This article analyses the service provided on Route 80 from the 11th of November to 6th December. Data from Transsee. As a reminder, here are headway charts for the <80>:
Cancellations
Route 80 runs 66 NB and 65 SB trips on weekdays, 36 trips each way on Saturdays, and 23 trips each way on Sundays.
- 11th November: 3 NB, 5 SB
- 12th November: 2 NB, 4 SB
- 13th November: 2 NB, 1 SB
- 14th November: 0 NB, 0 SB
- 15th November: 3 NB, 4 SB
- 16th November: 2 NB, 1 SB
- 17th November: 0 NB, 0 SB
- 18th November: 2 NB, 1 SB
- 19th November: 1 NB, 3 SB
- 20th November: 1 NB, 6 SB
- 21st November: 0 NB, 0 SB
- 22nd November: 3 NB, 6 SB
- 23rd November: 1 NB, 1 SB
- 24th November: 2 NB, 0 SB
- 25th November: 1 NB, 2 SB
- 26th November: 2 NB, 3 SB
- 27th November: 1 NB, 4 SB
- 28th November: 0 NB, 0 SB
- 29th November: 2 NB, 4 SB
- 30th November: 3 NB, 0 SB
- 1st December: 1 NB, 0 SB
- 2nd December: 1 NB, 2 SB
- 3rd December: 3 NB, 2 SB
- 4th December: 2 NB, 3 SB
- 5th December: 5 NB, 1 SB
- 6th December: 4 NB, 6 SB
- 7th December: 3 NB, 2 SB
- 8th December: 2 NB, 1 SB
This is a cancellation rate of 3.3% northbound, and 4.0% southbound. The following chart shows how displaying the cancellation rate in an average hides variation that can cause up to ten percent of trips to be cancelled on a given day.
Headway Adherence
Reminder: these charts only cover weekdays.
In the northbound direction, bunching and gaps start high at West Hunt Club, reflecting the poor blending of the Auriga and Barrhaven branches of the route. This will be a persistent theme throughout the analysis of Route 80.
However, traffic conditions on the central stretch of Merivale north of West Hunt Club worsen the problem, leading to extreme bunching at Baseline, which persists to the route's terminus at Tunney's Pasture.
Note that I have excluded Marketplace from this analysis, as the low frequency of the branched service means that a headway analysis is not meaningful south of Macfarlane on Merivale.
Service blending is less of a problem southbound, but problems on the route cause more bunching towards Hunt Club. Bunching is minor outside the PM Peak at Tunney's Pasture (note: to avoid tracker problems, I used the first stop south - Holland/Scott NB and Holland/Spencer SB instead of Tunney's Pasture proper), but it becomes more variable at Baseline, and the problem is severe at Hunt Club.
On-time performance and string charts
I'm trying something new: tying the on-time performance analysis to the string charts.
Because of complications with Transsee and the way the branching works, I can only present on-time performance by time period. AM Peak:
In the northbound direction, buses fall behind schedule on Cresthaven and Leikin, inexplicably, and bunch with buses originating at Auriga on Merivale, causing them to fall further behind schedule.
Midday:
Blending remains a northbound concern in the midday, with Barrhaven buses starting their route at 60% OTP, deteriorating along the entire route until Meadowlands. By the time buses reach Carling, early buses (from bunching) become evident.
Southbound, the delay in Barrhaven buses appears along Merivale south of Carling; this could be for many reasons, of which I posit one is higher demand for Barrhaven travel. Auriga buses, unlike in the AM Peak, also have poor on-time performance from the origin, getting worse on Merivale as well. Traffic is likely another factor.
PM Peak: 
Northbound performance is extremely poor, with almost half of buses departing Barrhaven Centre late. Auriga buses aren't much better, but they also bunch heading towards Tunney's Pasture. Once again, bunching of Auriga and Barrhaven buses is a major concern, especially northbound.
Evening:
On-time performance, probably due to interlining, is abysmal in the evenings as well. NB delays seems to appear at the origin, while SB has more delays on the route, especially on Merivale. Note that branching ends in this time period, with all trips to Barrhaven.
I've included a PDF to string diagrams for the entire week (weekdays only) described above. Link.
Let's look at Wednesday the 13th November: 
In the AM, northbound travel time is variable across the entire route, with maximum travel times running up to 150% of the median. Additionally, it seems that the Barrhaven leg has the smallest variation in travel times, making the delays (to the schedule) encountered on this section less comprehensible. OC Transpo needs to pad runtimes.
As always, the granular charts reveal some problems:
- Slow speeds on Merivale between Clyde and Hunt Club, but especially NB between Hunt Club and Meadowlands;
- poor blending of NB service between the two branches, leading to bunching on "racket" runs;
- slow speeds, especially NB, on Leikin and Cresthaven, and;
- the Westgate Mall loop off-peak, and the left turn(s) on Carling in general.
Weekends:
Daytime performance is poor on weekends. Northbound, buses start late and get later, especially on Merivale around Meadowlands. Bunching then appears north of Baseline, presumably because of the aforementioned delays.
Southbound trips get massively delayed on Merivale between Meadowlands and Hunt Club.
Early morning and late evening service runs mostly well, with delays northbound around Leikin/Merivale and delays southbound on Merivale and Strandherd.
Any longer delays in this time period, and I would be extremely concerned for OC Transpo's well-being. Here's Saturday's tracking chart, with Sunday in this PDF.
Bunching is an issue on some trips, especially towards Tunney's Pasture. Additionally, weekday problems reappear, such as the Westgate loop and the slow travel times on Merivale northbound around Hunt Club-Meadowlands, which helps cause bunching.
Travel times:
Some analysis of travel times on the route at peak periods. The more variable the travel time, the harder it is to write a schedule; OC Transpo's schedules are also based on lighter traffic patterns than now, so many routes have median runtimes far above their scheduled times (this is a problem on the 88, for example).
In the AM, northbound travel time is variable across the entire route, with maximum travel times running up to 150% of the median. Additionally, it seems that the Barrhaven leg has the smallest variation in travel times, making the delays (to the schedule) encountered on this section less comprehensible. OC Transpo needs to pad runtimes.
Southbound, the variation is less extreme ... mostly. As a percentage of median travel times, the maximum is smaller than in the northbound, which makes sense, as southbound is the counterpeak direction.
Still, very high travel times are encountered on some trips, including week four, which may have been influenced by snow.
Compared to the AM period, not only do PM travel times increase, but maximum travel time, especially south of Baseline, show more variability.
Southbound travel times also show increases from the AM Peak, unsurprisingly, and show more variability. This is distributed evenly among the entire route.
Route 80 shows a few particular problems. While OC Transpo must have the cooperation of other departments (and the city budget, which has not been cooperative in the past few years) to implement traffic bypass measures, there are some measures they can take to improve travel on their routes: better route management, the end of interlining in problematic periods, stop consolidation, and management that ensures the busiest branches get adequate schedule time and the articulated buses.
Many of OC Transpo's problems can be pinpointed through analysis like this, to a few problem spots which cause delays for thousands of passengers (how many? Even OC Transpo doesn't know!).
I'll be back soon, probably with an analysis of Route 97, but nothing is set in (digital) ink yet. See you there.
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