Today’s letters: OC Transpo’s ‘New Ways to Bus’ isolates seniors

Tuesday, May 20: Changes to bus routes are making it harder for older Ottawans to maintain their independence, a reader says. You can write to us too, at [email protected]

Published May 20, 2025

Last updated May 23, 2025

10 minute read

Orléans resident Claudia Biasolo has a commute to work of almost two hours each day. Readers have responded to her story with some of their own. Photo by BRUCE DEACHMAN /POSTMEDIAArticle content

OC Transpo has an obligation to support seniors

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I read Bruce Deachman’s article with a sense of familiarity. My family is also experiencing the negative impacts of “New Ways to Bus.”

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My parents live near Merivale Mall in Nepean. My mom (in her 70s) recently had to stop driving for medical reasons. My dad, who is 80 and has stage 4 cancer, still drives, but doesn’t always feel up to leaving the house. My mom needs her own ways to get around without relying on my dad.

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My mom stopped driving a couple of months before “New Ways to Bus.” She began taking the bus again on her own, after not taking it much during the pandemic. She was able to take one bus route from her house to Tunney’s Pasture in about 20 minutes, then switch to the LRT to get downtown to meet friends for lunch or go shopping. She could also use that same route to visit shops on Wellington Street West. She enjoyed the ease and freedom of being able to get around without her car.

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Now, the routes near my parents’ house have all drastically changed and do not in the least resemble the variations that remained more or less constant over the previous 40 years. There is only one route serving their nearest local bus stop, and it goes to Billings Bridge, not Tunney’s Pasture. Google Maps says her route to get downtown would now involve either two buses and the LRT or two very local buses. Otherwise, she can walk 10 minutes to reach the nearest bus that goes to Tunney’s Pasture. In either case, her total time to get downtown would likely be 50 minutes to an hour, instead of the previous 30-to-40 minutes. (The drive downtown is about 20 minutes.)

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While the issue raised in the column is clearly more drastic and more disastrous to our local economy, the effects these changes have on seniors such as my mom also warrant attention. There have been countless alarms raised about the epidemic of loneliness among seniors and the importance of empowering them to remain independent as long as possible. Ensuring they can easily use transit to get around when they cannot drive is an essential service that our city must provide to those who have contributed to our community for decades. “New Ways to Bus” seems to be creating “New Ways to Isolate Seniors” instead of making it easier for them to get around the city.

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Naomi Perley, Toronto (formerly Ottawa)

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Make councillors ride the buses

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I agree that the entire bus system has been designed to force people on to the LRT regardless of whether it makes sense in terms of time or trajectory.

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I have a modest proposal. All Ottawa councillors (including the mayor) should use public transit exclusively for two weeks. This would provide several benefits. It would give them concrete insights into the functioning of the system. They would also meet and chat with the citizens who have no choice but to rely on the system for work, study, medical appointments, etc.

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And it would be enormously popular with those of us who have to depend on efficient transit. I’m sure we would all be delighted to share the system with them.

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Joan Bishop, Ottawa

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Please bring back the airport bus

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Please, OC Transpo, bring back the 97 bus which used to run from Tunney’s Pasture directly to the airport. It was both fast and efficient. Those of us who have not been able to adapt to the carry-on-only model of air travel will be eternally grateful. Those of us who are in our 70s will thank you for sparing our fragile bodies from making multiple connections. I am in the cohort that most relies on public transport.

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Surely Ottawa is the only significant world capital that has such bad connections to its airport. It used to be excellent. How odd that the O-Train has only succeeded in making it cumbersome.

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Ian McDonald, Ottawa

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Revive the 97, help the climate

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I fully support Xavier Scythe’s viewpoint. Essentially, we have got rid of the old reliable 97 bus that took us to the airport from downtown in 25 minutes versus the current route to the airport, taking three transfers (from Westboro) with heavy luggage, in over an hour when connections are perfect.

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The new rail link contributes to pollution, as one is now forced to use an Uber/taxi/automobile to get there and back.

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Please revive the 97 and help the environment, which we spend so much time talking about.

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Joe Pinto, Ottawa

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Transpo gets it backwards, again

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We all recall the saga of LRT missteps: doors that did not work, trains that did not run in the rain; the occasional square wheel. Now it seems the trains can’t tell riders which direction they are going in.

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This does little to inspire confidence in the TRL — sorry, looks like I wrote the letters in the wrong direction.

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John Beggs, Orléans

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LRT pattern about to be repeated

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I don’t agree with Randall Denley’s belief that there was once widespread support for light-rail transit. There was considerable argument against the proposal by significant groups. But LRT proponents never came out honestly to say, for example, “It will take you considerably longer to get to the airport or back.” Risk was minimized or ignored.

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I believe we are going through the same exercise with Lansdowne 2.0. Financial risks identified by Ernst & Young and by our city auditor general are ignored or minimized. The risk of losing the Ottawa Charge to another city is not verbalized; the temporary relocation during construction of the Ottawa 67’s, the Ottawa Rapid and Atlético may become permanent in some cases. We are going down the LRT road again.

