Route 7 service snapshot - 29 September to 26 October

Route 7 is a frequent line that runs from St. Laurent to Carleton University on the northern segment of St. Laurent, the Hemlock-Beechwood corridor, and Bank Street, an arrangement which has not changed substantially since the 1980s. This is one of two Bank Street routes, which is currently being contested amidst a proposal to convert two lanes of parking to bus lanes, as well as a plan to introduce bus lanes to St. Laurent. 

Route 7 is among the busiest of OC Transpo routes, but suffers from the usual problems of a high rate of cancellations and buses that do not appear on-schedule or on-headway. 

The example of Route 7 is a continual reminder of how poorly schedules create erratic service, both the pitfalls and benefits of route management, and how reliability can differ on the same route at different times of day. 

As usual, the data for this analysis comes from Transsee. 

Budget Holes and Money Pits

The draft 2026 budget has finally been released, after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe bragged about it being the most transparent budget in the history of the city. It's true - hot air is transparent, and it creates mirages of fiscal responsibility and responsible governance. 

The mayor's press statements brag about fiscal responsibility and transparency, but the transit budget stands in opposition to his empty claims. Among the misleading or inaccurate statements are a third  "one-time" expectation for $47 million of "required" funding from upper levels of government which has never materialized ever; fare revenue increases bordering on magical; and the hiding of OC Transpo's subsidy behind the aforementioned false numbers and misleading budgeting. 

With this budget, the total operating cost reaches $939 million in 2026. Despite this, there is zero attempt to reorganize scheduling, a pathetic attempt at transit priority measures, and little attempt at financial transparency, which creates true image of fiscal indulgence and a lack of regard for long-term planning. 

OC Transpo will require even more money over the coming few years. Overprojecting revenue has become an annual ritual at City Hall - with a hostile mayoralty or province in charge, transit runs the risk of becoming a target. 

 

The City must right the fiscal ship, come clean about the looming danger, and City Council be resolute in demanding that this be done with the utmost transparency and accountability. 

Route 70 "snapshot" - 8 September to 5 October

This article analyzes the service quality on Route 70 throughout the month of September. Unlike many other routes, this is a local milk run route from Limebank to Barrhaven Centre, Citigate, and Fallowfield, and will feature slightly different charts than normal. It was formed out of pieces of old Routes 170 and 171 during New Ways to Bus this April. 

As always, data comes from Transsee. 

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.