Re: Emergency strike fund already gone, Jan. 20.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board is to decide soon on whether Ottawa's public transit system is "essential" and thus worthy of special protections from work stoppages in labour disputes.

I suggest that the service is really two systems, one essential and the other not. The all-day routes are designed to serve the full-range of trips for what is mostly a car-free clientele. The transit industry, itself, calls these patrons "transit-captive."

The other system is the rush-hour-only express-bus routes designed primarily for those working downtown and living on "the fringe." These are people who mostly have access to cars and to ride-share opportunities through their workplaces. They rarely use transit for other kinds of trips. The transit industry called them "transit-choice."

Since it is the latter service that imposes on bus drivers the split shifts that are being fought over in the dispute and it is the service for "choice" riders in rush hours, this should be the part of OC Transpo's service that can be interrupted during a contract dispute, while the all-day service for the captive riders should continue.

It is the "choice" service that costs OC Transpo the most in subsidies, as the rides are longer, the use of drivers and rolling stock much less efficient, and the direction of demand one-way (requiring a great deal of no-revenue "deadheading").

It also pretty much ignores the commuters whose jobs are not downtown or at campuses and who get free parking, whose single-occupant cars cause so much road congestion and road "improvements." These people could be much better served by superior, non-subsidized ride-sharing schemes than by a heavily-subsidized, troublesome bus service.

Chris Bradshaw,