A Kanata OC Transpo rider who twice this week waited for buses at his stop that never came is livid after a driver on the same route got lost Thursday and ended up dumping passengers onto another bus.
High-tech worker Hans Liem complained to OC Transpo Monday after two buses scheduled to stop on Innovation Drive never came, forcing him to walk to another stop, where the first scheduled bus also failed to show up.
Again on Tuesday the bus at his stop failed to show up.
OC Transpo apologized and blamed the incidents on operator error, but an internal OC Transpo document obtained by CBC News said the drivers were given incorrect route information.
On Wednesday the bus arrived as expected, he said, and again it arrived on Thursday.
But Liem said on Thursday the driver mistakenly turned and ended up on March Road and became lost.
Liem said the driver called into dispatch a number of times for guidance. A number of passengers, including Liem, also tried to offer advice to get back on the correct route.
After driving around for 20 minutes, Liem said the driver stopped the vehicle in front of the 93 bus and told the passengers to get on that bus.
"What is wrong with you and your company?" Liem wrote in an email to OC Transpo and copied to CBC News.
"Please don’t tell how sorry you are again with this issue," he wrote. "Your meaningless empathy is worthless for me. Just please fix the problem!"
Kanata councillor Marianne Wilkinson had said Wednesday the incidents are indicative of the second-class treatment given to suburban commuters.
Wilkinson said the recent problem with the 169 bus is not isolated, and said service to industrial parks in suburban areas has forced some workers to leave their jobs because they couldn't reliably get to work.
"There can't be a Cadillac service downtown and wait-an-hour-for-a-bus out there," said Wilkinson.
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