Buses snarled at Hurdman Station; commuters furious

OC Transpo buses in gridlock at Hurdman Station.

OC Transpo apologized today for "operational challenges" after gridlock during rush hour at Ottawa's Hurdman Station. Passengers were furious with some waiting more than an hour to get on a bus.

The problems started around 7:30 this morning at the peak of rush hour as dozens of buses plugged Hurdman Station, causing significant delays for commuters. The bottleneck at Hurdman, just east of downtown, was so severe some bus riders said it would have been faster to walk.

Inching along, bumper to bumper, these buses stretch almost as far as the eye can see, leaving commuters frustrated and late.

‘It was brutal, really brutal,’ says one man as he hustles by, already late, ‘sorry, but I gotta go,’

‘We’re late for school and we left uOttawa 30 minutes ago,’ says a student rushing by, ‘It’s pretty frustrating for your first day of school.’

It was a double whammy for Dan McGee and his partner who were stuck at the airport.

‘It's taken us an hour and half from the airport to here because the taxis were also protesting.’

Bus passengers say even at 11 a.m., hours after the start of rush hour, the buses were still stretching down the road.

OC Transpo employees were left scrambling to help frazzled passengers.

‘If I can get an aircraft here, I’d help you out,’ jokes fare enforcement officer Gino Paolino with a passenger.

Special constables were called in to direct buses in the middle of the mayhem.

‘It’s a disaster,’ says OC Transpo bus operator Jim Coleman, ‘if the public doesn’t have something to say about it, I’d be very surprised.’

The public had plenty to say tweeting out photos like one taken by Phillip Lavigne, overlooking the mess high up in his high-end condo.

‘Never seen it like that before,’ Lavigne said, ‘two lanes with buses were lined up all the way from Riverside Drive.’

So what went wrong?  That's what the city is trying to figure out. Stephen Blais is an Ottawa councillor and the chair of the city’s Transit Commission.

‘The combination of new places for the buses to stop, customers needing to know which platform to go to,  new stop signs and a number of logistical things like that caused a backlog,’ says Blais.

Hurdman's main platform has been temporarily moved to allow the conversion to light rail.  Couple that with back to school and back to work and it all contributed to the chaos.  Blais says the city took immediate steps, looking to implement seven changes, including additional special constables to direct traffic and more staff to help customers find the proper platform.

‘Obviously it was inconvenient for people and we apologize for that,’ Blais added.