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$1.75 BILLION TO BE SPENT ON OUT-OF-CONTROL BUS PROJECTS BETWEEN 2004 AND 2010

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November 27, 2007 - 8:36pm — fotoadmin

$1.75 BILLION TO BE SPENT ON OUT-OF-CONTROL BUS PROJECTS BETWEEN 2004 AND 2010

(French translation follows...)

Council and Staff Needs to Keep Much Closer Eye on Bus Capital Spending

Ottawa, November 27, 2007: The Friends of the O-Train (FOTO) has disclosed that Ottawa City staff plans to have spent $1.75 billion on bus related transit between 2004 and 2010, without addressing the fundamental problem of downtown capacity, without public process, without any ridership studies and without a supporting business case:

* Between 2004 and 2007, $483 million was spent on bus transit capital projects.
* From 2008 to 2010, City staff is now seeking authority to spend an extra $1.27 billion on bus transit projects.

Taken as a whole, this spending, euphemistically called “completing the Transitway” by councilor Alex Cullen yesterday, represents the largest capital project in the history of the city. Yet the downtown core, both the backbone and key bottleneck of the Transitway, will see not one dollar of this spending. Staff admits that the Albert-Slater transit corridor reached its capacity of 175 peak hour buses in 2004.

Worse, these capital projects have been, and will continue to be, a significant factor in generating future increases in Transit Services operating expenses. Yesterday, FOTO disclosed that from 2004 to 2008 (budget), Ottawa’s bus transit services annual operating costs have ballooned 49%. During the same period, full-time equivalent employment with Transit Services has grown 28% while wages have grown an astounding 91%. Yet passenger trips have grown only 9% over the same period. Little wonder transit revenues as a percentage of expenses have dropped from a recent high of 55% in 1997 to only 45% in 2007.

“Smart capital spending should increase ridership capacity and increase operating efficiencies, Ottawa taxpayers and transit users will get neither as a result of this ill-conceived 1.75 billion spend” said Klaus Beltzner, spokesperson for FOTO. “Bus rapid transit (BRT) has seen its day in Ottawa. Good taxpayer money should no longer be thrown after bad. Ottawa needs light rail transit (LRT) and it needs is now. The proper transit role of buses is to be the feeder system to a high capacity, low cost, 100% reliable LRT. The rest of the world understands this; unfortunately City Manager Kent Kirkpatrick does not.”

City staff has disclosed that 2007 customer satisfaction ratings for Transit Services were among the lowest across 20 categories of services provided by the City.
Friends of the O-Train

Formed in the summer of 2006, FOTO is a volunteer organization of transit experts, community leaders and environmentalists concerned about improving Ottawa’s transit effectiveness and value. The organization is now affiliated with Transport 2000 Canada.

Contact:

Friends of the O-Train
Telephone: Klaus Beltzner, 613-220-0631 or 613-692-2462
Email: friendsoftheotrain (at) gmail (dot) com
Web: www.friendsoftheotrain.org

Transport 2000 Canada
Telephone: David Jeanes, 613-594-3290
Email: david (at) jeanes (dot) ca
Web: www.transport2000.ca

POUR DIFFUSION IMMÉDIATE

OTTAWA : DÉPENSES HORS DE CONTRÔLE POUR 1,75 MILLIARD$ DE PROJETS D'AUTOBUS

Le Conseil et le personnel devraient veiller de plus près

OTTAWA le 27 novembre 2007

Les Amis du O-Train ont découvert que la Ville d'Ottawa dépensera 1,75 milliard$ pour le transport par autobus entre 2004 et 2010, sans pour autant régler le problème fondamental de capacité, et ce, sans discussion publique, sans étude d'achallandage et sans plan d'affaires:

* De 2004 à 2007 la Ville a dépensé 483 millions $ pour des projets d'infrastructure de transport par autobus;
* de 2008 à 2010, le personnel de la Ville cherche l'autorisation pour la dépense de 1,27 milliard$ pour des projets d'autobus.

Prises dans leur ensemble, ces dépenses, dépeintes par le Conseiller Alex Cullen hier comme "l'achèvement du Transitway" représentent le plus grand projet d'investissement de l'histoire de la ville. Pourtant, le tronçon du centre-ville, l'épine dorsal et le goulot d'étranglement du Transitway, ne verra pas un dollar de ces dépenses. Le personnel admet que le couloir Albert-Slater a atteint sa capacité maximale de 175 bus à l'heure de pointe en 2004 déjà.

Pire, ces projets ont généré et continueront à générer des escalades de coûts d'opération pour OC Transpo. Hier, les Amis du O-Train ont informés les média qu'entre 2004 et 2008 les coûts d'opération ont gonflé de 49%. Dans la même période, l'emploi à temps plein chez

OC Transpo a grimpé de 28 % alors que les salaires avaient grimpé, de manière étonnante, de 91%. Pourtant, le nombre de trajets individuels n'a grimpe que de 9%, et les revenus ne sont plus que de 45%, en baisse de 55%, de l'ensemble du budget.

"Des investissements avisés devraient augmenter la capacité du transport en commun et améliorer l'efficience des opérations" de dire Klaus Beltzner, porte-parole des Amis "mais les contribuables et les usagers n'auront ni l'un ni l'autre de ces bienfaits" a-t-il conclu. ...

Le personnel de la ville a annoncé que les clients du transport par autobus sont parmi les moins satisfaits parmi ceux de vingt catégories de service.

Informations:
Klaus Beltzner 613 - 220 - 0631 ou 613 - 692 - 2462
David Jeanes : 613 - 594 -3290