OC Transpo

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Are the "curlies curlies" what I think they are?

Not what I meant but they do have a resemblance. They should disappear from the bus map as they have from life.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Baseline BRT should be the next priority to better serve the public inside the Greenbelt and to provide better overall connectivity. I have said for years that it is the missing link. Nothing better to advertise transit than to have transit moving faster than cars in adjacent lanes. Instead, we have buses stuck in traffic on a key corridor.

That and Carling. I honestly don't understand why we couldn't have bus lanes most of the way down Carling already. Relatively small budget and significant improvements in service. It's pretty much just paint and then you could upgrade stops and signals over time.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Not what I meant but they do have a resemblance. They should disappear from the bus map as they have from life.

I was talking about how OC Transpo buses make a detour to enter a special bus stop zone (and leave it, often waiting for traffic lights), wasting time, instead of simply dropping people off on the side of the straight thoroughfare like they do in other cities.

Not sure what the other meaning might be.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I was talking about how OC Transpo buses make a detour to enter a special bus stop zone (and leave it, often waiting for traffic lights), wasting time, instead of simply dropping people off on the side of the straight thoroughfare like they do in other cities.

Not sure what the other meaning might be.

No I mean when a crush load bus turns off the main street to go on some curly route to end up barely past where they started 5 minutes later to get one passenger.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

And yet, we continue to build things which require buses to deviate, change lanes, and turn against traffic, all of which are transit-killers.

Express deviation-avoidance principles need to start being built into policies and infrastructure.

Honestly wish they'd hire somebody like Jarrett Walker to do route rationalization. I'd love to see an outside opinion. And they get to blame some unpopular opinions on the "outsider".

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Honestly wish they'd hire somebody like Jarrett Walker to do route rationalization. I'd love to see an outside opinion. And they get to blame some unpopular opinions on the "outsider".

I just wish we'd build places and things and infrastructure that avoided the necessity for "rationalization" altogether.

Grids work. Setbacks suck. Let's assimilate those lessons.

[DTcrawler]

https://www.octranspo.com/en/news/ar...your-feedback/

Link to OC Transpo's customer satisfaction surveys for O-Train and bus service. Available until May 5.

[lrt's friend]

OC Transpo falls short on ridership and revenue compared to budget. Read between the lines if this persists. However, ridership is up compared to the same months last year.

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/oc-transpo...2024-1.6842748

[rocketphish]

OC Transpo acknowledges need to improve on-time service of buses
A report to the City of Ottawa's transit committee included better performance numbers for the LRT and ParaTranspo.

Ken Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 11, 2024 • Last updated 15 minutes ago • 1 minute read

OC Transpo’s internal review of its own performance shows that plenty of work still needs to be done to improve reliability of bus service within the city.

Overall 26 per cent of buses were unable to meet service standards in 2023, and only 74.5 per cent of buses operating every 16 minutes or less were on time.

The statistics were included in a scorecard delivered Thursday to a city hall transit committee meeting by OC Transpo general manager Rene Amilcar and manager of business and technical support systems Bart Cormier.

A year ago, Ottawa’s beleaguered transportation system initiated a five-year grand plan aimed at improving service in all areas.

That included enhancing safety, providing more timely service of buses and trains on the O-Line rail system and eventually transitioning to a fleet of zero-emission vehicles.

The unreliability of the bus service has been, of course, an on-going headache for commuters. The short-term target for OC Transpo is to reach 85 per cent on-time performance.

Thursday’s report included better numbers from the performance of the LRT and ParaTranspo.

Cormier reported that O-Line service delivery was at 97.1 per cent. The ultimate goal is 99.5 per cent. ParaTranspo reliability was 92.5 per cent, with an aim of hitting 95 per cent.

The transit agency also said there were 1.1 vehicle collisions per 100,000 kilometres driven.

Concerned about the aging fleet of diesel buses, Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo questioned Amilcar about the slower than expected rollout of more zero-emission buses.

Amilcar said OC Transpo continued to explore all technologies, including the possibility of purchasing hydrogen-powered buses in the future.

kwarren@postmedia.com

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...rvice-of-buses

[rocketphish]

$1M a month revenue shortfall 'not a huge concern' for OC Transpo head
Councillor worries it will keep bleeding money without better hybrid worker options

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Apr 12, 2024 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

OC Transpo is starting the year with its fare revenue falling about a million dollars a month below budget, but its general manager says the shortfall is not yet a huge concern.

Ottawa's transit services budget forecast $13.7 million in fare revenue for January and $13.8 million for February, but fares actually accounted for $12.2 million and $12.8 million respectively.

Those estimates were set as OC Transpo struggled to fill a massive hole in its finances, pulling from reserves and cutting jobs.

There's little cash left in the rainy day fund should revenues continue to disappoint in the months ahead.

Renée Amilcar, the city's general manager of transit services, said the main revenue challenge stems from weak sales of adult monthly passes as commuters working hybrid schedules continue to stay home part of the time.

At $3.80 a ride if paying by card, it takes adults about 34 fares to reach their monthly pass price of $128.75.


<more>


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...loss-1.7171111

[lrt's friend]

She did not clarify whether service cuts will be on the table to avoid sinking into a deficit.

I assume this would be additional service cuts beyond what is already proposed.

