OC Transpo cancels fewer trips as more buses hit the roads

An OC Transpo bus pulls up to a transit stop in the winter. (CTV News Ottawa)

Fewer bus trips were cancelled across the City of Ottawa during the first week of February, as more buses were available for service, according to OC Transpo.

OC Transpo has cancelled thousands of bus trips during the first five weeks of 2026 as it deals with a shortage of buses due to its aging fleet, a lack of mechanics and delays in the delivery of new buses.

In a memo to council Friday morning, Transit Services general manager Troy Charter said OC Transpo “saw improvements in service delivery” during the week of Feb. 1 to 7.

“There was a decrease in undelivered trips, and bus availability recovered after impacts from winter weather,” Charter said.

“Average weekday bus availability slightly exceeded the temporary daily requirement of 500 buses, for the first time since we began providing weekly updates on the bus service delivery action plan in early January.”

During the first week of February, OC Transpo reported 1,577 undelivered bus trips during the week. This figure does not include the 255 daily weekday trips that were removed from the schedule as of Jan. 12 to reduce the number of daily buses required on the roads by 20.

Charter says, on average, 503 buses were available for service last week, with an average weekday requirement of 500 buses to deliver service. During the last week of January, OC Transpo had an average of 492 buses available for service every day.

“While trends over the past several weeks show progress in some key areas, like fleet availability, we continue to monitor key performance indicators and make adjustments to address service delivery challenges and translate short-term progress into stability over the long term,” Charter said in a memo to council.

Of the 1,577 trips undelivered during the week of Feb. 1 to 7, 524 trips were cancelled due to operator availability, 520 trips were cancelled due to on-street adjustments (traffic, customer incidents), 300 trips were scrapped due to no bus being available and 233 trips were not delivered due to a mechanical breakdown.

OC Transpo now has 49 electric buses available for service.

On Thursday, Charter told the transit committee it would be late March or early April before bus service returns to normal levels.

“We really think we’re going to be in a much better state once we get into early spring,” Charter told councillors.

“I’m pleased with the progress that we’ve been making with regards to our increases in availability. We’re really focused on the efforts that we’ve talked about here to get our fleet count up and get the staffing that we require to maintain and operate the vehicles.”

O-Train

OC Transpo now has 21 trains available for service on O-Train Line 1, as the service continues to run at reduced capacity due to an issue with the cartridge bearing assemblies on the Alstom Citadis Spirit Trains.

There were 20 trains available for service last week, below the required 26 vehicles.

Charter says Line 1 will continue to run every three to four minutes during peak service.

“Large volumes of customers are still being observed on trains, however, there has been a decrease in the amount of crowding at stations,” Charter said.

“Staff continue to be at stations during the busiest periods to support customers and respond quickly should an issue arise. “

OC Transpo is requiring Rideau Transit Maintenance and Alstom to replace the cartridge bearing assemblies on trains that have exceeded 100,000 km as part of the investigating into the spalling issue.

“Technical meetings continue with Rideau Transit Group (RTG), Alstom, their external experts and the OC Transpo team,” Charter said.

“This work is complex and discussions continue. Further technical information is still required from RTG to validate and verify the containment measures and risk analysis.”

Spalling is caused when flakes break off the metal surface inside the axle bearing, creating pits that grow over time. If not treated, it could lead to cracks and bearing failure.

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