Doesn't it suck when operators don't signal as they're pulling away from a platform?

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Why are more and more passengers getting on the buses and then blocking the front doors/area to find there fare. How long were waiting at the stop before the bus arrived? and you couldn't take 2 seconds to have your fare ready when the bus pulls up,and then expect to world to wait for you. Get your shit together, WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE.


It sure is great when other passengers fold up a wheel chair seat for a boarding stroller, Thank you for that


People hailing buses from a multi stop,we really appreciate it when you do that and encourage you to continue this, it sure takes the guess work out of it. I gave a day pass to a person the other day for hailing my bus on Carling Ave, as my way to say thanks.


Let the negative comments commence.


What the F!#$ are the count down people thinking when they run the buses through the wash and then leave them outside in -30c. I spent 10 min this morning @ Mrvl clearing the ice from the mirrors, and trying to get the rear doors to open. If you try to get a bus change they give you the bus next to it that just came out of the wash too. Any other drivers have this problem.


Happy 2010 to all.

Not fun, for sure. It is accepted fact that people will often blame drivers when their bus shows up late. I know I'm not re-inventing the wheel here. But I guess with the cold snap people who wait for late busses are getting openly angry. I understand. But, at the same time, remember what it's like when you set out to drive somewhere (if you drive) and you get to your destination later than you expected for reasons beyond your control. **
When you're annoyed by your bus being late, I get it. When you're rude and down right nasty about it, you're being an ass. A child. This experience is part of the job, and I'm still pleasant with you. Try to remember I'm serving you...what benefit do I get for being late? Do you think I did this intentionally just to see the look on your face?
Next time your bus shows up late and it's freezing outside, get annoyed, rightly. If you get personal/mean about it, you're being a douche bag.
**everyday day, every trip reasons for being late include, passengers waiting to look for pass/tickets/fare @ the door and holding up the line, dinging the bell for the wrong stop, saying your farewells to friends on the sidewalk before boarding, interupting the operator as he/she answers the question you just asked, taking forever to get off the bus after you dinged the bell, running in front of a bus @ intersections (or elsewhere), lowering the bus to deploy the ramp...give it some thought next time you call me a jerk for being l

Why OC Transpo hiring Operators that crazy ?? I heard new recruits starting their training in January 2010 . They already have 1700 plus operators and hiring still going oin till December 2009. 1700 operators not sufficient ????
or they re hiring due to retirements.

Once LRT is in action after couple of years dont you think these junior operators wll loose their jobs cuz u dont need that many buses on road nd rail wont need that many operators for their operation
Thanks

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Dear passengers,

Please pay attention to the destination sign. If you see VIA that means we do not go through the shortest way to final destination. For example 86 Lincoln fields VIA Meadowlands, 87 South Keys VIA Riverside drive and 125 Orleans VIA St.Laurent. Yelling at the bus driver for your lack of attention won’t make you any smatter. Stop yapping on your cell for a few seconds and raise your precious head and use the skill that you learn in Pre School…READ the damn sign, please.

A week ago, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that he would increase provincial funding for "rapid transit" from $200 million to $600 million. However, he also stated that he would not provide any more money to Ottawa for this purpose.

Unfortunately, as Ken Gray noted in his blog, this creates more questions than it does answers. However, it does make some facts very clear, and these facts are not good news for Ottawa City Council.

The most important issue is that a cap of $600 million on such a grant only makes sense if A) the federal government is willing to match the grant and B) the City is able to cover the rest of the cost. If the City had been able to keep the overall cost down to its original stated aim of $1.8 billion, then the City's share would have been a manageable $600 million, which would have caused only a minor ripple among ratepayers. However, the overall cost is now $2.1 billion and rising, which would leave local ratepayers on the hook for $900 million or more. It was for this reason that I complained back in late September that the LRT project as currently specified would prove to be a white elephant. Worse, that does not even consider the possibility that the federal government may try to back out. [If it does, however, it probably would wind up with a major embarrassment on its hands, and may annoy a great many voters here in Ontario. Even if I wish the federal government would do just that, so it would get the boot come next election, I rather doubt it would be so stupid as to hand another issue to the Opposition on a silver platter.]

Another issue is that the money being provided is earmarked for "rapid transit." As Ken Gray points out, this is not a very specific definition; it could be used for choices other than LRT or the planned tunnel through downtown. However, I do not agree with some of the following assessments that he makes.

