OC Transpo well below punctuality targets on 'less frequent' routes

An OC Transpo bus turns onto Elgin St. from Wellington St. in downtown Ottawa, Ont. in this undated photo. (Photo by Shubham Sharan on Unsplash)

OC Transpo is well below its punctuality targets for less frequent bus routes, data presented to the city's Transit Commission show.

A presentation Monday showed that an average of one in every four buses that runs at a frequency of every 16 minutes or greater was not on time in the last year. OC Transpo has a target of having 85 per cent of bus trips arriving on time.

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Frequent routes, which arrive every 15 minutes or less, are more likely to be on time, but the 12-month average from October 2023 to October 2024 was 83 per cent, still below target.

In October 2024, one out of every five frequent buses and three out of every 10 less frequent buses was late.

The on-time performance for bus routes operating every 16+ minutes has typically been below the 85 per cent target for years. According to public data on OC Transpo's website, the 12-month average was 75.5 per cent in 2020, 76.1 per cent in 2021, and 72 per cent in 2022.

The data was presented as the Transit Commission as councillors voted on the 2025 draft transit budget, which includes a five per cent fare increase and an eight per cent hike to the citywide transit levy. The budget also includes reduced or eliminated discounts for youth and seniors' fares, most notably a planned 120 per cent increase to the monthly pass for seniors. Councillors have presented motions to reduce the fare hike for seniors to 60 per cent from 120 per cent, or a proposal to set the seniors' pass at the same price as the EquiPass, $58.25 per month, effectively an 18 per cent fare increase.

The transit system is facing a project $120 million deficit in 2025. In addition to increases to fares and the transit levy, the budget includes $36 million in "expected funding from senior levels of government," which has not been confirmed. 

Dozens of people signed up to speak at the meeting Monday, mostly in opposition to increasing fares for seniors and the U-Pass for post-secondary students.

This story will be updated. Please check back later for new developments.