Funding OC Transpo

Introduction

It is orthodoxy in Ottawa's transit advocacy circles that OC Transpo is underfunded. Advocacy groups from Ottawa Transit Riders and Strong Towns Ottawa to Free Transit Ottawa and Horizon Ottawa use phrases  like "underfund", "properly fund", and "neglected to fund" to describe OC Transpo. This extends to some politicians, including mayoral candidate and current MPP Catherine McKenney, who said that OC Transpo has suffered from "years of underfunding," as well as the media, who describe OC Transpo's various budget crises which these days seem to be the most regularly scheduled event at OC Transpo (these are not the same as "underfunding") - see this year's $56 million in "fake money" from bogus ridership projections and phantom spending by other levels of government. I have no doubt we will have another budget crisis sometime this year. 

Independent of these regularly occurring crises, which incidentally would make a great investigative journalism piece for someone with lots of connections to staff at City Hall, the mayor and City Council have so far resisted the urge make drastic increases to the budget, though many may disagree. (11.4% is a large increase, but the 4% increase that comes from real money is much smaller.) 

New Ways to Bus: no new paradigm for OC Transpo

After two years of consultation, recommendations, and delays (mostly delays), New Ways to Bus goes into effect today, the 27th of April. 

These changes are extensive, with "changes" to nearly every route. Whether that's your frequency, routing, or travel time, OC Transpo is selling this as the biggest service change in its history. So I thought it would be a great time to deliver a stream of consciousness ... I mean, concise wrap-up of my thoughts on the new network. 

If there is anything major, I will, of course, report on that as well. And I hope to return with new ridership figures at the end of this year. 

Route 90 snapshot: 24 March-20 April

This article presents a "snapshot" of service quality on Route 90 between the 24th of March and 20th of April. Data sourced from Transsee. 

How do we measure reliability?

Introduction

At Transit Committee (TC) on the 10th of April, reliability was the big issue of the day. Reliability statistics, reliability breakdowns, reliability plans, the discussion was centered around reliability even if the solutions were not found that day. 

In light of this, and in light of my own criticism of OC Transpo's reporting of reliability, I wanted to ask the question: how do we measure reliability? And how should we? 

Transit Committee - 10 April, 2025

Introduction

On Thursday, the 10th of April 2025, Transit Committee held its third meeting of the year. Video link here, the meeting begins at 20:45. 

This meeting was a head-turner, and featured some good discussion of OC Transpo's reliability problems, and the hard questions needed to turn the service around. Unfortunately, there were no hard answers - but this is the closest they have gotten in a while, and I hope future meetings continue to push on this front. 

Though they could stand to be a little shorter!  

And a documents list, all linked to the City of Ottawa's website. I provide no guarantees this stuff won't link rot over time ... 

Staff update presentation (PDF) 

Light rail monitoring and compliance (PDF) 
Five-year roadmap update (PDF)

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. III

Introduction

On the first of April, the city released its Transportation Master Plan update. This is the third and final article in a three-part series on this joke. The first, link here, covers the contents of the plan. The second, link here, is a detailed rant on why this plan is terrible as a "Transportation Master Plan" (as opposed to, say, a feasibility study). This article will focus on how I think we got to this point, and what can be done about it. 

This article contains much speculation. You have been warned. 

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. II

Introduction

On the first of April, the City released its draft Transportation Master Plan, or TMP, and befitting this date, it's a complete joke. The TMP is a document that guides city planning on all transportation matters; this one is intended to go through 2046, though the document is irregularly updated.

This is the second part in my three-piece series on the new TMP. If you're not already familiar with it, take a read through part one to get an understanding of what the TMP is and how it came to be.

If you haven't read it, I encourage you to take a skim through the official TMP propaganda reports and get a sense of what I'm talking about.

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. I

Introduction

The City's new Transportation Master Plan (TMP) for transit and roads came out on the first of April after a last-minute delay from the day before. That the TMP was hastily pushed for a release on April Fool's is a level of symbolism that says everything essential about this bungled plan. 

Before we start, I think it should be clear that I strongly dislike the new TMP. I will oppose it as much as I can, and I encourage you to do so as well.

Route 44 snapshot: 24 Feb-23 Mar

This article presents a "snapshot" of service on Route 44 between the 24th of February and the 23rd of March. Data collected from Transsee. 

Stage 2 Update (Transit Committee) - 17 March, 2025

On the 17th of March, a Monday, Transit Committee met for the second meeting of the year. Video link. Meeting begins at 16:50. 

The Stage 2 update presentation begins at timestamp 3:35:30 in the video. 

Transit Committee - 17 March, 2025

On the 17th of March, a Monday, Transit Committee met for the second meeting of the year. Video link. Meeting begins at 16:50. 

Investigation of the Trillium Line Training Program

Introduction

On the 10th of February, 2025, the Auditor General's Office released a report on the training program for DROs (diesel rail operators) on Lines 2 and 4. This document is less damning for what it says about the training program itself, than for what it says about the City's contractual obligations, and the continued feeling that, to borrow Steve Munro's phrase, "no one is minding the store" at OC Transpo. 

If you want to read the report yourself, it can be found in PDF form here. I will provide page numbers to quotes and key findings; these are the page numbers in the bottom-right corner of the PDF and not the actual PDF pages themselves. I will also annotate the quotes with my interpretation, reading [like this].