Protesters greeted Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien and OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier yesterday morning as riders boarded the O-Train at Greenboro station for the first time since the transit strike began in December. The mayor and Mr. Mercier welcomed O-Train riders back on the first day of service after city-wide transit service was shut down for 54 days and left tens of thousands of commuters stranded. The mayor was at the station early with a cup of coffee in his hand, shaking hands with riders and welcoming them. But amid the gladhanding with commuters and the mayor's relief that at least the O-Train was back in operation, several protesters were on hand to dampen his early-morning excitement and pep talk to riders. They held up yellow signs reading "More for public transit / less for Larry's buddies" and "Public transit takes a kicking / O-Train keeps on ticking." "The big problem right now is that the union and the city have been quarrelling and they couldn't care less about the customers of OC Transpo, the riders," said Duncan McGregor, one of the protesters. Mr. McGregor wasn't too impressed with the mayor's early-morning public relations campaign. "It was in poor taste, there is no other phrase for it," said Mr. McGregor, adding the mayor saw his sign but didn't offer any comments. Union head André Cornellier has charged that the city has orchestrated a slow return to full service in an effort to punish the union. But Mr. Mercier countered saying that all the rhetoric has to end and the focus should be on improving OC Transpo. "We had indicated that if we were not able to return to service with the amount of fleet we would have no choice except to face lay-offs for a period of time," said Mr. Mercier. "We're re-assessing that now and currently at this time we'll only be up to 70 per cent of the fleet and we'll be discussing with the union this week the implications (of that). We want everybody back to work as soon as we can," said Mr. Mercier. Carleton University student Bill Deng said he was happy to see the O-Train back. "It was pretty hard during the strike and I had to take the school bus," said Mr. Deng, 22, a commerce student. "I'm very happy the train is back."