9 hours Ago By Special to the Citizen
It’s 6 a.m., and teenagers in the South Ottawa communities of Blossom Park, Emerald Woods and Sawmill Creek are waking up to go to St.
Francis Xavier High School. A group of the students leave their homes to catch the 693 bus shortly after 7 a.m.
It’s already overflowing with other students. The bus then winds through the neighbourhood, past the airport, and down Leitrim and Limebank Roads until it finally arrives at the school better known as St. FX.
By the time they get off the bus, students often have to race to get to class by 8 a.m. In total, the journey takes about half an hour — but it’s a route students and their parents fought hard to keep.
On April 4, members of the St. FX community learned their 693 direct route would change on April 27, when OC Transpo rolls out its New Ways to Bus schedule. This will be the largest bus service change in Ottawa’s history, introducing new routes and retiring others with low ridership, changing schedules, and shortening, extending or dividing some routes.
One of the planned changes was cutting the 693 bus route to run only between St. FX and Limebank Station, and not through any of the communities it currently serves. St.
FX parents said the changes would have risked students’ safety and affected their ability to learn successfully. They said families did not receive enough communication about the changes, and that OC Transpo was not taking responsibility for affecting the students’ ability to get to school. But after weeks of speaking out, emailing city councillors and expressing their discontent to OC Transpo, parents are relieved to find out some of the changes are being reversed.
“I feel like a load has been lifted off my shoulders,” said Tammy Bouchard. “I’m so relieved.” OC Transpo is keeping three direct routes to St.
FX in the morning and two in the afternoon, according to a statement to the Citizen. That’s in addition to the new route in the New Ways to Bus schedule that was the cause for concern. On that route, students would take the 40 Greenboro bus to South Keys, then transfer onto the Line 2 train in the direction of Limebank.
Once at Limebank Station, students would transfer again to the 99 Barrhaven Centre via Weybridge bus, which will take them to a bus stop down the road from St. FX. According to OC Transpo’s New Ways to Bus travel planner, the new route will take 40 minutes — if every transfer goes according to plan.
While there will be fewer direct bus routes than before, parent Yanet Afeworki said she’s also relieved by the decision to reverse course. “It’s going to be a bit stressful, but something is always better than nothing,” she said. “We’ll take this over the other [route] any day.
” In a statement to the Citizen, Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo’s director of transit customer systems and planning, said school service has been adjusted “to optimize the transit network for school communities across the city, while balancing fleet and cost constraints.” “We recognize that though these customers will benefit from the improved capacity, reliability, and comfort of the O-Train, it will also result in additional transfers and longer travel times for some customers,” said Scrimgeour. “We understand that these changes can have an impact on our customers’ daily routines, and we are actively working to ensure customers are aware of the new network.
” But parents and students are not convinced OC Transpo’s planned route changes would have optimized their transit commutes. Grade 9 student Bella Lewis said commuting by two bus rides, a train ride and a walk would have made her late to school more often. “Missing out on like 15, 20, 30 minutes of class can be really detrimental to how much I learn and how much I understand the concepts,” Lewis said.
To arrive on time, Lewis would have had to wake up at 5:30 a.m., said her mother, Ivana Mannarino.
She’s worried students will feel the effects of less sleep, longer commutes and unreliable transit. “They’re the ones that are penalized,” she said. Bouchard agreed the change would have hit students hard.
“It’s the health, it’s the mental health, it is their physical health, it is their performance in school,” she said. “They’re expected to be on time and prepared for class. They can’t be prepared for class if they’re running into the school at 8 a.
m.” Her son, Grade 10 student Evan Bouchard, said route changes that lead to less sleep would have affected his education, especially since he already struggles with insomnia. “I leave the house before my father does — and he’s 48,” the younger Bouchard said.
“I shouldn’t have to do that.” Tammy Bouchard said she didn’t expect OC Transpo to change its plans, but the decision shows a willingness to listen to the community. “Maybe they realized that they made a mistake,” she said.
“Maybe it wasn’t because of the parents being upset, but maybe it was because the parents are right.” Parents were also concerned the new, longer route to school could be a safety issue, especially for younger children and siblings who will be starting Grade 7 at St. FX next September.
“A 12-year-old is not equipped for life sitting next to the general public on a bus,” Tammy Bouchard said. “A 12-year-old should not be taking two buses and a train.” Grade 8 student Glori Poole said she worried about how the changes could affect herself and her peers, as well as her 11-year-old sister Abbie, who is starting at St.
FX next fall. “I was talking to people on the bus about it ..
. and a lot of people didn’t know about the changes,” she said. Her father, Paul Poole, said the proposed route change just “doesn’t make sense in this situation.
” “They’re trying to increase the ridership at the cost of the students,” he said. As a taxpayer, Afeworki expects students to have a direct bus route to school. “This is a basic necessity,” she said.
“They don’t have to struggle this much to go to school.” The campaign for OC Transpo to reverse the route changes was led by Andrew Moore, father to 13-year-old Chloe and 12-year-old Addison, who both attend St. FX.
“Are they having a budget crunch? Sure. Do they need to find solutions? Sure,” Moore said. “Keep this bus until you find that,” he said.
“They have a duty to ensure that these kids are going to school.” Moore said he originally found out about the proposed route changes in March 2024. However, when he called OC Transpo’s New Ways to Bus hotline on March 27, he was told there was no information about changes to the 693 route.
Moore said he was then surprised to find out from the school on April 4 that there would, in fact, be changes to the bus route. It’s good to hear some direct routes will be kept, but “it should never have come to this,” he said. “It’s safety, it’s about kids’ right to safe transportation to school,” he said.
Moore said parents have been told the decision to keep some direct routes only applies to the end of the school year, which he called a “stop gap” solution for the next two months. There needs to be more communication about the transportation options available to St. FX students in the fall, Moore said.
“We don’t know what’s going to be going on in September, so the fight isn’t done yet.”.
