OC Transpo is restoring service to five routes affected by last year’s cutbacks.
About $20 million was cut from OC Transpo’s budget last year, spurring a much-maligned “route optimization” that left gaps in service for hospitals, seniors and youth and resulted in thousands of complaints.
"It's been very hard for everyone in here," said Evelyn Proulx, who lives in a west Ottawa home with other seniors.
"Now if you want to go anywhere you have to get three or four buses, before we used to take (just the 156)."
"Last September we were telling them that wasn't going to work," said Robert Graham. "We've noticed the people aren't going out as much and the deterioration in health."
Thursday, Ottawa transit head John Manconi released a list of five routes to be boosted after studying results of those cuts:
- Route 106, servicing CHEO and the General campus of the Ottawa Hospital from downtown.
- Route 116, more weekend service to the Hunt Club/Riverside area.
- Route 87, connecting Mooney's Bay-area to Hurdman Station.
- Route 153, a new route between Lincoln Fields Station and Carlingwood.
- Route 171, connecting Barrhaven to the rest of the OC Transpo network on "youth-friendly" weekends.
Proulx and the rest of the seniors at 31 McEwen Avenue are getting their lost 156 replaced with that new 153 bus.
Other changes announced in the memo include shuffling in some of the new double-decker buses, extending service on east-end Route 130 to Millennium Station and adding trips on the 5 and 93.
"OC Transpo is a lifeline to many people in our community," said transit commission chair Diane Deans in a statement.
"We have to be efficient, but we also have to have a heart . . . this is an attempt to find the right balance."
These changes are expected to start in late December, at a cost of $500,000.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua
