Afternoon bus service on OC Transpo consistently worse than other parts of the day

An OC Transpo bus is pictured in this Jan. 10, 2026 image. (Josh Marano/CTV News Ottawa)

Taking OC Transpo in the afternoon is consistently worse compared with any other time of the day, according to new metrics shared at Thursday’s Transit Committee meeting.

Bus service delivery overall remains below OC Transpo’s targets, but a presentation revealed that punctuality and service delivery dips noticeably during the afternoon peak periods.

OC Transpo has a target of delivering 99.5 per cent of all of its planned trips. As of March, overall service delivery was 97.2 per cent, or 2.3 percentage points below the goal. Bus service was largely in line with the overall average during the morning peak period and during off-peak weekday periods and weekends.

Staff said the afternoon peak presents unique challenges in terms of traffic volumes. Outbound buses returning from the suburbs must travel in mixed traffic since the former Transitway is no longer in operation.

On frequent routes, which generally run every 15 minutes or less on weekdays, the regularity target of ensuring at least 85 per cent of trips are evenly distributed was not met in March, falling one point below at 84 per cent. Again, however, the presentation to committee suggested that regularity was significantly lower in the afternoon peak periods compared to other times.

Punctuality on less-frequent routes had similar issues. Overall punctuality is well below target, at an average of 70 per cent over the last 12 months, 15 points below the target. OC Transpo says 14 per cent of trips arrived more than one minute early and 16 per cent were more than five minutes late. During the afternoon peak, punctuality fell below 70 per cent consistently.

Exact numbers for afternoon peak service compared to the overall average were not included in the presentation to committee members.

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More than 100 electric buses now in Ottawa

The Transit Committee also received an update on the delivery of electric buses.

As of this week, staff said there are 109 zero-emission buses in Ottawa, with 90 available for service. There are 68 chargers available for these buses and 36 more are currently being commissioned.

By the end of the year, OC Transpo expects to have 234 e-buses and 193 charging stations.

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The zero-emission buses are intended to replace aging diesel buses in the fleet; however, staff are delaying the decommissioning of some diesel buses during the transition phase.

“The expanded refurbishment of older 60-foot buses will build standby capacity for major weather events or disruptions,” the presentation said.

A majority of bus operators have been trained on operating and safely charging the electric buses, but training for mechanics is taking time. Presently only five per cent of mechanics have completed the level two high-voltage systems training on the Nova buses in the fleet, while 11 per cent have completed training on the New Flyer buses. OC Transpo intends to have 100 mechanics to level 2 by the fall of 2027.