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OC Transpo ridership seeing 'consistent increases', TRA still working with RTG

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The city of Ottawa’s transit commission met Wednesday, as public hearings into the inquiry of Stage 1 of LRT are underway.

In the first two days of testimony at the inquiry, former city staff members testified that there was pressure from the mayor and council to speed up the construction of the Confederation Line and that the $2.1 billion price tag did not take into account more than $400 million in inflation and $177 million in other costs.

Testimony has resumed for a third day.

In response to the first two days of testimony, transit commission chair Coun. Allan Hubley told CTV News Ottawa that the inflationary costs were news to him.

"I may be wrong but I don’t recall any language about that," he said. "My vote hinged on that 2.1. I understood the $2.1 billion was the hard price and that’s what we were paying."

He said he did not recall any conversations regarding speeding up the timeline.

Ridership recovering but hard numbers delayed

OC Transpo staff said ridership numbers for May are delayed and will be released via memo. Ridership on the transit system dropped significantly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has struggled to climb back to pre-pandemic levels. In a presentation, staff said Ridership has seen "consistent increases relative to 2021."

The city says Para Transpo ridership continues to rise, with 47,000 customer-trips in May compared to 44,500 customer-trips in April. 

Zero emission buses

Transit commission heard that the city is expected to close on a $380 million loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank to pay for the zero-emission bus program by the end of June.

The loan would be repaid over a 15-year term starting in 2027 with a 1 per cent interest rate per annum.

The city plans to buy 450 zero-emission buses and the requisite charging infrastructure.

An Infrastructure Canada funding agreement is expected to be in place by the end of Q4 2022.

TRA continues to work with OC Transpo

The independent company hired to oversee the Rideau Transit Group following the Sept. 19, 2021 derailment, is still working with the city and RTG.

Transportation Resource Associates (TRA) VP Daniel Hauber gave a brief presentation to commission Wednesday, saying tracking of return-to-service commitments by RTG is well managed by Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) and is independently verified by TRA.

Hauber said TRA meets monthly with the City and RTM to go over these commitments. He added, when it comes to the axle bearing failure that caused the first of last summer’s two derailments, mitigation measures remain in place and are continually verified by TRA “and they remain effective.”

TRA will also continue to monitor the root cause analysis for the axle bearing failure issue.

General Manager of Transit Services Renée Amilcar said TRA’s services have cost the city approximately $600,000 so far.

Commissioners set to testify in LRT inquiry

Three members of the current transit commission are scheduled to testify before the LRT inquiry later this month. Hubley, along Coun. Catherine McKenney and citizen commissioner Sarah Wright-Gilbert are scheduled to testify June 29 as part of a city panel that also includes Coun. Diane Deans, who was the chair of the transit commission when the contract for the Confederation Line was awarded to the Rideau Transit Group in 2012.

Day 3 of the LRT inquiry’s public hearings began at 9 a.m. The inquiry is hearing from John Traianopoulos of Infrastructure Ontario in the morning and from former deputy city of Ottawa manager Nancy Schepers, who also served as an executive advisor of light rail, in the afternoon.

You can watch the webcast here

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