‘I Am Done’: Amid Rider Woes, Is Ottawa’s Transit System a Victim of Its Own Success?

Cities from all over North America once looked to Canada’s capital as a beacon of transit success and innovation, and ridership climbed steadily for the first 10 years of the millennium. The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — It didn’t feel like the glory days at the time, climbing onto a crowded bus and pushing into the crush of bodies, riders sweating into their wool coats and parkas.

But despite the cramped rides and the occasional backpack to the face, April Lesnick said those days in the early 2000s were the ones when she felt she could most rely on the transit system in Canada’s capital city.