Buses running more than 20 minutes late continues to be the top reason for bus trip cancellations by OC Transpo, but fewer trips are being cancelled due to a lack of available vehicles. OC Transpo released new data to the transit committee on Thursday showing the percentage of bus trips cancelled each month, and the reasons why bus trips were cancelled. In August, three per cent of the 172,000 conventional bus trips were cancelled by OC Transpo, down from 5.6 per cent of trips missed in July and 13.4 per cent of trips cancelled in January as the transit service dealt with a shortage of buses. Of the three per cent of bus trips cancelled in August, 3,379 bus trips were cancelled because the bus was running more than 20 minutes late. In January, 11,093 bus trips were cancelled because the bus was more than 20 minutes late. Only 17 bus trips were cancelled in August due to a shortage of buses, down from 2,968 trips cancelled in January due to a lack of buses. Here are the reasons why OC Transpo bus trips were cancelled in August: OC Transpo says 3.1 per cent of trips were cancelled during the afternoon peak period in August, while 3.8 per cent of bus trips were cancelled during off-peak and weekend periods last month. According to the data, OC Transpo reported 13.4 per cent of missed trips in January, 9.7 per cent of missed trips in February, 6.3 per cent of trips were missed in March and 5.1 per cent of trips were missed in April. A total of 5.3 per cent trips were cancelled in May and 4.3 per cent of trips were missed in June. Most of the trips were missed because the buses were more than 20 minutes late. OC Transpo general manager Rick Leary has said OC Transpo is making adjustments to runtimes to improve reliability and avoid delays. The schedules on 30 routes have been adjusted for the fall to improve the runtime. Staff will adjust runtimes on 20 more routes this winter, according to Leary. Staff are looking at adjusting schedules on the following routes: Routes 8, 10, 13, 40, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 74, 93, 94, 98, 99, 105, 110, 111, 161, 162 and 165. Fleet readiness OC Transpo says it is confident the transit service is ready for fall service, as thousands of public servants’ head to the office a minimum of four days a week. “This is my third fall and I’m happy to say this is the most prepared for fall service that we’ve been in a very long time,” Rami El Feghali, director of transit bus operations and maintenance, told councillors. OC Transpo has a total of 595 buses available for service in September, according to staff. The fleet includes 175 40-foot electric buses, 250 60-foot articulated buses and 260 40-foot diesel buses. The transit service plans to have 706 buses in the fleet by next September, including 354 40-toot electric buses. Winter tires for buses OC Transpo is preparing for the arrival of snow and cold temperatures, including exploring different tires for the bus fleet. El Feghali told councillors OC Transpo will trial a “news tire tread cap designed to see whether we can improve traction beyond that standard.” The transit service continues uses a tire that meet the “three peak mountain snowflake standards,” according to El Feghali. “We will also experiment with different ideas, like tire pressures, acceleration, and braking software, operational changes, including where we deploy articulated busses during difficult winter conditions,” he said. “This will be an ongoing effort to test different approaches and understand what works best with our bus fleet and to enhance the customer experience.”
