Hamilton’s City Manager Marnie Cluckie is apologizing to HSR riders for the latest communications failure by HSR managers.
At 12:22 p.m. on Monday, the Hamilton Fire Department responded to a four-alarm fire at the YMCA’s Downtown men’s residence on James Street South.
The road closure meant 19 HSR bus routes had to detour. The HSR posted its first update to X two hours later at 2:24 p.m.,
City Manager Directs HSR Director and Public Works to Take Action
Cluckie says the communication failure resulted from “human error,” and she is “taking measures to fix the problem.”
“I apologize because those things should be timely,” Cluckie said on Tuesday. “That’s what Hamiltonians deserve and need so that they can get around the city.”
Cluckie says she spoke to HSR Director Maureen Cosyn Heath on Monday, and says the HSR is “implementing” measures to “set some targets in terms of the amount of time” it takes to share detour information with the public.
“I recognize this isn’t the first time,” she continued. “It is the first time I’ve been alerted to it … when I learned of it, I took immediate action.”
Cluckie says she has directed Cosyn Heath and General Manager of Public Works Carlyle Khan to report to her with specific actions they will take to ensure timely updates to the public.
2024 Major Detour Communication Failures
Tuesday, May 28, in the early evening, all HSR buses servicing downtown Hamilton were forced to detour due to a protest march. During the two-hour march, HSR managers did not communicate detour information.
Wednesday, April 24, shortly after 9:00 a.m., a traffic collision on James Street South required 14 HSR bus routes to detour. James Street was closed for over three hours. HSR managers did not communicate detours.
Monday, February 5, all HSR buses servicing downtown Hamilton were forced to detour due to the closure of Main and James due to a very earlier morning collision. The detour began at 2:00 a.m., impacting the peak transit commute in the morning. GO Transit issued its first detour notice at 4:28 a.m. The first HSR detour notification was at 9:13 a.m.
The HSR posted an unattributed apology on February 5, writing, “Our sincere apologies for the delay in posting this detour and inconvenience this has caused.”
Friday, February 2, the HSR’s two busiest routes (1, 10) were detoured after 2:00 p.m. HSR managers did not communicate detours.
Friday, January 19, three HSR routes (25/26, 43) were detoured beginning at 6:50 a.m. HSR managers posted detour information at 9:01 a.m.
Thursday, January 11, fourteen HSR routes were detoured beginning at 6:40 a.m. HSR managers did not communicate detours.
Director of Transit Statement Statement
On Wednesday, July 24, the HSR Director Maureen Cosyn Heath sent the following statement:
On July 22, HSR routes downtown near James St were detoured due to a fire at the YMCA.
While HSR staff were on location to assist our customers, the detour information posted on HSR’s X account was published approximately 1.45 hours after the detours began. We apologize for the delay.
We are committed to improving our processes to ensure more timely updates in the future. The dedicated HSRNow account which usually provides automated updates was impacted by the cyber incident, leading to additional manual processes.
We recognize the value and importance of making this information available to the public in a timely manner and are working on automated solutions to prevent these delays and enhance our communication.
We will continue to monitor and measure progress on continuous improvement efforts so we can identify further areas for improvement.
The City of Hamilton’s cybersecurity failure occurred on February 25, 2024.
Production Details v. 1.0.0 Published: July 24, 2024 Last updated: July 24, 2024 Author: Joey Coleman Update Record v. 1.0.0 original version