Jen Campbell, waiting for the train at Tunney’s Pasture station for her morning commute downtown.
This week, this newspaper decided to spend several days during rush hour along the Confederation Line, talking to passengers and riding the rails. The following pieces profile just a few of the countless transit users with stories to tell about commuting on the Confederation Line. If you have one of your own that you’d like to share, please get in touch at ottcopyeditors@postmedia.com.
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Jen Campbell thought she was dealing with a kidney stone when she visited the emergency room last October. Turns out, the pain under her ribs was a pulled muscle – which she believes is the consequence of stretching to hold onto the overhead grab bar on a Confederation Line train.
After the light-rail system launched, many people complained about the height of the bars, a particular challenge for shorter riders. In response, OC Transpo installed dangling stability straps on the trains.
“It was just muscular, but it was really awful,” said Campbell, 40, who takes the train to her military job downtown about three times a week. “I’m very happy to see that they have the loops now.”
While that particular injury is behind her, Campbell’s commuting journey remains physically taxing at times. She’s struggled with motion sickness all her life, and certain transit conditions can make the symptoms – headache, nausea – worse.
The launch of light rail has been a blessing and a curse. While the train is a smoother ride than the bus, Campbell still has to take Route 256 from her home in Bridlewood to Tunney’s Pasture Station, where she gets on the train.
After the launch of the Confederation Line in September, Campbell has noticed a higher number of lower-capacity buses – short buses rather than articulated or double-decker – and more cancellations on her route, which means more people crowding on a smaller vehicle, and a rougher ride for someone with motion sickness.
This was Campbell’s experience on a recent Tuesday morning trip to work. This newspaper caught up with her at Tunney’s Pasture while she sat on a bench, getting some air before the next leg of her commute.
“I was not looking forward to this,” she laughed. “My biggest worry about moving to Ottawa was transit.”
Campbell, her husband and two children arrived in Ottawa 18 months ago, the latest in a series of moves common to many military families. This is the first place they’ve lived that features public transit as their most sensible commuting option.
Both she and her husband work downtown, where parking is expensive. They both decided to invest in OC Transpo passes.
“It’s not awful, you get used to it pretty quickly,” said Campbell. “But the hiccups in the last few months are making me very happy to move to Carling and not have to deal with transit, which is sad.”
In the near future, both Campbell and her husband will start working at the Department of National Defence’s new west-end campus, where she said driving is a more convenient option compared to bus service.
After dealing with reliability and crowding headaches, motion sickness and a kidney-stone false alarm, Campbell is, with some regret, ready to say goodbye to her bus pass.
“Transit is a good thing, we should be carpooling, we should be taking transit. But when it’s not useful for people … ”
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