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Transit reliability is an issue that's high on the mind of voters — and it comes down to much more than predictable traffic patterns, with transit agencies in Ottawa and across Canada struggling under funding shortfalls, fluctuating ridership and a lack of both vehicles and staff.
Transit reliability is an issue that's high on the mind of voters — and it comes down to much more than predictable traffic patterns, with transit agencies in Ottawa and across Canada struggling under funding shortfalls, fluctuating ridership and a lack of both vehicles and staff.
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. CBC Ottawa asked local voters what their top issues were this municipal election, and transit unreliability came back as the answer more often than anything else.
It’s a ritual for many OC Transpo riders: getting up early to rush to the stop and catch an earlier bus, out of fear the one they really want to take will be late or won’t show up at all. The trust issues between riders and their transit system go back at least seven years. And the long list of problems that led OC Transpo to this point are complicated and hard to fix.
With Ottawans heading to the polls to choose a new city council on Oct. 26, CBC has been speaking with voters about the issues that matter most to them. And the top thing we heard? Voters want a transit system that works, with buses that come on time and schedules that get them where they want to go quickly. Beyond the question of reliability, many tell CBC they worry their tax dollars are being wasted.
In the latest installment of our election issue series, we explore how transit reached this point and what voters can expect this election. Complaining about the bus in Ottawa is nothing new, but issues reached crisis proportions on the first Monday of January when one in ten trips were cancelled.
At the September meeting of the transit committee, the last one before the upcoming election, OC Transpo general manager Rick Leary presented August statistics showing just 76 per cent of buses showed up on time. One of the easiest explanations comes down to changing traffic patterns and, as David Cooper of transportation and planning consultancy Leading Mobility points out, the lack of “predictability” with theSolving the rail problem Buses that used to be packed with public servants are now dealing with roads clogged by workers opting to drive instead.
Patience and public trust took a major hit that year with the bungled opening of the first segment of east-west light rail. The launch was rushed, with city officials changing testing criteria to accept a system that wasn’t fully proven. What followed was a myriad of technical issues, including malfunctioning doors, frozen overhead wires, derailments and wheel bearing issues that still plague the system. How will riders get on board when LRT builders can't agree on what went wrong?
The situation became so bad, it sparked an unusual move: a public inquiry, with weeks of testimony and questioning of top LRT executives and city officials in front of a judge.
"There were persistent failures in leadership, partnership and communications in the construction and maintenance of the LRT,” Justice William HouriganCaution tape is strung up next to the site of a train derailment on O-Train Line 1 in 2021. Derailments and other issues sparked a rare public inquiry into the city's LRT network. The trains were meant to provide a faster and easier ride, but they also complicated bus commutes into the city.
People used to getting from the suburbs to downtown in 25 minutes via the transitway now had to transfer between a bus and train — sometimes more than once. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, transit systems couldn't rely on their core customers — including commuters and newcomers to Canada — and politicians panicked, said Josipa Petrunic, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium.
“Most transit agencies and leaders know that it’s temporary. But then you go to city council and city councillors are spooked,” she said, reflecting on the mindset at the time.
“You cut the frequency and convenience. You kill off the riders who are the dedicated clients of the service. That is a knee-jerk reaction. It’s a problem, but it’s very hard for cities to maintain service when the buses are running around empty.
”Cooper said scaling up service takes time, explaining that agencies need a six-to-nine-month lead time for hiring operators and two and a half years for acquiring new buses. That longer-than-normal delivery time from bus manufacturers is just one more holdover from pandemic upheaval. Like many public transit agencies across Canada, OC Transpo is still working to get back to ridership levels seen before the pandemic. Look around Ottawa’s streets and you’ll see a mix of buses.
The city had planned to be well on its way to converting its full fleet to zero-emission vehicles, thanks to federal funding. Why your city is still waiting on e-buses — and how tariffs could make things worse The flood of orders, however, created a strain on the budding industry, which has been stymied by bankruptcies, pandemic-era supply chain issues and now tariffs.3:30 OC Transpo wants to deliver a zero-emission bus service by 2036.
CBC's Elyse Skura got a look inside the garage at the centre of this billion-dollar revamp to the transit system. Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto, said transit systems like Ottawa’s are used to relying on “heroic maintenance” to keep aging fleets on the road.