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Peter Tobin, Ottawa

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We need affordable rentals downtown

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I can’t think of any city whose downtown core does NOT depend on a veritable army of people working lower wage jobs in the service sector: from the person changing the sheets and towels of your hotel room, to the retail clerks, to the cooks, baristas, servers and cleaners. They all
need a place to live they can afford.

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So why don’t cities and developers encourage family rental housing close to downtown, which would allow these people to work easily and reliably? Not “below market price” units in otherwise pricey condo towers, aimed at singles and upwardly mobile couples, but safe and
affordable housing for families.

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It is hard to see how obliging such workers to find rental properties farther and farther away from their place of work serves them or their employers. Better public transit can only help so much.

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The challenge, of course, is that developers can often view intensification of the downtown core, via high-rises, as yielding the highest potential returns, providing disincentives to building such housing.

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There are income levels that will never permit home purchase, no matter where it is located, or what we do to speed up such construction. It is in everybody’s interest to pursue affordable family rental housing in the downtown core.

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Mark Hammer, Ottawa

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Wrong place for Indigenous housing

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The idea of turning unused federal office buildings into housing is good but success is heavily dependent upon which building is chosen. Without extensive renovation, the Jackson Building at 122 Bank St. is exactly the wrong kind of building. It’s wrong for housing anyone, but particularly wrong for Indigenous people who strongly value contact with nature.

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This building has windows that don’t open. There is no place for trees, grass, gardens and no place to sit outside. There are no balconies. Renovations to recify this will be expensive and may be impossible. Would you live in this building, hermetically sealed against fresh breezes and sunlight and with no connection to nature?

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Marcia Falconer, Nepean

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Dutch-born Canadian will never forget

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My family and I dropped by the opening of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands and it occurred to me that I probably was one of the few Dutch-born Canadian citizens there who was liberated by Canadian soldiers.

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I was born in occupied Den Haag Z.H. in 1943 and celebrated the arrival of Canadian troops in my mother’s arms on May 5, 1945. Unfortunately I have no memory of these tremendous festivities. My mom told me a cute story of a Canadian soldier giving me some chocolate to eat, which I than immediately spat out, having never tasted chocolate before.

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The immense sacrifice these Canadians made liberating the Dutch from the Nazis and the long “Hunger Winter” will never be forgotten.

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Laurentius Meihuizen, Montreal-West

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Canada bungling this ship purchase

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Once again, the federal government procurement office has shown its monumental ineptness in procuring the next generation of ships, the (CSC) Canadian Surface Combatant project.

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Even a student in elementary school math could figure that Canada is getting totally ripped off when you divide the projected cost (never mind the legendary cost overruns experienced in past procurements) versus the benefits.

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The math: $22 billion divided by 3 ships = $7.34 billion a ship. This is in stark contrast to the current British ship procurement program that is paying $1.3 billion a ship. Which means that Canada could have almost 17 ships had they chosen this option. This would leave $58 billion to put toward the net federal debt, which currently stands at $953 billion.

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Now that we have elected a banker as prime minister, I hope he can reverse this gross fiscal injustice and start giving Canadian taxpayers value for their money.

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Steven Zeran, Ottawa

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Guilbeault is right about oil and gas

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Minister Steven Guilbeault is right when he says oil and gas use is waning. Why do you think the price of gas is so low at the pump? There is a glut of oil on the market and the world is rapidly electrifying cars. Renewable energy production is expanding at record pace, although Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is trying to sabotage that agenda.

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Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau finished the TMX pipeline, which was initially budgeted for $7 billion but ended up costing taxpayers $34 billion. The toll for this pipeline is not even covering the payments on the line, so we are still being charged for this debacle.

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The government should just stop subsidizing this nonsense. If oil companies cannot finance these projects alone, then it is a no-go. I am tired of paying for this as a taxpayer. I’d like to see more money for health care. Stop beating a dead horse.

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Andre Post, Arnprior

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Patriotism, pride should unite us

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A highway and a rail system are unifying features but the country is regional and part of it are often isolated. The real unifying force should be Canadian patriotism and pride.

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The United States has created an industry out of patriotism, embedding the idea of America into the psyche of its citizens. Canada should do the same, starting with schools. Our Canadian national anthem should be sung regularly there. If kids don’t grow up with pride in their country, they’ll never have it.

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Ironically, it has taken a controversial U.S. president to instil patriotic pride here. Even though U.S. policy has turned against us, we can still learn a great deal from Americans, particularly from the way they view themselves. They don’t take themselves for granted, as we often do, at our peril. Being Canadian is special and this should be reinforced constantly.

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Without a healthy patriotism, there really isn’t a country, just a group of regions that do not feel connected to the greater whole. The Trans-Canada Highway does connect the country, with iconic landmarks along the way, but it’s a speedy way to travel; it ignores the local side roads connecting cities, towns and villages — which really are the authentic Canada. The highway and rail system were an achievement, but the soul of the country is off-road, away from the generic corporate gas stations and fast-food enterprises. The ordinary is in many ways the extraordinary and often unsung heart and soul of this country.

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Douglas Cornish, Ottawa

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