More than 6,000 OC Transpo bus trips cancelled in nearly one-month period
Trevor Oattes, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: April 15, 2019
Ask any regular user of OC Transpo about missing a bus because of a cancelled trip and you’re almost guaranteed to hear a story.
Maybe someone will tell you about being stranded on a freezing cold day, waiting for a scheduled bus that never showed. Maybe someone will tell you about how they were late for work, or missed a class, because their bus never came.
But how often are OC Transpo rides actually cancelled? The Citizen endeavoured to find out, asking the transit agency for trip cancellation data.
It turns out there’s a reason people often have a story to tell.
Over a 29-day period in February and March, there were 6,284 cancelled bus trips in Ottawa, according to the provided data.
During that nearly one-month period, the fewest bus cancellations on a given day was 20 and the most was 883.
However, the data also show that about 97 per cent of scheduled trips, on average, are completed each day. The lion’s share of cancellations occur on weekdays, with a daily average of 283 cancellations. There are far fewer cancellations on weekends, when service is reduced, with a daily average of 41 cancellations.
According to the data, there are an average of 7,696 scheduled rides per day, and an average of 7,479 rides completed.
But that’s small comfort to riders stuck waiting for a no-show bus, something OC Transpo recognizes.
“Customers expect and deserve to get from point A to point B safely and reliably,” says Troy Charter, the city’s director of transit operations. “It’s our job to provide that service. We do our best to try and educate with regards to why these challenges are happening. As a customer, I understand the frustrations that they may experience when they’re not seeing the reliability that they’re used to.”
There are processes and resources in place to help mitigate the conditions that cause buses to be cancelled, Charter says. He says OC Transpo has operators and buses that are strategically placed throughout the city, which can be used to respond to unforeseen circumstances. The hope is that these measures will reduce the number of cancellations that occur.
And some cancellations are simply unavoidable. The data provided by OC Transpo was for 29 days during the winter, when adverse weather can lead to spikes in trip cancellations. For example, the day that had 883 cancellations was on Feb. 13, when Ottawa was pounded by a massive snowstorm.
“We strive to deliver each and every trip. We have staff that work until the very end to try and deliver every trip that we advertise,” says Charter. “When we can’t meet those, we try our best to inform customers through our various means that there are impacts. But on those really challenging days, we know that it’s difficult to get all of that information out in a timely manner.”
One place that’s evident is on the OC Transpo Live Twitter account. The account is supposed to track bus cancellations throughout the city, but a data review by the Citizen reveals it only broadcasts a fraction of the cancellations that actually occur.
The Citizen compiled the cancellation data from the Twitter account for the same time period as the data provided by OC Transpo.
A comparison shows hundreds of cancelled trips weren’t publicly shared.
On Feb. 20, for example, there were only 30 cancellations recorded by the account, whereas the OC Transpo data show there were 231 cancellations that day.
In an email, Pat Scrimgeour, the city’s director of transit systems and planning, says flaws with the cancellation reporting by the account are the result of which work staff decide to prioritize.
“During peak periods, and especially during challenging service days, staff in transit information and customer service have prioritized responsibilities,” said Scrimgeour. “On days when there are a high number of trip cancellations, some trips may not be posted to Twitter due to the prioritization of work. Our focus is on assisting customers by providing the highest importance updates, such as elevator outages, detours or significant delays to service due to inclement weather, traffic or other issues.”
The Citizen spent an afternoon last week talking to riders about cancellations near the Transitway’s Baseline station.
“I take the No. 168, which is one of the most popular buses in Kanata,” says Zack Burns, a student at Algonquin College. “When a bus like that gets cancelled with no real notice, you’re kind of screwed, especially if you’re going to work. I had one bus cancel and instead of being on time I was an hour late.
“I got in a bit of trouble for missing the start of my shift, but when I told them it was just the buses, they kind of understood. Even my employers know that the buses can suck.”
T.J. Oliver, a former employee at the Ottawa International Airport, says he’s had many encounters with cancelled buses.
“There’s only one bus that goes out to the airport, the No. 97,” says Oliver. “I’ve had it drive by me three times during a snowstorm before, and that left me stranded for almost two hours. I was just in Barrhaven and I saw four No. 170s show up at once. Why are there four No. 170s and no No. 95s when everyone at that stop is waiting for a No. 95?”
Despite unpleasant moments, Oliver says he’s also had a few welcomed experiences.
“For all the negatives I’ve had with OC Transpo, I’ve had a couple of drivers pull over and ask, ‘What bus are you waiting for, where are you going?’ and they tell me to hop on,” he says. “There are flashes of decency here and there.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ips-cancelled-in-nearly-one-month-period
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