---|---|---|
| – | Mon-Fri peak periods | No change |
| Mon-Fri midday | Limited trips | |
| Mon-Fri evening | Last trips 8:00 p.m. plus late trip | |
| Saturday | Service removed | |
| Sunday | Service removed |
The red line below is the route along Pleasant Park Drive that the 149 runs along… and now weekend plus late night service is being eliminated…. to me, this is a bad decision.
While true that there seem to be more bus-dependent indivduals along Kilborn (the 148 route), this service reduction will leave a non-trivial number of families in a lurch on weekends. Some will be able to walk south to Kilborn or north to Smyth, but this simply won’t be possible for many – especially in the winter.
OC Transpo should rethink this one. Perhaps a reduction in the number of weekend runs – but not the wholesale elimination.
(3754)
