Route 11 snapshot: 28 April-25 May

Introduction

This article will discuss service quality on Route 11 between 28 April and 25 May, which is a period of four weeks. As always, data is sourced from Transsee. 

Bus Scheduling, Part II: Interlining

Introduction

This is the second part of a three-part series. To read the first part on runtimes and layovers, click here. 

In this article, I will focus on the practice of interlining. 

According to OC Transpo, whose memo you can read here, interlining is 

essential to delivering the most efficient scheduling solution ... There are two main goals of interlining: to permit more flexibility from a vehicle type and capacity perspective. For example, high-capacity buses can be moved throughout the network to deliver service on specific trips that require those buses; and to increase efficiency by reducing the overall number of buses and bus operators required to provide the service, which can help to reduce operating costs.

 

 As we shall see, neither of these things are true. 

Currently, 27 per cent of all in-service trips are followed by a trip on a different route, and 40 per cent of all existing blocks include four or more different routes. Most (72 per cent) deadheads are short and have a duration of five minutes or less. A quarter of all deadheads are between five and 30 minutes in duration, and about three per cent of all deadheads are 30 minutes or more in duration, to or from the most remote parts of the system. 

 

Bus Scheduling, Part I: Run Times, Layovers, and Propagating Delays

Introduction

Reliability is a major concern for both OC Transpo and its passengers. According to OC Transpo's own surveys, reliability of service is the primary concern of its riders, while Transit Committee is dominated with discussion of reliability: fleet, scheduling, customer satisfaction, plans, and more. It's clear that this is a major issue for Ottawa's transit sphere. 

This is the first of three articles examining OC Transpo's scheduling practices. In this piece, I wish to examine how poor scheduling can propagate delays across runs and routes, using a number of case studies. 

Disclaimer: I am not a bus scheduler, or any other kind of expert in this field. This is purely a casual glance at OC Transpo's practices, and there are always hidden "backroom" factors that are difficult to account for. 

In posting this analysis, I simply hope to shed some light into OC Transpo's scheduling practices, in order to demonstrate best practices in other cities and how OC Transpo is, or is not, utilizing them. 

OC Transpo has produced a report of its own on scheduling practices, which you can read here. 

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.)