Cutting off-peak LRT service saving OC Transpo $600,000 this year

A motion to restore off-peak LRT service will be debated by city council next week, as the head of OC Transpo says the service cuts are saving the system money.

Transit Services general manager Renée Amilcar said OC Transpo is expected to save $600,000 in 2024 by cutting off-peak LRT service from every five minutes to every 10 minutes.

"Which is not a lot, but each penny counts," Amilcar told Thursday's Transit Commission meeting.

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The move to cut off-peak headways was purely financial, Amilcar said.

"These schedule and service adjustments were not made lightly and were necessary to meet our unfortunate financial constraints while still meeting customer demand and changing travel patterns," she said.

OC Transpo is facing a $120 million funding shortfall next year. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has been campaigning for assistance from the federal and provincial governments and said Wednesday the 2025 budget could include drastic options to fill the gap if that funding doesn't come through.

A motion put forward by Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Leiper called on OC Transpo to reverse its service cut, citing a projected budget surplus in the city's tax-supported programs by the end of 2024 because of staff vacancies, higher water consumption, and lower winter maintenance costs.

Leiper's motion says, "frequency of service is an important determinant of ridership, affecting overall trip time in a system characterized by transfers as well as the decision to use transit for non-commuting purposes."

Speaking at the meeting, Leiper said the $600,000 in savings is not worth it.

"It should be the showcase of our system, showing Ottawa residents what the future of denser cities can be," he said. "Why would we diminish the one bright spot in our system?"

Under OC Transpo's bylaw, the general manager has the delegated authority to make adjustments to bus and O-Train service in response to operational needs and requirements, including changes to O-Train schedules.

Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney asked for data on what level of savings could be achieved with a shorter headway instead of a 10-minute headway.

Amilcar suggested that the only options were a five-minute headway or a 10-minute headway.

"I would not recommend another headway because it's either five or 10 because we won't have any savings and that will bring a lot of problems with the schedule, et cetera," Amilcar said; however, she did say staff would explore other scenarios.

Leiper's motion has since been referred to council on Sept. 18 to give OC Transpo time to come up with other headway scenarios. 

Several people signed up to speak to councillors and city staff Thursday.

"A 5-minute reduction in off-peak service can easily lead to a 10 or 15 minute delay down the line, that means they're late to class, they're late to work, they're late to essential medial appointments," said Aidan Kallioinen with the Carleton University Students' Association, one of the dozens of people who signed up to speak to the commission Thursday.

Noah Vienberg, Amalgamated Transit Union 279 President, also addressed the meeting.

"I think we're at a point where money needs to be invested, time needs to be invested. We have to offer this city the right kind of rail service, the right kind of bus service, and everything that people don't get to see and behind all of that, that really matters," Vienberg said.

"The cuts, as late as they came, right before the return of students and federal workers, aside from being short-sighted and somewhat ignorant to be honest… all of these changes, there's no way to have stability."

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Trains on Line 1 run at five-minute intervals between 6:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Trains run every 10 minutes on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. The changes were made just weeks before the federal government's new return-to-office mandate began, requiring most federal workers in the office at least three days per week.

"We continue to have capacity to welcome additional customers and can increase service if ridership warrants it," Amilcar said.

She noted that monthly pass sales in September are up nine per cent.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Kimberley Fowler