I do agree that there are drawbacks to a bus tunnel and that the rising price of oil and fuel is one such drawback. However, there are also other drawbacks, such as the width required for the tunnel (which would be reduced if only railed vehicles used it) and the fact that ventilation for the tunnel would have to be far more complex if diesel-powered vehicles were allowed to go through. [As wysewisdom noted back in September, diesel power running through the tunnel would probably require large exhaust towers to be installed at surface level in the downtown, which itself would become a clear show-stopper due to sheer cost as well as the land required.] While the width of the tunnel may be negotiable, these aforementioned ventilation requirements are a necessity due to safety considerations. The only way to avoid some of this is to require electric propulsion (i.e. trolleybuses and/or LRT) for all vehicles going through the tunnel.

I also disagree that buses would always be less efficient than LRT trains. I do feel that conventional diesel buses (even articulated ones) would be hard-pressed to do so, but I suspect that these limitations may not apply to trolleybuses. Furthermore, trolleybuses can avoid a well-known flaw of the existing articulated diesels (propulsion applied to only one axle) which has caused problems such as buses becoming stuck in snowdrifts. Electric hub motors can apply propulsion in a controlled fashion to each and every wheel (with no axle required); this would reduce the probability of skids as well as becoming stuck in snowdrifts.

In the long run, as Mr. Gray has pointed out, the tunnel itself may have to be reconsidered. Building a tunnel underneath the downtown will always be an expensive proposition, and increases in the cost of fuel may put the cost of digging the tunnel out of reach even if an LRT-only option is chosen. He predicts that the City Council will eventually bow to the inevitable and scrap the tunnel part of the scheme; I wish I could be so optimistic. The current City Council has a very poor track record of understanding what the word "boondoggle" means; the only way to get it to change is if enough voters started nagging them about this point.

Many people have objected to the idea of trolleybuses operating along the Transitway or elsewhere, partly due to the question of "unsightly overhead wires." Others have insisted that only LRT will solve the city's ongoing transit ills, as if it were a panacea of some kind. I don't agree with either of these assessments. It is noteworthy that City Council has already opted for the common-sense choice of building LRT with overhead wires in any case; just how are trolleybus overhead wires going to be more unsightly than the ones used for LRT? As a case in point, consider this picture of a streetcar line in Portland, Oregon (USA):

(For a clearer view, try here.)

Another point to remember is that other cities have had to delay or give up on LRT proposals entirely, due to financial reasons. At least one such city, Leeds in Britain, recovered by replacing its LRT plan with a planned trolleybus network instead. If the cost of the "rapid transit" plans for this city keep on rising out of reach, will we be able to afford LRT without leaving a massive debt load for future generations? If LRT and/or the tunnel are not financially feasible, would we be able to make similar choices? Or will we be stuck with diesel buses as before?

Inquiring minds would still like to know.

on holiday weekdays when the buses are on Saturday schedule, on routes where the bus goes to different places at a transit station depending on the day, which place does it go? for example, the 140 at billings goes upstairs on weekdays and downstairs on weekends, so I need to know where to wait.

to any junior operators working trippers (aka express routes) this afternoon. remember, thers only two timepoints along the route, the begining point and finishing point. dont bother waiting ur time if ur early. yes, youll porbably finish ur trip 10+ mins early but u wont get into shit for doing so.

expresses are always fun to do on christmas eve during the afternoon- hardly anyone rides them!!!

if planning was smart, they would put expresses during the lunch hour wen all the civil servants get off work early. ohwell..

I understand we're on a weird schedule this week, however if OCTranspo phone line, online, and the fact I caught the bus I was waiting for yesterday, leads me to believe that a bus is going to come at a certain time, I should not be waiting 40 minutes for a bus that comes every 20 mins (I finally gave up and took a different bus because I was frozen standing on the side of Strandherd with cars whipping up wind into my face).

The weather wasn't that bad between 4:30 and 5 *except for it being cold* for buses to just not show up, however, conspicuously "Out of Service" buses came by around the time the buses should have come, and let people off just past the stop.

So if drivers decided that since there's really only 4 stops between where I was and the end of their route (which is 1.3km, and a nice walk in nice weather, but impossible to walk in snow unless you want to walk down Strandherd Drive in the middle of rush hour since there's no sidewalks... which I do not), then that is NOT COOL.