Transit chair says OC Transpo service improving after hundreds of trip cancellations last week

With hundreds of daily trip cancellations at OC Transpo, a councillor says more transparency on buses is needed. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

OC Transpo confirms as many as 800 bus trips were cancelled last Monday.

This comes as no surprise for transit users like Norm Dwyer. He says, “The buses never really show up. I don’t know if they disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle or where they go!”

In a follow-up statement regarding a memo released by OC Transpo on Jan. 9, the transit service says, “On Monday January 5th, approximately 700-800 trips were cancelled. This data is compiled through our Transit Operations Control Centre.”

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In the memo, OC Transpo acknowledges that about six per cent of trips are being cancelled, saying, “bus service is not meeting standards, as cancelled trips and long wait times continue across the city.”

OC Transpo did not provide statistics for cancelled trips from Jan. 6 to 13. A spokesperson for OC Transpo says, “We are in the process of compiling various data points and will be sharing more information later this week in our first weekly memo update to Council.”

Coun. Glen Gower, the chair of the city’s transit committee, says service has improved this week. “I hope last week was an anomaly. I don’t think that’s something that we would expect on a normal week at all.”

Gower says most of the issues can be attributed to an aging fleet. “Just about all of it is related to the fleet issues, the number of busses that are available. Due to the age of our overall fleet, the delays in getting delivery of our electric buses, a shortage of mechanics, those are all factors.”

Gower says the tough winter conditions also compounded the issues.

Tracking diesel buses on the road

One city councillor is calling on the city to add a new counter to its public dashboard showing how many diesel buses are in service. Coun. Tim Tierney says this would complement the existing e-bus counter that allows residents to track how many zero-emission buses the city has acquired to date.

“It’s death by a thousand cuts. One catches fire, one breaks down. Suddenly you’re losing all those numbers where we don’t have the opportunity for new buses yet,” Tierney says. “I want that available to the public and to councillors on a monthly basis.”

The city has procured some used buses from other municipalities as a stop-gap measure and is currently waiting on more electric buses to add to the fleet. Right now, there are only 36 on the roads. The city’s target is to have 350 by 2027.

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“I think we have to look at some kind of hybrid version now. When I say hybrid, I mean looking at not putting all of our eggs in one basket.” Tierney says. “Right now, we’re just buying hopes and dreams.”

Gower says OC Transpo is working on a plan to get as many buses as possible, as well as an aggressive recruiting effort for more mechanics. “Another thing that’ll make a difference in the relatively near-term is when we get the launch of Stage 2 LRT out to Trim Road. That’ll give a little bit of flexibility with some of the buses that are currently being used to serve those customers.”

He says, “one by one we’ll start to make the system a lot more reliable and get it to the level that our customers are expecting, because it’s really not there now.”