If you were on the Confederation Line at the time, seeing OC Transpo’s notification that there was a delay due to a “door fault” would have been very frustrating. And that’s totally understandable.
Every morning, hundreds of thousands of people in Ottawa depend on public transit to get to school and work. No one wants to miss their classes, evaluations, meetings or whatever they have scheduled. Everyone loses when there’s a delay.
But who’s to blame for these delays? OC Transpo needs to be ready for these situations, but for the “door faults”? Blame bad transit etiquette from LRT riders. Many people need to take some responsibility.
Door faults are a new issue for the typical east-to-west OC Transpo rider. Unless you’ve been on the Trillium Line during the rare times there was a door fault, you never knew what it was like to experience that specific delay (I have).
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and OC Transpo’s General Manager John Manconi have both told people the same thing: “Don’t hold the doors.” Is that really so much of a challenge for people? I mean, if you’re in any public space, the polite thing to do is hold the door. But we’re talking about train doors here.
If the door on the train is closing, step back and let it close. Whoever’s outside can wait five minutes for the next one. If you’re outside and the doors are closing, take the L[RT] and wait for the next train. You being five minutes behind schedule is nothing compared to an entire city being an hour behind schedule.
Also, there’s no point in sprinting towards a train that’s about to leave. With buses, there’s a chance a driver can see you and stop. These train operators won’t do that for you. In the month since the LRT opened, I’ve seen way too many people sprint towards closing doors and attempting to get them to open.
It’s not just people holding the doors that are causing these delays.
People need to slide over and make room so that as many people possible can get on the train. If the train is crowded and your stop is coming up soon, make your way to the door before the train arrives at the station so that you can get off as fast as possible. You may have to say “excuse me” and “sorry” as you get there, but that’s what proper transit etiquette is all about.
Another suggestion: if the train looks crowded and you’re wearing a backpack, take it off. It will be a lot more comfortable for you and your fellow passengers.
Transit etiquette can’t fix everything, but as we saw with two of last week’s three Confederation Line delays, people need to be better at using the LRT.
OC Transpo also has its work to do. In Montreal, they make it very clear what the rules are on the city’s metro system. On several platforms, there are lines on the ground, indicating where people waiting to get on the train should stand to make sure passengers can get off first. There are also posters explaining good and bad rider etiquette.
OC Transpo should consider these tactics as a way to promote better etiquette on the LRT. In the meantime, OC Transpo needs to find a way to make sure delays are less common. If there is one, they need to have a system in place that would allow a disabled train to be quickly removed and replaced.
It took a long time for us to get the LRT system, and it’s going to take more time to get to the point where it runs with minimal issues. That said, the most important thing we can do right now is be the best passengers we can be, instead of getting angry and impatient.
Graphic by Paloma Callo.
