By Laura Neidhart and Andrew Hartshorn, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, January 20, 2020
City’s attitude on LRT is insulting
Re: Commuter chaos Thursday, outrage hours after downed power line immobilizes LRT, Jan. 17.
I watched the press conference on the Ottawa LRT failures Friday, and I am appalled that, once again, Mayor Jim Watson and OC Transpo representatives attempted to shift the blame for everything from elevator failures to train delays onto passengers. I have lived in cities such as London (England) with mass transit serving millions of daily commuters, and have even experienced the roll-out of brand new LRT in Seattle. These are not anticipated hiccups of a new system, but rather appear to be the result of systemic dysfunction of both light-rail and City Hall.
(...)LRT: Fire the lot of them
As a citizen of this city, I am sick of listening to the managers of the Rideau Transit Maintenance group and the city trying to explain problems with LRT which they obviously have never seen before, and asking us to have a little patience.
As we stand in the freezing cold waiting for a bus instead of a train, or slide down icy wet staircases, or deal with closing doors as we scramble to board a train that may or may not get us to our destination, it is time for management replacement.
(...)In the meantime, bring back the buses for at least a year until LRT has operated trouble-free for at least three months.The design of the whole system is so bad, who signed off on it?
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/letters/todays-letters-on-the-lrts-woes-and-a-thanks-to-health-care-workers