What you need to know about OC Transpo's 'Shuttle Express' bus service

OC Transpo is launching shuttle buses during the morning and afternoon rush hours today to support the flagging LRT, which has been reduced to single-car service.

The "Shuttle Express" buses will operate in a fashion similar to the R1 Express that ran from Blair Station to downtown for four weeks while O-Train Line 1 was offline. These shuttles will also operate in the west end between Tunney's Pasture Station and downtown.

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the bus shuttles are an "enhancement" of service.

"It demonstrates that we're listening to our customers," he said. "We heard from customers over and over again in the last four weeks that they liked the express service and so if we have an opportunity to deliver better service to customers, based on their requests, their demands, then we're always going to look at that."

End-to-end service resumed on the nearly four-year-old Confederation Line on Monday after it was shut down completely July 17. West end service started back up Aug. 8. Replacement R1 buses took customers between Tunney's Pasture and Blair stations during the 28-day shutdown, but a special "R1 Express" for east-end customers that skipped several transit stops in the mornings and afternoons proved popular.

Shuttle Express buses will run during morning and afternoon peak periods at least until the end of the year, taking customers from Tunney's Pasture or Blair stations to downtown in the morning every weekday and from downtown to Blair or Tunney's Pasture in the afternoons.

Here's what riders can expect:

Shuttle Express will run every 10 minutes.

Monday to Friday from 6:30 to 9 a.m.:

• Blair Station to downtown with service on Mackenzie King Bridge and on Albert Street
• Tunney’s Pasture to downtown with service on Slater Street and Mackenzie King Bridge

Monday to Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.:

• Downtown to Blair Station with service on Slater Street and Mackenzie King Bridge
• Downtown to Tunney’s Pasture Station with service on Mackenzie King Bridge and on Albert Street

Transit Services General Manager Renée Amilcar says seven to 10 buses will be dedicated to the shuttle service. She expects single-car LRT trains and Shuttle Express buses will be sufficient to support expected ridership.

How fast is the bus compared to the train?

In order to relaunch service, trains are running at reduced speeds, and passengers will notice a slower service than before.

The R1 Express from Blair was popular in part because customers noticed it was faster than the train, even before the shutdown.

Director of Transit Operations and Rail Delivery Troy Charter said express riders could get from Blair to downtown about five minutes faster than if they took the train.

From Tunney's Pasture, he recommends riders use the train but the Shuttle Express will give customers options.

"We haven't run the R1 Express before from the west end. We'll be bypassing two stations to get people to downtown quicker, so the saving time is not much in the west end, so it'd probably be beneficial to stay on the train," Charter said. "We want to give customers options and we're running that R1 Express from the east so we want to make sure we do it in the west, too."

What about R1 Para service?

The same-day booking R1 Para Transpo service that was offered during the shutdown is over, with no immediate plans to bring it back.

Charter said fewer than 10 people accessed it while it was available.

But Amilcar added that same-day booking is in high demand and OC Transpo is working on it.

"That will take a little bit of time because that will take a lot of money. I'm not saying we won't do anything because I know it is important for them [Para Transpo customers] and they've said that so many times," she said. "We will see what we can do. I want to hear and see how we can better work together to see what we can do."

Amilcar noted that Line 1 is fully accessible.

Why single trains?

The LRT system was designed to support double-car train service, and was pitched with an expected 15 trains, or 30 cars, running end-to-end during peak periods.

Until the end of August, the Confederation Line will use one-third to just under one-half of that number of cars depending on the time of day. Single-car service will continue into the fall with no specific date in sight for a return to double-car trains.

Since the shutdown, train manufacturer Alstom issued a new safety note that requires the front and rear axles of every train be replaced every 60,000 km. The assemblies are supposed to last for 1.2 million km, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Transit officials say sharp curves on the tracks, particularly in the east end, put pressure on the wheel hub assemblies, causing them to degrade faster. To correct this, in addition to the new axle-replacement regime, sections of restraining rails on the curves were adjusted last week and a track lubrication system will be put in place in the near future.

In the meantime, single-car service will run to prevent too many trains racking up 60,000 km at once.

"We want to be able to sustain the service. We could easily today use double cars; however, we want to make sure that we will be able to maintain a level of service with this new regime in place," Amilcar said. "The system has been built to either use single-car or double-car."

Amilcar claims it would take about six months for a light rail vehicle to reach 60,000 km.