Latest news with #PatScrimgeour
CTV News
12-05-2025
- Sport
- CTV News
O-Train service to launch early for Ottawa Race Weekend's marathon
An O-Train on Line 1 is seen in this undated image. (CTV News Ottawa) The O-Train will be operating early on Sunday, May 25 to help runners, volunteers and spectators get to the start line for Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend. OC Transpo announced on Monday that O-Train Line 1 and 2 will start at 5 a.m. to help people get downtown for the marathon. O-Train Line 1 normally starts at 8 a.m. on Sundays, while Line 2 begins service at 7:30 a.m. on Sundays. OC Transpo acting general manager Pat Scrimgeour announced the O-Train will start early on Sunday, May 25 for race weekend. 'Eventgoers can skip traffic, forget about downtown parking and avoid road closures by using OC Transpo,' Scrimgeour said in a memo to council. 'With three O-Train stations within 15 minutes of the start line, OC Transpo is a convenient, accessible and eco-friendly way to get to and from the event safe.' The marathon for Ottawa Race Weekend is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. on Sunday, May 25, while the half-marathon begins at 9 a.m. The Ottawa Race Weekend Kids Marathon, 2K, 5K and 10K are scheduled for Saturday, May 24. O-Train service will run on a normal schedule on the Saturday. Race participants are encouraged to take advantage of O-Train Line 2 to pick up their race kits at the Ottawa Race Weekend Running and Fitness Expo at Carleton University from May 22 to 24. This is the second year that O-Train service will begin at 5 a.m. for the marathon, after people complained about no train service two years ago.
Ottawa Citizen
06-05-2025
- Ottawa Citizen
OC Transpo ending SMS notifications for bus cancellations
Article content OC Transpo is ending SMS notifications for bus trip cancellations starting on Thursday, a move being criticized by transit advocates. Article content Article content SMS and email alerts are input manually whenever a bus trip is cancelled, said OC Transpo in a statement. The process can be time-consuming and sometimes incomplete or inaccurate. Article content The new system, which will automate notifications of cancelled bus trips through the Transit app, aims to provide more accurate information, according to OC Transpo. Bus users can sign up for push alerts to get notified of any changes to their trips. Article content Article content Article content 'OC Transpo will continue to work on improving real time information for customers and further upgrades are planned,' said director of transit customer systems and planning Pat Scrimgeour in a statement. Article content But public transit advocates say thousands will be affected by the changes. According to data from OC Transpo, there were 3,500 subscribers to OC Transpo's SMS and email alerts service and around 35,000 Transit app users in 2024. Article content The change will affect marginalized groups like the elderly, youth who don't have a smart phone and people with disabilities, said software developer Justin Kelly of Occasional Transportation, an online tool introduced in 2019 to help transit users track LRT disruptions. The move will affect those who do not have the time nor resources to organize and speak up, he said. Article content Article content OC Transpo is facing a deficit, while at the same time providing a service to a dwindling number of users, he said. Article content Article content 'Sending text messages isn't cheap, and (OC Transpo is) basically looking at the services that they render,' Kelly said an interview on Tuesday afternoon. Article content Kelly contends that the Transit app is notoriously unreliable and often shows cancelled buses minutes after they were supposed to show up, or that have 'magically teleported' to a location 30 minutes away. Article content 'People are still talking about teleporting buses and ghost buses, which have been a problem since I came to Ottawa 20 years ago,' Kelly said. Article content 'People like the SMS system more because when (OC Transpo says a bus) is cancelled, it's logging in their phone.' Article content The cancelled and ghost buses, along with delayed cancellation alerts on the Transit app, have made people wary of OC Transpo, said Kelly, who called it the 'transit death cycle.' People stop using public transportation because it's not serving the destinations where people need to go, which causes OC Transpo to scale back service, he said.