“A lot of our infrastructure was purchased or built years if not decades ago,” said Siemiatycki. “As it gets older and older, it has to be either fully overhauled or replaced. ”Anyone who’s driven an aging vehicle will be well aware of the strain it can place on their wallet. The same is true of buses, resulting in what Petrunic calls a “Scotch taping” of vehicles and the need for creative solutions.
Compare that to the $738 million it needed four years ago. OC Transpo is not the city's single largest expense, but it is up there, only trailing social and family services. This electric bus is being charged by a pantograph at OC Transpo's newly renovated depot. The city had planned to be well on its way to converting its full fleet to zero-emission vehicles, but that's been delayed.
What are the solutions, then, to fix OC Transpo and rebuild trust among riders? Candidates are quick to make crowd-pleasing promises, including dramatically slashed fares and heavy discounts to monthly passes. But the experts point to ideas they say are longer lasting and decidedly less flashy.
“Those are very costly items that we need to have a functional transit system, and they are very hard to get funded because they’re not sexy,” said Cooper. Having more places for buses to be fixed, fuelled or go to sleep at night allows sidelined buses to get back on the road faster.
It’s a strategy the city has tried, regularly adding a multi-million dollar line item to its budget which it eventually fills in some other way once the money fails to materialize. Time and again, provincial and federal leaders step in for shiny new infrastructure projects, but transit advocates say it's a different story for work that doesn't come with a ribbon-cutting. Reckless, modest or just right?
Mayoral campaigns spar over Sutcliffe's transit plan “No one wants to stand out there right now and say, ‘I'm going to raise taxes in order to keep what you already have working at the mediocre level that it is today. ’ That's a really tough sell,” he explained.
“We paid for those tax freezes by delaying and deferring maintenance. And now the bill has come due. ”There is a bright spot on the horizon, which local politicians have been quick to latch onto: the potential shifting of responsibility for running the LRT to the provincial agency Metrolinx. In April, the city and the province signed a memorandum of understanding on an upload, but not a binding agreement.
City manager Wendy Stephanson told CBC in a statement that the two sides are still discussing the details of how this would work, with no estimation of how long negotiations may take. If an upload deal is finalized, the latest figures provided by the two parties suggest the city would be in line to receive $85 million dollars annually for the operational, maintenance and capital costs of the system.
The city wouldn't say if it's using this estimate to help map out the long-term financial feasibility of OC Transpo. An audit released in June quoted the 2026 operating costs of running the rail system at $200 million dollars, meaning the city will continue to pay a portion of the costs needed to run the LRT. If the upload goes through, wiping millions of dollars from the ledger should allow OC Transpo to reinvest in the bus system, Cooper said.
Ontario first announced plans to upload Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway in 2023. The upfront fanfare then shifted to hard work behind the scenes, with the official takeover set to be finalized next year. Toronto councillors 'euphoric' at 'long overdue' deal to give Gardiner, DVP to province “There could be financial benefits,” said Siemiatycki.
“How long it takes and what people do with the money is really what will determine whether it’s a success. ”“Let’s be honest with taxpayers and riders,” said Petrunic.
“Transit is never really going to get cheaper. ”WATCH | How to avoid a public transit death spiral:Ottawa's OC Transpo has painted a grim long-term financial picture. It's been a million dollars short of revenue projections every month this year. CBC Ottawa's municipal affairs reporter Elyse Skura breaks down the options for cash-strapped transit agencies.
Some candidates argue the solution is wooing riders back with steep discounts to create a catalyst for positive change — sparking an inverse phenomenon known as a "virtuous cycle. ” More people ride, the idea goes, creating more revenue. That money is then invested in better service, thus attracting even more riders. While a simple concept, experts agree that most riders don’t decide on a mode of transit based on cost, but rather whether it's convenient and reliable.
That’s why Siemiatycki encourages voters to look out for anyone promising dedicated bus lanes and new rapid transit corridors.
“They don’t necessarily make the ride faster, but they do have an impact on making it more reliable,” he said. “And that is something that’s fully within the municipal control. ”For his part, Cooper cautions people to question anyone who says they’ll make transit both better and cheaper — especially without a coinciding hike to property taxes.
“The money’s gotta come from somewhere,” he said. “You don’t get better service by spending less. It’s just not feasible. ” Elyse Skura is a reporter based in Ottawa.
Since joining CBC News, she's worked in Iqaluit, Edmonton and Thunder Bay. Elyse spent four years reporting from Tokyo, where she also worked as a consulting producer for NHK World Japan. You can reach her at elyse.skura@cbc.ca.
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