Travelling by bus from Ottawa to a nearby city? Prepare to wait in a parking lot

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“It kind of baffles me that Ottawa is the nation’s capital, but there’s so many indirect routes to travel. All roads really should lead to Ottawa,” one public transit advocate says.

It’s -10 C on an early winter morning and Emma Bieler is looking for her bus stop.

She’s in a parking lot near the IKEA beside Highway 417. There are no easily visible signs to indicate where the bus pickup is located. There is no shelter. There are no bathrooms. Most nearby stores aren’t open before 9 a.m.

Bieler, a first-year political science student at the University of Ottawa, is heading home to Whitby, 55 kilometres east of Toronto, and this is the most economical way there since she doesn’t have her own car. She had to book an early Uber ride to get to this parking lot because she didn’t want to miss her bus.

“I usually try and get to the stop 30 minutes early,” she said.

Bieler finds the Flixbus pickup location because she sees a few others standing with luggage in tow in a makeshift line.

The advice on Flixbus website says the bus will stop “in the Pinecrest Mall Parking lot, near the blue yellow signs for zone E, on the other side of the lot from Michaels.”

It’s a good thing she’s early; she’s not riding Flixbus. In a brief moment of panic, she realizes her bus trip is with Rider Express, whose pickup location is on the other side of the shopping centre’s expansive parking lot, where she finds another group of travellers sitting and waiting in the cold.

By 9:15 a.m. Bieler is still outside, freezing. Her bus is late. The Flixbus she almost mistakenly boarded drives behind her and another passes by shortly after, but there’s no Rider Express bus in sight.

Robert Ward, 62, doesn’t own a car.

He regularly commutes using inter-city buses in Canada and when travelling in other countries, especially in Europe. He recently took a Flixbus from Ottawa to Toronto to visit his brother during the holidays. Ward said getting dropped off in a parking lot could be intimidating for solo travellers.

“If you’re travelling independently, it’s usually more convenient to have a downtown location,” he said. He looked up travelling from the Pinecrest parking lot to downtown Ottawa and said it would require him to take two different buses.

“If I were travelling between cities and there wasn’t someone to pick me up, I would prefer to have a bus terminal downtown.”

Why doesn’t Ottawa have a bus station?

Ottawa’s Central Bus terminal was located on Catherine Street, but it closed in 2021 after Greyhound Canada shut down its bus operations. The land is now owned by Brigil, a real-estate developer that plans to install three highrise towers.

Smaller companies have tried to fill the gap in intercity travel, but Marie Nigro, a member of Free Transit Ottawa, says there are several places an hour away from Ottawa that are “nearly impossible to get to.”

She says Ottawa needs a more central bus terminal. “It should be a very easy city to get in and out of,” Nigro said. “I think that would help fight climate change because then people would be more inclined to stop using their cars and start using alternative means of travel like buses and trains.

“It kind of baffles me that Ottawa is the nation’s capital, but there’s so many indirect routes to travel,” Nigro said. “All roads really should lead to Ottawa. All airways should lead to Ottawa.”

What are the options for intercity buses in Ottawa?

There are now nine intercity bus companies you can take from Ottawa to other cities in Canada and the United States. Here’s what each service offers.

Rider Express offers bus service to Toronto, with stops in Kingston, Belleville, Whitby and Scarborough. It also travels to London, with stops in Mississauga and Kitchener. An average one-way ticket to Toronto can cost $133 for a round-trip. Service is offered daily starting from 8:50 a.m., with its starting point at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.

Flixbus runs 19 rides each day from Ottawa to Toronto, starting at 6 a.m. It stops in Kingston, Belleville, Whitby and Scarborough, while some rides have additional stops in towns like Carleton Place, Perth and Madoc. Round-trip tickets are estimated at about $100.

Red Arrow offers service seven days a week to Toronto, with stops in Kingston and Scarborough. A one-way ticket averages about $87.

Megabus offers daily service to Toronto with only one stop in Kingston. Its only stop and starting point in Ottawa is at St. Laurent Station. A round-trip ticket averages $160. It also offers routes to Montreal, Niagara Falls and London.

Ontario Northland offers bus service to Toronto that is longer than usual, almost 12 hours. It stops along the way in several small towns and cities, including Pembroke, Mattawa, Deep River and North Bay. An average one-way ticket costs $160.

Book A Ride offers daily service to Toronto with some rides stopping in Carleton Place, Whitby and Scarborough. Service is currently temporarily disrupted until further notice.

Orleans Express runs daily rides to Montreal with no stops. An average one-way ticket costs about $60. It has stops at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa train station on Tremblay Road.

Autobus Maheux has daily services from Ottawa and Gatineau to Montreal with no stops. It offers a one-way ticket averaging $40.

Tour Express offers daily service from Ottawa to Montreal and the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport with no stops. A one-way ticket costs an average of $40.

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