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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
He said that playoff shuttle service can be difficult to organize on short notice, especially during a long weekend.
“It’s difficult to plan for those events in advance,” he said. “Usually what they do to cover service for those is they post extra work or overtime or added shifts, and sometimes those are difficult to fill, particularly on a long weekend.”
He said OC Transpo has been “consistently” hiring operators for years, but retaining workers has become increasingly difficult because of the demands of the job.
“The wear and tear that this job has on families, on work-life balance and on your morale, it can take a toll,” Vineberg said.
For Houle, Monday’s experience has already changed her plans for the next game.
She said she and her friends will drive instead of relying on public transit.
“We figured let’s just carpool and avoid any issues again,” she said. “I think the city’s definitely letting this team down and letting its fan base down.”
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