Bus After Midnight, Pt. I: the last bus of the day

Every day at midnight, transit service stops for the night, only to resume the next morning. Shutting down a transit service is more complex than it seems though, and an examination of late night service on OC Transpo reveals some patterns that are difficult to spot during the more complex daytime service. 

Evening service levels are lower than other periods for good reason. This period sees lower travel demand, and agencies schedule more service during the day when it can serve the most passengers and needs a lower subsidy, such as that seen in the TTC chart below. 

Note: while OC Transpo runs with a greater subsidy on most routes, there is no reason to believe that this pattern is different - ridership figures show lower passenger counts in the evening. 

But this is not a reason to abandon sensible late night network planning. As the chart above demonstrates, even in 2022, evening ridership was lower than it was at the peak of OC Transpo ridership in 2011. Night service often serves low income residents - service workers finshing work at the city's stores and restaurants, students returning home after late classes, and shift workers working late shifts. Additionally, many people occasionally ride late night service, and the availability of service may induce them to keep riding transit instead of switching to driving. 

This is the first of a two part series. This post will examine late night connections, especially last trips and Line 1 headways. The second post will look at the overnight bus network, focusing on coverage, scheduling quirks, and connections at Rideau Station. This will be more speculative than my usual, with some crayons in each part. 

No Connections?

As a rule, most bus routes stop running by midnight, and a skeleton network of Transitway routes serve the City 24/7. 

Late night train service is valuable, and Line 1 delivers, with the last trip at one in the morning on weekdays and two in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays. The Friday/Saturday service is the best in the country, and weekday service matches what is available in the rest of the country. However, headways are erratic after 2330, and gaps range from 13-20 minutes.  

However, the Line 1 has limited coverage, and does not serve most of the city. Therefore, the service span of bus connections will continue to be important lifelines even after Stage 2 opens, and for maximizing ridership on what Line 1 trains do run.  

That is why it's so egregious that the last Line 1 train in both directions connects to no bus routes, except for the 24/7 night routes and the 6, 7, and 12 downtown. If your destination is not near a night route or Line 1, the last train of the day will not get you where you need to go. On Saturdays and Sundays, the situation is even more farcical - Line 1 service ends at 0200, which is the best in the country; unlike Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver, bus service ends early, and this extended service connects to nothing. 

A few graphics makes clear how train and bus schedules seem to have been written independently: 

Uncoordinated Planning

So far, I have covered only one trip. It does not seem like a big deal - after all, Line 1 runs 150 trips every weekday. However, not only is this the last trip of the day, meaning passengers who do not have connections have to take alternate modes to their destination, but implies a broader problem of uncoordinated scheduled and planning. 

After 2300 in the evening, Line 1 operates a cheapskate schedule, headways falling to every 13-20 minutes. It is understandable why OC Transpo would operate a cheaper schedule when volumes are low (although one wishes they'd tighten up the 20 minute headways), but since that is the case, bus connections need to be taken into account in scheduling.  

Route 75 is a convenient example as the busiest of the suburban connectors, but it is not the only such example - late night service is rife with such examples. In the above example, three late night Route 75 trips depart Tunney's Pasture one minute after the train arrives (admittedly, assuming that trips leave exactly on-time, which they do not always do). It is easy to imagine - and many riders are probably familiar with the experience - sprinting up the stairs, running across the concourse, only to watch the 75 bus leave through the glass, with a thirty minute wait ahead of them. 

Evidently, when Line 1 trips were reduced in September 2024, nobody thought to coordinate departure times with the new, reduced trains, nor did it cross anyone's mind during New Ways to Bus. 

And thus, we return to OC Transpo scheduling practices. The departure times, set through "dumb" headways and by machine, are set in stone and not considered flexible. The headway is immutable and the buses continue to leave the same minute trains at Tunney's Pasture station. With service like this, no wonder riders continue to abandon OC Transpo in droves. 

OC Transpo should review its late night network, adjusting departure times where appropriate to ensure convenient bus connections, especially from low-frequency trains. 

The "Last Trip" Network

Returning to the subject of last-train connections, a skeleton network of bus routes should be implemented with connections to the last train of the day. This does come with funding implications, as adding new trips is costly. However, this should be cheaper than it appears - a "last train" connection would only need operate in one direction, and it is one off-peak trip that could plausibly be shift extensions on many paddles. 

A hypothetical review of late night connections should include some or all of the following provisions: 

• Focus on high ridership and high productivity routes; 
• covering as many neighbourhoods as possible, with priority given to routes in different parts of the city rather than bunching them together, and; 
• a preference for routes whose paddles could be extended to serve the last train as cheaply as possible. 

This leads to the conclusion that moving departure times is preferable, for cost reasons (and as routes with existing late night service tend to meet the other requirements better). However, few routes operate past 0030 or so and to ensure good coverage of the city, trips would need to be added on most routes. 

The obvious candidates for moving trips are the last regular 39, 61, and 75 trips, the 11, and 88. Delaying departures is the cheapest way to provide connections, but this leaves many holes in coverage. 

Adding trips may be anathema to OC Transpo planners, as timed transfers from the last train do not fit neatly with "dumb" headway scheduling. But adding one trip at the end of the day would be a cheap way to provide city-wide connections. Candidates include the 25, 40 (especially an Elmvale short-turn), 41, 44, 80, 90, and 98. Drivers would be instructed to wait for disembarking passengers from Line 1. 

These routes would provide last-train connections to most of the city, destinations, and dense neighbourhoods at a fairly low cost (a couple thousand service hours a year). The more connections, the more utility (and cost) there is to late night transit service - and now, OC Transpo pays for late night service without the benefit of connecting service. 

One Problem of Many

Late night service is a microcosm of the ills that plague OC Transpo service. Poke at the structure from one direction, and a half dozen problems fall out on the other side. Problems include uncoordinated bus-train transfers, uneven headways, and lack of connections to the final Line 1 trip. 

Late nights are a uniquely difficult time period for transit planning - the low demand makes for large headways and unattractive service. This is where a little creativity would go furthest in improving service. Instead, we have disjointed transfers and uncoordinated departures which harms network usability, lengthens travel time, and pushes riders to drive instead. It's clear that changes are needed in our late night service. 

Next up: a look at the network after the train stops running, and opportunities for improvement. 

Until next time.