Ottawa city councillor demanding answers surrounding Para Transpo online system amid long wait times

Some people who use Ottawa's accessible transit service, Para Transpo, say they have to wait on hold for up to two hours to book rides to things like doctors appointments, and a city councillor wants to know why an online booking system is taking so long to set up.

Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Rawlson King asked city staff whether users will have the option of booking online before 2022.

“It's important for us to ensure that if somebody is picking up the phone and making a call, asking for an essential service to get wherever they need to go, that they don't wait two hours,” said King.

“The way that we treat our most vulnerable is a statement about how we value them,” he said.

The city said its staff are currently exploring arrangements to provide online services for Para Transpo customers, and a report will be presented later this year. But the city's transportation services manager pointed out, his existing full-time employees are already working overtime to launch service on the Confederation Line of the LRT.

“If you want to go faster, as part of the 2020 budget, bring forward a funding source,” Manconi told the city's transit commission. “It's probably about a million bucks or so, and I need four or five FTE's to manage this thing;  it is a complicated thing to do it right.”

Manconi says Para Transpo vehicles are already equipped with GPS, but that an online booking system would need to connect to that and other data, to provide the Uber-like experience that users would expect as well as the ability to create, modify and cancel bookings.