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One latest Sunday, I used to be solely a metre from the bus I used to be operating to catch at Tunney’s Pasture Station, when it drove away.
Together with numerous different riders who had simply exited the LRT, I noticed the #89 bus approaching as I used to be beginning to around the lengthy curve main from the LRT station to the bus stops on the opposite facet. I began to run; others did too.
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Some sprinted and reached the bus cease on time; I used to be burdened with a backpack stuffed with heavy library books and my legs have been drained from strolling nearly 4 hours that day. I didn’t make it.
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As I trudged dwelling — it was faster to stroll than to attend for the subsequent bus — I contemplated why some bus connections at Tunney’s have been so inconvenient.
Some are high-quality: the far westward connections, to Bayshore and Kanata, are on the identical facet because the LRT station and just a few steps away.
However the stops for buses going south to Nepean, east to downtown, or west inside the Greenbelt are a number of minutes’ stroll away, as you’re pressured to take a “Nice Circle” out-of-your-way path to get to them. Need to switch to a Barrhaven-bound bus? It will probably take as a lot as 5 minutes of strolling to get to Cease G from the LRT station itself — throughout the circle — as you watch your bus sail by you.
It’s regular to see folks dashing alongside the bus platform attempting to catch a
route 74 or 75 close to the tip of the platform. OC Transpo will inform you that it wants that house to keep away from crowding whereas boarding buses. That argument may need had some validity at rush hour in 2019; it doesn’t now.
And it’s actually not legitimate at 6:31 p.m. on a Sunday evening, the time I missed my bus.
OC Transpo, let’s attempt one thing new! After 9 p.m. every evening, all buses cease at an evening cease at Tunney’s that’s on the identical facet because the LRT, solely steps away from the LRT exit. That is achieved for passenger comfort and security in the dead of night.
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However why 9 p.m.? Why not 6 p.m. (or 6:30 p.m.) on weekdays, and all day Saturday and Sundays? I’ve stood many occasions watching the buses circle Tunney’s and I can guarantee you that the variety of buses choosing up passengers at anyone time on evenings and weekends is low sufficient that they might simply all match on the evening cease, as may the passengers ready for these buses.
Don’t power folks to run to make transfers, particularly at evening. Don’t make them miss a switch when their subsequent bus may not come for one more hour.
Make bus transfers less complicated and extra handy by having the evening cease at Tunney’s begin at 6 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.
And the price could be minimal, too: just some indicators and new operator directions. That is an motion that may very well be achieved — now — with out remodeling the station.
Alayne McGregor has been operating to catch OC Transpo buses since 1978.
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