Of course, we have heard nothing about the estimated impact on ridership (and revenue) with existing proposed service cut.

[Acajack]

I've noticed that during and post-pandemic most transit agencies (including the STO in my city) bravely maintained most of their pre-pandemic service levels, in spite of ridership never really returning to close to pre-pandemic numbers. I think very large cities like Montreal and Toronto will be reasonably OK (and their ridership has rebounded quite well) but in smaller cities I've been telling myself that eventually something's gonna give. That time is fast approaching. If not already here.

[J.OT13]

In hindsight, we should have made drastic cuts DURING the pandemic, at least to commuter routes. Line 1 should have run singles only.

The only tricky thing would have been potential loss of drivers.

[rocketphish]

How to avoid a public transit 'death spiral'

CBC News
April 20, 2024

Ottawa's OC Transpo has painted a grim long-term financial picture. It's been a million dollars short of revenue projections every month this year. CBC Ottawa's municipal affairs reporter Elyse Skura breaks down the options for cash-strapped transit agencies.



https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7179793

[acottawa]

All of her solutions involve people who don’t use transit paying for transit. Unless the city’s major employers require more office attendance there is no plausible path forward that does not involve major service cuts.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

How to avoid a public transit 'death spiral'

CBC News
April 20, 2024

Ottawa's OC Transpo has painted a grim long-term financial picture. It's been a million dollars short of revenue projections every month this year. CBC Ottawa's municipal affairs reporter Elyse Skura breaks down the options for cash-strapped transit agencies.



https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7179793

Are reporters taught to intentionally speak in the most obnoxious tone possible or is that just her?

Aside from that, at 1:57 she says "the most staunch transit riders have already been priced out of downtown". WTF does that mean? We have hordes of would-be transit users trapped in the clutches of car-centric suburbia? Lol.

Finally, she brings up actual potential solutions like transit levies, but of course she has to present them in an obviously inflammatory manner - something along the lines of "the broke City taxman is coming for your money to fund transit that you'll never use," completely ignoring the fact that there are many ways tax dollars are spent that don't necessarily directly benefit every resident. Rural roads, suburban garbage pickup, urban social programs are all examples. The difference is that transit is an essential solution for residents and visitors alike, and is the only reason the city isn't completely stalled by traffic more than we already experience.

I've mused about it before but I truly think the only hope for transit to improve in Ottawa is for traffic to become so crippling that we have no other choice.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by acottawa

All of her solutions involve people who don’t use transit paying for transit. Unless the city’s major employers require more office attendance there is no plausible path forward that does not involve major service cuts.

Instead of making people who don't use transit pay for transit, why don't we make people who use roads pay for roads? And then use the money the city saves on paying for roads to pay for transit?

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Instead of making people who don't use transit pay for transit, why don't we make people who use roads pay for roads? And then use the money the city saves on paying for roads to pay for transit?

Because the city’s road budget is a fraction of the transit budget.

Also, transit still needs to use the roads.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Because the city’s road budget is a fraction of the transit budget.

It's a dummy example meant to exemplify how silly it would be to exempt taxpayers from paying for certain crucial services that they themselves happen to not use or only occasionally use.

If you'd prefer I use a bigger budget item, how about OPS? I haven't requested their services this year nor have I been pulled over or otherwise directly interacted with them. So should I get a pass from paying into their budget? Let's ignore the fact that I indirectly benefit from proactive policing and any crime they prevented that I could've otherwise potentially been subjected to. Just like how drivers indirectly benefit from transit users keeping more cars off the road that would otherwise further worsen traffic.

And I'd be interested to see the data on a per capita basis, I'd bet taxpayers are getting rinsed on the roads budget from that perspective. Especially roads like winding suburban collectors that only get used by a couple thousand residents but still require maintenance and upkeep like the urban roads that are used by tens of thousands or more.

Also, transit still needs to use the roads.

Only a fraction of them. Besides, the only reason buses use more roads than necessary is because our planners have to design meandering milk run bus routes to form any sort of a catchment in the burbs.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

It's a dummy example meant to exemplify how silly it would be to exempt taxpayers from paying for certain crucial services that they themselves happen to not use or only occasionally use.

If you'd prefer I use a bigger budget item, how about OPS? I haven't requested their services this year nor have I been pulled over or otherwise directly interacted with them. So should I get a pass from paying into their budget? Let's ignore the fact that I indirectly benefit from proactive policing and any crime they prevented that I could've otherwise potentially been subjected to. Just like how drivers indirectly benefit from transit users keeping more cars off the road that would otherwise further worsen traffic.

And I'd be interested to see the data on a per capita basis, I'd bet taxpayers are getting rinsed on the roads budget from that perspective. Especially roads like winding suburban collectors that only get used by a couple thousand residents but still require maintenance and upkeep like the urban roads that are used by tens of thousands or more.



Only a fraction of them. Besides, the only reason buses use more roads than necessary is because our planners have to design meandering milk run bus routes to form any sort of a catchment in the burbs.

Taxpayers are already paying 15% of their entire tax bill for a service hardly any of them use, by far the largest line item outside of welfare. The CBC wants them to pay more to maintain a level of service that is impractical without commuters who now work from home or remotely from outside Ottawa.