OC Transpo hoping to win riders back with new ad campaign

In the midst of a significant deficit in ridership because of the COVID-19 pandemic, OC Transpo is attempting to win riders back with a new ad campaign.

“We recognize that convenient, reliable service will lead to increased ridership and customer trust,” said Renée Amilcar, general manager of transit services, in a memo on Monday. “It’s our focus on a daily basis. This campaign is being run in parallel with the expected increase of residents commuting to work, school, events and activities this fall and will showcase the smart investments approved by Council to continue to improve our transit system.”

A sample of a new OC Transpo ad campaign encouraging riders to consider taking public transit. (City of Ottawa/supplied)

The campaign, which was included in the 2022 budget, is focused on touting OC Transpo as an affordable and convenient alternative to personal vehicles for a variety of needs. City council approved $625,000 for the campaign.

“A pass costs less than gas,” one ad says, though at $125.50 per month, Ottawa’s adult monthly transit pass is one of the most expensive in Canada. The system also remains largely aligned toward transporting riders from the suburbs to the downtown core, based on the previous need for federal public servants to travel to and from their downtown offices.

Trust in the transit system has also suffered in recent years because of issues on the Confederation Line LRT, including two derailments in the summer of 2021.

"It's a gamble. You never know when it's going to come," said transit user Tyler Kimmett. "You have to be 10 minutes early because it might be early. If it is 10 minutes early, they don’t wait. So, you are essentially at the mercy of the bus drivers."

The campaign started in June with messages about summer destinations and different ways to pay, such as the expanded family day pass. On Monday, it expanded to feature more "normal" travel destinations like work and school.

"This phased, multi-layered campaign seeks to promote new and improved services, position transit as an affordable and sustainable choice amid the city’s economic recovery, align OC Transpo with the local places, activities and experiences to which people need and want to go, and emphasize real-time customer service information on an array of channels," said Pat Scrimgeour, director of transit customer systems and planning.

The pandemic caused ridership to crash in April 2020 as businesses closed and many workers transitioned to working from home. It has yet to recover to 2019 levels. City council voted to keep the transit system running at nearly full capacity throughout the pandemic, despite the low ridership, to support residents who were still regularly using transit; however, one of the largest cohorts of riders, federal public servants, has yet to return to the transit system.

Coun. Allan Hubley, chair of the city’s transit commission, told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s “Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal” that ridership is a constant concern for OC Transpo.

“We need to get the public servants and the students back in there because they’re the biggest part of our ridership and, if they’re not coming back, then we have to rethink our system,” he said.

Hubley has said before that if the federal public service will no longer be sending most of its employees to downtown Ottawa, bus capacity would need to be redirected to the suburbs, a sentiment he repeated Monday.

“If we don’t need the capacity that’s there now… then one of the things I’d like to see us do is move those buses into the suburbs and create better transit flow within Kanata and Stittville, within Barrhaven, and within Orléans,” he said.

City council is in its “lame duck” period, with the municipal election just weeks away, so rethinking the transit system will be the duty of the elected members of the next term of council. Hubley is running for re-election in his Kanata South ward.

Transit has been a key issue on the campaign trail. Discussions have been largely about fare prices and the cost of freezing, reducing or eliminating them, though improving reliability and convenience has also been raised.

Hubley said Monday OC Transpo needs more information from the federal government about the future of work.

“I hate the thought that we have to put this pressure on public servants to make a decision whether they’re going back to work or not, but we really need to know those numbers. If they’re not coming back, we can change it,” he said.

Some public servants have said they should not be responsible for supporting the transit system. Hubley agrees that the pandemic is not their fault, but said the system cannot continue to be built around the suburban-to-downtown commute if those workers will no longer be coming downtown.

“It’s not their fault that this happened at all… but there is a fallout from it and one of it could be a total review and realignment of the transit system,” Hubley said.

John Redins, a candidate for city council in Ward 10, Gloucester-Southgate, and a board member of the Ottawa Transit Riders group, says a shift in thinking is needed.

"With COVID, there’s hardly anybody going downtown. So we’ve got to shift it. And we’ve got to shift it fast," he said. "Our system is going to fail because we’re not picking up the people and bringing them to the LRT. We’re not. We’re failing them."

Stage 2 of LRT, which expands train service to Trim in the east, Moodie and Algonquin College in the west, and the Airport and Riverside South in the south remains under construction, with the western portion delayed until 2026 and the southern leg not expected to open until 2023.

Still, OC Transpo is hoping, with students back in classrooms and post-secondary hallways again, it can win riders back this fall for trips to and from school, work, and play.

“We recognize that there is more work needed to continue to rebuild the trust of our customers as they return to transit, or for the first time; however, we are excited to showcase the investments and improvements we continue to make for our customers to keep our city moving and improve our transit system,” Amilcar wrote.

Mayor Jim Watson, who is not seeking re-election, told CFRA that OC Transpo needs to rebuild trust, but he is also seeing a recent increase in ridership.

“Students are back with the U-Pass, more civil servants are starting to come back because they want to go back, it’s their choice,” he said. “I’m optimistic that we’re going to see that growth, but it’s going to take a long time and it’s going to take the continued support of the federal and provincial governments, who have been very good to every transit system in Canada, to support them financially as we go through this really dramatic change because of COVID.”

A sample of a new OC Transpo ad campaign encouraging riders to consider taking public transit. (City of Ottawa/supplied)

Currently, city staff are forecasting an $85-million deficit by the end of the year if ridership does not improve and the system does not receive any other funding from senior levels of government.

The transit commission meets Wednesday, where commissioners will hear an update on the transit system, including new ridership figures.

--With files from CTV's Dave Charbonneau.