City of Ottawa transit committee got it right

OC Transpo recently lost a court case. It was ordered to start/reinstate the announcing of major or requested bus stops. Company officials went to City Hall, cap in hand, asking for $8 million for some sort of electronic solution to the "problem".

I'm not sure how this system would have worked, but it likely would have involved some sort of global positioning system that would be enhanced with OC Transpo staff programming - after all, I'm sure that no GPS system knows where the Tunney's Pasture Transitway stop really is. Would this really have only set the city back $8 million? Not likely.

When I first read this story I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Why? OC Transpo already spends millions on sentient beings that already are found on each and every bus one might find on Ottawa's roads... they're called bus drivers!!! As far as I know, all bus drivers have eyes (thus giving them the ability to recognize these major or requested stops) and a mouth (thereby giving them the tools required to make the announcements as ordered by the courts).

The good news is that the city's Transit Committee rejected the request yesterday, citing the fact that announcing stops is part of some existing agreement or contract - in other words, it's already part of each driver's job description.

Nobody has yet brought this up, but I can't help wondering if OC Transpo administration had its hands tied by the Amalgamated Transit Union. It likely wouldn't be beyond them to take a position that forcing bus drivers to make regular announcements is a stress or some "extra" that should require tremendous raises for the "bus operators". Fat chance.

Come on, guys - this was a no brainer! To the supervisors and managers over at OC Transpo I ask: make your employees do their jobs! If they don't want to, find someone else who will do it. If the Councillor who was quoted on the news this morning is correct, and this making announcements has been part of bus drivers' job descriptions for the better part of the last twenty years, circulate a memo.

It'll cost far less than $8 million (that can be better spent elsewhere, I'm sure) and with a little bit of effort, the conditions of the court order can be satisfied tomorrow morning - not some time next year or however long it would have taken to get this thing "fixed" had the funding come through.

It's not rocket science folks.