{"id":634,"date":"2021-11-19T23:31:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T23:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/theragingtwenties\/?p=634"},"modified":"2021-12-02T17:47:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T17:47:46","slug":"lrt-ak-ra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/theragingtwenties\/2021\/11\/19\/lrt-ak-ra\/","title":{"rendered":"Young people question future of Ottawa\u2019s LRT amid continuous disruptions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Anne Akin, 20, is a student at UOttawa who looks forward to the public inquiry into the LRT disruptions. Photo by Rukhsar Ali.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by&nbsp;<strong>Rukhsar Ali and Amitava Kar | Nov. 19, 2021 | News |<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young transit riders said Friday they are not convinced a public inquiry into Ottawa\u2019s recently reopened light-rail transit system will fix its issues for good.<strong> &nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal of the inquiry is to get to the bottom of the continuous service disruptions facing the LRT\u2019s Confederation line, Caroline Mulroney, Ontario\u2019s Minister of Transportation, said in a press release Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LRT service resumed on Nov. 12 after it was down for 54 days due to a derailment which inconvenienced thousands of Ottawa residents. But within the first week of reopening, two of the city\u2019s trains came to a forced stop \u2014 each for almost an hour \u2014 causing more delays for returning commuters, including students commuting to and from school.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m glad they&#8217;re looking into it, and I hope it&#8217;s not like a fluff thing and they actually look into what the problems are,\u201d said Anne Akin, a University of Ottawa biology student who commutes to campus from Stittsville, a community approximately 30 kilometres west of downtown Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t really know the difference between a public and a judicial inquiry, but I know that a good number of people, including Mayor Jim Watson, voted against the judicial inquiry, so I kind of wanted it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Confusion on what a public inquiry entails was a common theme among students who spoke to The Raging Twenties about the upcoming probe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Public inquiries are seen as more transparent than judicial inquires because of the publicity they enjoy and the number of witnesses that are called, according to a judicial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariocourts.ca\/coa\/about-the-court\/archives\/publicinquiries\/\">report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some members of Ottawa\u2019s city council, who have been pushing in recent weeks for greater transparency into the issues related to LRT service and maintenance, praised the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe inquiry will answer some important questions, such as why the LRT keeps breaking down despite so much money and expertise being invested in it,\u201d Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city has other ways of looking into the LRT problem, such as a judicial inquiry or an internal audit by the auditor general. But Leiper favors a public inquiry into the issue as the best possible option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe city has approved an inquiry by the auditor general, but frankly speaking, the auditor general does not have the power or resources to see this through,\u201d Leiper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added young people should be more engaged in city hall and raise their voices to hold the city government accountable. \u201cThe kind of affordable and environmentally-sustainable cities young people want to live in largely depend on an efficient mass transit system,\u201d Leiper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emily Gough, 22, a psychology student at the University of Ottawa, said she isn\u2019t happy with the LRT\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When I first came to Ottawa in 2017, I was really excited about having a more robust transit system here,\u201d said Gough, who moved from Halifax to attend school. \u201cBut over the years, I&#8217;ve just been extremely disappointed with how OC Transpo has regulated itself.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said there&#8217;s been a lot of \u201cinaction by the municipal government\u201d when it comes to the LRT and wants a more reliable commuting experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gough said offering <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcurrent.ca\/oc-transpo-users-get-free-ride-in-december-frozen-fares-until-lrt-returns-to-full-service\/\">free transit<\/a> for OC Transpo commuters for the month of December isn\u2019t enough compensation for students who already pay for semester-long bus passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs a student, I&#8217;m already paying $400 to have a transit pass, so I wasn&#8217;t really appreciative of what they did,\u201d Gough said. \u201cIt&#8217;s not free for me. I&#8217;m still paying for it and I\u2019m not getting reimbursed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young transit riders said Friday they are not convinced a public inquiry into Ottawa\u2019s recently reopened light-rail transit system will fix its issues for good. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Anne Akin, 20, is a student at UOttawa who looks forward to the public inquiry into the LRT disruptions. Photo by Rukhsar Ali.","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,8,125,123],"tags":[57,56,63,54,13,55,58,25],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-1","category-news","category-ottawa","category-politics","tag-accountability","tag-inquiry","tag-issue-1","tag-lrt","tag-ottawa","tag-students","tag-transit","tag-young-adults"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Young people question future of Ottawa\u2019s LRT amid continuous disruptions - The Raging Twenties<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/theragingtwenties\/2021\/11\/19\/lrt-ak-ra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Young people question future of Ottawa\u2019s LRT amid continuous disruptions - 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