OC Transpo reducing O-Train service to every 10 minutes during midday periods this fall

OC Transpo is reducing midday service on the O-Train this fall from every 5 minutes to every 10 minutes, as tens of thousands of students and federal workers are set to return to the downtown core.

The OC Transpo website says starting Aug. 26, the Confederation Line will run every 10 minutes at stations between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays. Peak-period service will continue to be every 5 minutes, according to OC Transpo.

"This change adjusts Line 1 service during weekday off-peak periods to better reflect current demand and travel patterns," OC Transpo says on its website.

"Line 1 will continue to offer sufficient capacity to meet off-peak passenger volumes. This change will be closely monitored. Should ridership increase, adjustments can be made."

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OC Transpo will reduce off-peak service to every 10 minutes this fall as thousands of students return to Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, and the federal government requires workers to be in the office a minimum of three days a week starting in September.

River Ward Coun. and transit commissioner Riley Brockington said he wants to see high frequency service on the line.

"I'd like to see us come back in early September with school and people back to work with a better understanding of what those passenger volumes are like before we make changes to the LRT, not the week before," he said. "You want your main artery for any transit system to run at a very high frequency. It is meant to be fast rapid transit that goes east to west."

The O-Train is running every 5 minutes between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. this summer.  When the Trillium Line launches this year, the north-south line is expected to run every 12 minutes at stations.

Acting Transit Services general manager Richard Holder told councillors the O-Train will continue to offer service for riders.

"The change in frequency will allow Line 1 to continue to offer sufficient capacity to meet off-peak ridership volumes," Holder said. "This change will be closely monitored and, should there be an increase in ridership, adjustments can be made."

Holder notes weekend service on the O-Train was adjusted to single-car service earlier this year.

"Our team is continually looking for ways to balance our resources while meeting the travel needs of customers," Holder wrote. "Since implementing this change, customers have continued to receive frequent service with sufficient capacity to meet weekend service demands.

Community organizations and transit workers have raised concerns about the proposed plans to trim off-peak hours on the O-Train.

“This new change and proposed cut will cause significant service disruptions for riders as well as the thousands of members we represent," Noah Vineberg, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, said in a statement.

"As transit workers, we aim to provide the public with the best service we possibly can, this new proposal makes it harder to do that."

Horizon Ottawa coordinator Sam Hersh characterized the move as "long-term pain for short-term gain."

"It will make people miss connections, make people angry at the system and - no pun intended - drive people towards their cars," he said.

The change in O-Train frequency comes as OC Transpo faces a multi-million dollar budget deficit and lower ridership than expected.

OC Transpo reported a $29.3 million deficit in 2023, and posted a $6.2 million deficit in January-March 2024. OC Transpo reported 29.5 million passenger trips on buses and the O-Train in the first five months of the year, missing the forecast ridership of 31.5 million trips.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo are looking for ways to save money, as the transit service faces "historic" funding shortfalls.

"This was a decision of OC Transpo, we're always calibrating the service to the needs of our residents and if there is less demand at a particular time then it's important we offer service at the level people are using service and it allows us to have those resources deployed to other areas," Sutcliffe told reporters on Tuesday.

"We know that fewer people are going downtown, particularly in off peak times between 9 and 3, so if fewer people are using the service, which we've known for some time, then that's what we need to do. We are under extraordinary pressure with the transit budget, there's no question about it. We face historic shortfalls in our transit budget, so wherever we can save money to sustain public transit we are going to do that."

On Friday, city staff said OC Transpo is looking at a Private Parking Levy as one option to fund OC Transpo operations.

In November, council appointed a working group of elected officials and city staff to explore "all mitigation levers and options."  In a memo to council, Chief Financial Officer Cyril Rogers says the working group has been exploring transit fares, the "sustainability and equity lens review of discounted passes," the transit levy, operating costs, the Urban Transit Area and a Private Parking Levy.

"Much of the work completed to date has been focused on diving deeper into each lever to get a better understanding of the financial framework, analyze trends, and assess the impacts of various scenarios/options, supplemented by comparisons to other municipalities," Rogers said.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Sam Houpt.