How will OC Transpo handle 65,000 new trips a week? | Opinion

OC Transpo LRT station, April 1, 2026. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA

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Here’s a free tip for anyone who might be working as mayor of a city and running to keep their job: When you have an idea, run it by experts first. Oh, and also? Have a clue what you’re trying to accomplish because otherwise people will define your campaign for you.

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When the Citizen’s intrepid reporter Ben Andrews first broke the story of OC Transpo planning to run ads encouraging office worker bees to “linger” downtown after their daily toil, I rolled my eyes so hard you could hear my optic nerve snapping all the way to Alfred. What fresh hell is this, I asked myself in genuine puzzlement.

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I guess we’re at the phase of the “fix transit” project where we’re actively discouraging people from using it. Like not warning residents about the Canada Day fireworks being set off at 11 p.m. on a Thursday night lest too many people decide to go watch the free show and overwhelm the trains.

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The “linger downtown” campaign must be the Newest Ways to Bus, aka Please Don’t Use Transit. Maybe OC Transpo, knowing buses won’t be reliable, figured they should suggest alternatives to grumbling? I await news of a public-private partnership with downtown pubs to make drinking cheap and happy hour three times as long so people forget where home is.

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Well, no, technically, the campaign — part of the city’s $30-million 48-point plan for return-to-office mobility — is not about asking employers to keep employees in the office past their paid time. Nobody said it was, and this “clarification” only adds to the confusion.

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I’m all for creativity, but when you’re trying to run a transportation system for employees who are forced to commute downtown due to concerted stupidity, it helps when you have some semblance of a clue what you’re trying to accomplish. Even terrible communications professionals know that you test important public messages before they go out, not after.

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As things stand, I can guarantee you everyone got the hint: Despite additional express bus routes and other measures that are also in the RTO plan, there is no way the transit system will be able to accommodate the extra 65,000 trips a week we’ll see in the fall. And instead of working to fix that problem our municipal government is trying to seduce you into spending $32 on a plate of noodles and getting home at 7:30 p.m., for the good of… everyone else.

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It’s such a terrible, no good idea. If someone already spends their entire work day at the downtown office like they’re mandated to do, how can you then suggest that they stay even longer? You’re not just asking them to go get a cocktail. You’re asking folks to ignore dinner preparation, skip the gym, forego household chores, and miss time with people they love. You’re asking parents to delay picking up their kids, neglect homework help, miss flute lessons, and whatever else people do after work that brings them joy, just so we can spare a transit system that can’t handle rush hour?

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Sutcliffe just handed his opponents a golden opportunity to attack his management of OC Transpo. I can see the social media campaigns from here: “He’s so out of ideas he’s advertising against his own buses.” He fully deserves the backlash he’s getting.

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