Amélie Houle stood in the afternoon heat at Bank and Catherine streets watching the crowd around her slowly give up. The Ottawa Charge fan said she arrived at the OC Transpo stop at around 4:30 p.m., expecting to catch one of the scheduled 400-series shuttle buses to the Canadian Tire Centre for Game 3 of the PWHL final on Monday, May 18. Instead, she said she waited roughly 45 minutes as dozens of fans grew frustrated and began abandoning the stop.
Fans Left Stranded
“People probably realized that we were going to be late even if the bus did show up at some point,” Houle said. “You could see fans forming groups and ordering Ubers.” By 5:15 p.m., Houle said no shuttle buses had arrived at the stop. Faced with missing puck drop in an elimination game, she and her friends splurged for an Uber to Kanata that cost about $38.
OC Transpo Acknowledges Error
The bus delays were caused by “an error in scheduling the correct start time for bus operators and buses required for the event,” Joel Lemieux, OC Transpo’s director of transit service delivery and rail operations, wrote in a statement Tuesday. Monday’s playoff game began at 6 p.m. Weekday games typically start at 7 p.m., as Game 4 will on Wednesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
At its peak, Houle said there were between 30 and 40 people waiting at the stop on Monday. “The crowd really started to dwindle,” Houle said. “There were still maybe a dozen people waiting around by the time we left.” Many fans took to social media, complaining about the 400-series shuttle buses and how they were unable to get to the arena on time.
Call for Better Transportation
With increasingly large crowds and rumours swirling about the Charge potentially making the Canadian Tire Centre its new home, Houle said the transportation has to be better. “There was no communication,” she said. “Bad news is better than not knowing.” Houle said fans approached drivers on other bus routes passing through Centretown to ask what was happening, but the drivers told the stranded fans they had no information.
OC Transpo Response
In a statement, OC Transpo acknowledged that fans experienced “significant delays” on some 400-series bus trips heading to the game. “We recognize the frustration this may have caused for fans trying to arrive on time,” Lemieux said. The agency said service leaving the game “operated as scheduled” and staff have reviewed “all operational plans and resources required” for Wednesday’s game.
Noah Vineberg, president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 279, said staffing pressures and difficulties filling overtime shifts likely played a role in the delays. “When you don’t have a surplus of operators and you’re always depending on extra from the ones that you depend on, I think you can run into some walls,” Vineberg said.
