Service about every 15 minutes is set to start on Monday
A new R1 express shuttle should make the trip from Blair station to downtown faster during morning rush hour and shorten the long trip home in the afternoon. This is the latest solution to the problems people had with bus service while Ottawa’s LRT was closed.
According to an update from the city’s general manager of transit services, Rénée Amilcar, the express service is set to begin on Monday. This comes as Ottawa starts its third week without train service.
It will go westbound Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., starting at Blair Station and stopping at the Mackenzie King Bridge and along Albert Street at Bank and Kent streets. People can look for “R1 Lyon Express” on the screen.
From 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays, buses will leave the Slater Street stops at Bank and Kent streets and the Mackenzie King Bridge to go to Blair on the east side of the city. On the screen, it will say “R1 Blair Express.”
The express shuttles will use 12 buses that run about every 15 minutes. Amilcar said that OC Transpo will keep an eye on things and make changes as needed.
“OC Transpo has heard what customers have to say about the R1 bus service and is acting on it,” Amilcar wrote in her note, adding that the express buses will give people “another way to get to work during the busiest times.”
She said that there will be no more changes to the R1 route and shuttles that are already in place.
They take the place of the LRT, which has been closed since July 17 after a loose bearing in a wheel hub assembly raised safety concerns.
After inspecting the fleet’s axles and getting a report on the hub from the company that made it in France, OC Transpo planned to slowly bring LRT service back online starting on Monday. But that plan fell through when new worries about restraining rails led the city to say that all of them need to be adjusted before service can start up again.
The work is expected to take at least 10 more days, according to the current estimate.