OC Transpo
continues to fall short of its
reliability targets
, and its metrics are “stagnant” despite hiring new drivers and mechanics, extending the O-Train and implementing its “
new ways to bus
” route redesign.
“We’re not seeing progress in our on-time performance metrics…despite clearing all these major hurdles,” Coun. Riley Brockington said at last week’s transit commission.
Here’s what we know about the factors impacting bus reliability and what the city is doing to improve its transit service:
What are the factors affecting bus reliability?
According to transit commission chair Glen Gower, an acute shortage of roadworthy buses and frustrating traffic congestion on Ottawa streets are the factors most impacting OC Transpo’s cancelled trips and late bus arrivals.
OC Transpo needs 519 buses in service to accommodate its customers this fall, but currently has only 511 buses available on an average day.
In April, when OC Transpo rolled out its bus route redesign, it required a minimum of 540 buses and had only 521 available.
OC Transpo’s fleet of 738 buses is aging rapidly, with half its buses already exceeding their useful lifespan, Gower said, resulting in more breakdowns and more time spent in the garage.
“That means runs will be cancelled, and there are limited spares available for when something goes wrong,” Gower said. “There’s no margin for error.”
About 30 per cent of its fleet is off the road daily, Gower said, and that ratio should be closer to 20 per cent. Staff said there are 120 buses out of service each day with “daily defects,” while another 42 require more than 30 days in the garage for maintenance.
“The problem with an aging fleet is they break down more often and when they do, they’re sitting in the garage for longer than a newer bus would be. And, coupled with that, we’ve been experiencing manufacturing and delivery delays in the new (primarily e-buses) to replace them,” Gower said.
How is traffic congestion affecting bus reliability?
Gower said bus delays due to traffic congestion, collisions and road closures are “nothing new, but it’s particularly bad right now.”
Many of the bus-only lanes on the Transitway are unavailable for buses due to LRT construction, which means buses are mixed with regular traffic.
“There are some significant projects that are really having an impact. Construction of the east LRT is definitely having an impact on Highway 174 and when there is vehicle congestion, it affects buses.
“In the west end, there is a lot of Transitway that used to be dedicated to bus-only… it’s a real, particular challenge right now while the LRT is under construction,” Gower said.
Gower also pointed to the “vicious cycle” of more people ditching transit and moving back to their cars because of OC Transpo’s reliability issues. That means more cars on the road and more traffic that delays buses, he said.
“With all the issues we’ve had, I can totally understand why people are making a choice to switch from buses to cars,” Gower said. “The O-Train is running very reliably, very consistently now. It’s the bus network that really needs a lot of attention and we’ve got a lot to do to win back the confidence of riders.”
When will the new e-buses be delivered?
The city is dealing with delays in the delivery of its new e-buses due to manufacturing and supply chain issues across North America.
OC Transpo currently has 30 e-buses in its fleet, with about 21 of those in service each day, staff told the transit committee on Sept. 11.
Council approved a $974 million plan to purchase 350 e-buses by the end of 2027, with $335 million in municipal funding, $289 million in Canada Infrastructure Bank loans and $350 million in federal funding under the government’s zero-emission bus incentives.
The first four of those e-buses arrived in 2022 in a pilot program and the city added 26 new 40-foot e-buses to its fleet this year in February and May. Another 19 e-buses are expected to arrive in November.
“When we first embarked on the e-bus procurement in (January) 2023, we were anticipating we would have more buses here today than we do,” Gower said. “There are so many transit agencies ordering electric buses at the same time and I don’t think the industry was quite ready for that.”
Gower said staff have “a lot more confidence” in the delivery schedule for e-buses going forward.
Staff are also facing delays on the electrical infrastructure for its charging stations with “challenges” in the delivery of equipment for its on-site substation. That has delayed the commissioning of the substation — initially scheduled for November — until April.
That could impact OC Transpo’s ability to provide additional charging equipment for the 80 e-buses that are scheduled to be delivered later this year. The garage currently has 30 chargers servicing the 30 e-buses in its fleet.
Dan Villeneuve, manager of the zero-emission bus program, said staff have a mitigation strategy to install a temporary power supply to “ensure the upcoming bus delivery is supported with enough chargers.”
Is the city purchasing new diesel buses?
The city also purchased another 11 used diesel buses to add to its fleet, which are currently being retrofitted and expected to go into service later this year.
Staff said they are also working with New Flyer on procuring 50 diesel-powered high-capacity articulating buses with a tentative delivery date later in 2026 and into 2027.
Coun. Wilson Lo introduced a motion last week, which will be debated at the next transit committee in October, calling for all bus procurements in 2026 to be diesel or diesel-electric hybrids.
Lo’s motion cites the “untested abilities” of high-capacity e-buses that led the steering committee to shift in 2024 from procuring a mix of 60-foot and 40-foot buses to exclusively procuring 40-foot buses.
Lo said OC Transpo’s “new ways to bus” route redesign “reduced bus service levels across OC Transpo’s network, which, compounded by fleet age and availability issues, has led to customer complaints and concerns about vehicle overcrowding and passengers unable to board full buses.”
Gower hesitated to endorse any motion calling for an end to procuring electric buses.
“So far every indicator is that electric buses we’ve been procuring have been performing very well,” he said, with staff providing annual reports and regular performance updates. “Staff have also demonstrated that where there is not an appropriate electric bus available to buy, they have the ability to buy diesel buses.”
How is the city planning to avoid bus shortages in the future?
Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo’s director of transit customer service and planning, told the committee he is encouraging the “next generation” of staff to avoid the pitfalls of replacing aging buses all at once.
“We will be encouraging the next generation of people who come after us to try to avoid the problem that we’re in of having to replace half the bus fleet all in a two-year span,” he said.
“The buses are supposed to last for 15 years. We should be replacing 1/15th of our bus fleet every year. That will ensure we have a consistent profile of buses over every age bracket — that there’s some new buses, there’s some old buses.
“Our problem is particularly acute right now because we have very, very many old buses.”
OC Transpo put 350 new buses into service 2010, Scrimgeour said.
“They were great, but they all aged at the same rate,” he said.
“It’s not going to be the people who are here now… who make that decision 15 years from now. But we need to start breaking that apart and trying to replace some of them a year early, some of them a year late, break that down and get back to a more consistent bus purchase.”
