We are requesting for the O-Train to run until 3:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. My perspective is that of a Carleton University
student but the change would also benefit many others. The issue is that
currently, the service that OC Transpo provides to and from Carleton University is very limited past midnight when the O-Train stops running. People are usually forced to get a drive from someone or take a cab.
Sometimes getting a drive isn’t an option and frequent cabbing is too great an
expense for university students.
During the 2011-2012 school year, there were approximately 3,500 students living in
residence. It is unrealistic to expect each of these students to have left
campus or be returning back to campus before midnight on Friday and Saturday
nights.
A public incentive for this action is that it would also help prevent instances of drunk driving. It should be expected that many students living in residence will want to go out on the weekend and that alcohol is sometimes present. We are not endorsing this but rather accept that it happens and this is why it is very important for these
students to have a safe and reliable way home. This option is currently
unavailable but if it were, drunk driving would occur less often.
The bus schedules that OC Transpo offers vary between weekdays and weekends; the O-Train should be no different. Every student at Carleton University pays for a U-Pass and it is only right that OC Transpo takes this request into serious consideration and makes the necessary changes.