City councillors are praising the efforts of City employees and OC Transpo during Tuesday’s gas-leak evacuation.
Thousands of office workers, retailers, and pedestrians were evacuated out of the downtown core as four city blocks were shut down to all traffic, when a subcontractor for the Rideau Transit Group struck a gas line at the corner of Queen and O’Connor Tuesday afternoon.
Many of these evacuees were directed to OC Transpo bus stops to help get them out of the core. Large crowds could be seen at bus stops, and some transit riders said they waited up to an hour and a half for a ride home.
Buses had to be detoured around the closure, which delayed service, and long lines of buses could be seen snaking down Bank, Wellington and Elgin, back to the Mackenzie King Bridge.
But city councillors, speaking on CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon say the process of getting everyone out of the core via OC Transpo went well.
“They got onto it right away,” Councillor Marianne Wilkinson said. “They had, within minutes, got their new routes in place. It’s just a fact that it got so crowded they couldn’t get all the buses through quickly. People said they didn’t know what was happening, but that happens. When you do an evacuation you just try to get the people out first and explain later.”
Councillor Jeff Leiper echoed Wilkinson’s comments.
“Evacuations got done quickly; I don’t think anyone was put in danger; the bus detours were put in place very quickly. I really don’t think we can ask for a lot more from the City.”
Councillor Michael Qaqish, who is vice-chair of the Transit Commission, agreed.
“The detour plan for OC Transpo was implemented right away,” he said. “Obviously, it was chaotic because it takes time to do all that stuff and I know a lot of people were waiting for their bus for long periods of time, but the emergency plan was implemented.”
Tansit Commission Chair, Councillor Stephen Blais, also speaking on Ottawa Now said he felt the evacuation unfolded well.
“As someone who was an outside observer, who was watching it as it was unfolding and someone has been able to get some answers over the last 24 hours or so, people have reacted very quickly, no one was injured, people still got home.”
Detours were lifted around 6:30 p.m.
Blais said an evaluation of the evacuation effort will likely be done, to see where things can be improved.
“There’s always a port-mortem,” he told Ottawa Now. “I haven’t been informed of that specifically, but it’s generally best practice to have a post-mortem. When you talk to experts in this kind of field they say, ‘you always go back and look at it because there’s always things that can go better.’”
Fare inspectors were sent out onto the Mackenzie King Bridge during the height of the detours. In an email to CFRA, one transit rider said several fare inspectors could be seen checking for Presto cards before passengers boarded buses, and yelling about the fine for not paying.
OC Transpo’s Director of Transit Operations, Troy Charter, speaking on CFRA’s News and Views with Rob Snow, denied those allegations, and said that the inspectors were sent out to help customers.
“We deployed quite a bit of staff, once this event unfolded, to assist the buses with the detours as well as to communicate with customers,” he said. “Fare inspectors are also trained to be able to have those conversations with customers about what’s going on, and to better direct. But we didn’t have fare inspectors who were out checking fares during this event.”
Blais would not directly comment on the allegations on Ottawa Now.
“OC Transpo said that it didn’t happen. I have to take their word for it; I wasn’t there,” he said. “They say they weren’t inspecting for fares. If someone can dispute that, I’m happy to listen to them, but I have to take OC Transpo at their word.”