OC Transpo reducing bus service by 74,000 hours in 2024

OC Transpo will operate 74,000 fewer hours of bus service across the city of Ottawa next year as part of an overhaul of the bus route network that the transit service says is designed to improve service along "important routes" and connections to the new Trillium Line and to commercial and employment hubs.

OC Transpo will operate 74,000 fewer hours of bus service across the city of Ottawa next year as part of an overhaul of the bus route network that the transit service says is designed to improve service along "important routes" and connections to commercial and employment destinations.

Transit Services general manager Renee Amilcar says the bus route changes coming in 2024 include the "recalibration of downtown-focused commuter routes to trips that improve connectivity to community hubs such as transit stations and grocery stores" and connecting riders with the north-south Trillium Line when it opens in the spring.

A report for the Transit Commission meeting on Nov. 14 outlines the results of the Bus Route Review, which is intended to address transit use and patterns since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and to prepare for the launch of the Trillium Line next spring. The changes include cancelling many Connexion routes (200 series), redirecting service away from streets with low ridership and increasing service to 15 minutes "at most times" on main transit corridors.

In a memo to council Friday evening, Amilcar said OC Transpo's new route network is designed to ensure a "sustainable network….to improve service reliability to 99.5 per cent."

"Improving service reliability is key to building and maintaining a public transit system that customers and residents can have confidence in," Amilcar says. "The service reliability target of 99.5 per cent means that out of approximately 8,000 trips delivered each weekday, no more than 40 trips would be cancelled in a single day."

Amilcar says the current OC Transpo bus network was designed to carry 100 million passengers a year, but "recent ridership trends" has the transit system on track to carry 70 to 75 million customer trips in 2024.

OC Transpo is operating approximately 2.111 million hours of bus service in 2023. Amilcar says the new bus route network will provide 2.037 million service hours in 2024, down 3.5 per cent from this year.