Counting Buses: A Frequent Network

Frequent transit service offers many benefits for both transit riders and the city, and these are increasingly recognized by both transit authorities and by transit advocates. 

It has become a trend to designate a subset of transit routes as a "frequent transit network" or by some similar name. These range from half hourly services in some American Sunbelt sprawlburbs to ten minute networks provided in cities like Toronto and Sydney. 

With the benefits of high frequency in mind, it is important to ensure that the transit system actually runs frequent service, as opposed to changing the signs on a route with infrequent service. 

Improving Bus Service Reliability Report (Transit Committee) - 11 September, 2025

As part of Transit Committee's motion requesting a plan to achieve reliable service by the end of 2027, staff presented a report on improving bus service reliability at Transit Committee on 11 September.  

The relevant document is the report, linked in PDF form. 

OC Transpo defines reliability with three headline statistics, which bundles the entire network into one number. The trips delivery metric measures the percentage of trips which were not cancelled and ran at all; regularity measures the gap between buses on frequent routes [it is not clear if this is applied to frequent routes outside frequent operating periods], with a wide band of 40% allowance; and punctuality, which is on-time performance for less frequent routes, with an allowance of one minute early/five minutes late. 

Both Transit Committee and OC Transpo love to talk about their commitment to reliable service for Ottawa residents. But OC Transpo has a poor track record of presenting good information to Transit Committee that would enable action; Transit Committee has a poor track record of taking action to improve reliability. To improve bus service reliability, Council must begin to understand that there is no free lunch, and make the difficult choices to improve service. 

Stage 2 Update (Transit Committee) - 11 September, 2025

At Transit Committee, staff presented a Stage 2 update to council. This was a truncated version, due to time constraints, so this article will mostly be a photo dump, providing photos for those who do not wish to trudge through the meeting. Timestamp at 4:49:00. 

The relevant document is this report on Stage 2 progress. Meeting video here. 

Transit Committee - 11 September, 2025

Introduction

On 11 September, 2025, Transit Committee met for its fifth meeting this year. The meeting video can be found at this link. 

Reliability continues to be the big issue facing OC Transpo. This meeting, councillors discussed reliability problems, the electric bus program and fleet assignments, and funding splits for transit priority projects, among other topics. However, while councillors talk a good game about supporting public transit, many have a track record of opposing programs which would improve reliability. In this context, empty words only calls to mind broken promises, not that of a more transit-oriented future. 

Much of the discussion was triggered by a staff report on reliability, whose contents were discussed at the meeting and are in this article. I will write a response to the report itself in a separate article. This meeting also included a Stage 2 update, which will be separate as usual. 

This is the first meeting after Renee Amilcar's departure from OC Transpo. Troy Charter, the director of rail operations, has become acting general manager pending a search for a permanent figure. 

Documents archive, all in PDF format: 

• Stage 2 Rail Transit Project [Update]
• Improving Bus Service Reliability
• Transit Committee Inquiries and Motions

There were also a large number of inquiries answered this meeting: 

• Fire Safety Code for E-Bus Garages
• O-Train Line 2 Service Schedule
• Para Transpo Eligibility Reviews and Vehicle Assignment Procedures
• Line 1 LRT Construction Road Closures
• Line 1 East Extension Bus Service

Route 5 Snapshot: 28 July-24 August

Introduction

This article discusses service quality on Route 5 between 28 July and 24 August. Route 5 was created as part of New Ways to Bus earlier this year; it runs frequently between Rideau and Elmvale on Elgin, Main, and Smyth. Previously, the "5" designation belonged to a local route between Rideau and Billings Bridge, and the current service span was covered by a smorgasbord of local and frequent routes. 

Route 5 is fairly well-behaved most times of the day. However, problems appear at certain times of the day, and cancellations remain a scourge on service quality. 

Route 5 is relatively well-behaved in most times of the day, with problems being concentrated to certain times of day ... and to the cancellation of service. Internal analysis like this can identify problem spots on the network, to be targeted with something more specific than redesigning the scheduling system or similar interventions. 

Data, as always, comes from Transsee. 

Bus Scheduling, Part III: Efficiencies, Improvements, and Flexibility

Introduction

This is the third and final part of the series on bus scheduling. The first two parts can be found here. 

Remember that OC Transpo claims that their system "permit[s] more flexibility," "increase[s] efficiency," and "reduce[s] operating costs." 

In fact, their scheduling system is not flexible, does not increase efficiency, and increases operating subsidies through a combination of unreliable service and increased deadhead and layover times, which are not, or cannot, be manually revised to ensure cost savings. By ending random interlining and looking at bus operating cost from a standpoint of bus allocation rather than the endlessly stupid "1 minute of travel time savings is $40,000 saved!" from the last Transit Committee meeting, we can improve service, if only the network and schedule design was treated as part of the process rather than as stone tablets handed down from God himself. 

Travel Markets and Public Transit

Introduction 

As part of the Transportation Master Plan process, the City commissioned a study into travel called the "Transport Trends Report", which analyzes transportation across town. This document can be found on the City of Ottawa website. 

These surveys are a gold mine of data, and TRANS conducts other transport surveys with semi-regularity. I recommend anyone reading this blog to read both the report and at the TRANS surveys. 

To our interest today is the Origin-Destination survey, which analyzes travel destinations for all trips in Ottawa. The last of these was conducted in 2011, coincidentally when Network Optimization fossilized the bus route network. 

I will look at the report at a high-level, analyzing the large-scale markets that OC Transpo could serve. 

A cautionary note, the O-D survey was conducted in 2022, when many peoples' travel patterns were in flux; the dust had not yet settled from the fallout of the pandemic. Transit ridership is about 40% higher than it was at the time, and no doubt some of the O-D survey data is already obsolete. 

Stage 2 Update (Transit Committee) - 12 June, 2025

Introduction

This is the second part to my update on the Transit Committee meeting on 12 June, focusing on Stage 2 updates. The first part, covering everything else, can be found here. 

The relevant documents are a report to city council at this link and a motion here.