OC Transpo

[OTSkyline]

I remember when I moved to Ottawa to go to school like 15 years ago and we would regularly see fare inspectors on buses.. like every week or two.

It should be standard practice for OC Transpo is they're that desperate for cash. Start by ensuring those using the system are paying

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

I remember when I moved to Ottawa to go to school like 15 years ago and we would regularly see fare inspectors on buses.. like every week or two.

It should be standard practice for OC Transpo is they're that desperate for cash. Start by ensuring those using the system are paying

They shouldn't be doing it for the cash. They should be doing it for the passenger safety.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

It seems to take more than two months for OC Transpo to officially figure out how many riders they had. The July numbers were presented to the Transit Commission in mid-September. Apparently, these were the latest numbers that were available. (Although Glen Gower has an OC Transpo Dashboard on his Website that has more recent numbers.)

OC Transpo's data secrecy needs to be smashed.

[OTSkyline]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

They shouldn't be doing it for the cash. They should be doing it for the passenger safety.

Not sure there's always a direct correlation between non-paying riders and something like violence. Paying riders can cause just as much havoc.

And the fare inspectors from OC Transpo are just that, fare inspectors. I doubt they would jump in to stop a violent fight or try to chase down undesirables...

[rocketphish]

OC Transpo extends fare evasion crackdown to end of year
Fare inspectors issued more than 900 fines during September blitz

Gabrielle Huston · CBC News
Posted: Oct 11, 2024 11:02 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

OC Transpo is extending a crackdown on fare evasion to the end of the year after seeing success during the month of September, telling the city's transit commission earlier this week that inspectors issued 904 fines and 15 warnings during the four-week blitz.

"With the results after the blitz, we have taken the decision to continue because we have seen that it added a lot of value to do so," transit chief Renée Amilcar told commissioners. "We will be very aggressive on that, because people need to pay."

The fines total $206 and are collected by the province, which remits part of that to OC Transpo. Amilcar said OC Transpo's share of the money collected will fund additional fare inspectors.

Twelve fare inspectors took part in the blitz from Sept. 3-30, asking passengers aboard buses and trains for proof of payment.

Amilcar said they patrol the entire transit system, but noted Hurdman, Blair and Rideau stations are hot spots for fare evasion.

Coun. Riley Brockington said he has personally witnessed "continuous" fare evasion at Rideau station, and challenged the notion that passengers are seeking free rides out of economic necessity.

"This argument from some that the poorest of the poor are fare evaders, it's not true. These are people who've just gone shopping, who've spent a significant amount of money, who are well dressed, evading fares because they can get away with it," he said.

Brockington said he's also concerned the trend could seriously hamper OC Transpo's finances, claiming on the social media platform X on Thursday that "we are losing millions of dollars due to fare evasion."

The ongoing fare compliance initiative started in January with just two inspectors, in response to concerns about a rise in fare skipping. Critics argued OC Transpo should focus on improving service rather than cracking down on fare evasion, and argued the blitzes harmed the most vulnerable.

Nevertheless, 10 more fare inspectors were added to the roster.

Coun. Marty Carr asked about the possibility of collecting demographic data about who's receiving the fines, but OC Transpo's chief safety officer Duane Duquette said that's not permitted.

Duquette also noted there's no point in "issuing a ticket to someone we know will not receive it. We try to use other means to solve those issues."

Amilcar said the transit commission will receive a detailed report on the future of fare enforcement once the current blitz wraps up at the end of the year.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/oc...asion-crackdown-to-end-of-year-1.7349209

[Richard Eade]

OK, so what are the real problems with the number of buses at OC Transpo?

Politics pushed OC Transpo into a rapid change to e-buses. The infamous mayor of Ottawa decided that OC Transpo’s cautious approach wasn’t going to fulfil his election promises, so he pushed for a rapid change to e-buses. At the same time, the Federal government was also trying to accelerate a switch to electric transit vehicles to show that its GHG reduction goals are achievable. Therefore, it offered buckets of bucks to cover the cost of ‘upgrading’ bus purchases from diesel to e-buses. (Of course, the Feds are not as generous as it might sound, since the money was a loan that is to be paid back from the savings from not buying diesel fuel. So it wasn’t exactly ‘free’ money. The city will still wind up paying most of the cost of the ‘upgrade’.)

There isn’t manufacturing capacity to cover the number of e-buses ordered. Because of the political pushes, orders for e-buses spiked. The demand far exceeds the manufacturing capacity. E’buses are a new product and it takes a while to ramp up manufacturing and testing. And, as a new product, there were lots of changes being implemented – necessitating changes to the manufacturing process.

A nasty virus shut-down much of the economy for a couple of years. CoViD-19 reeked havoc on manufacturing and the supply lines into and out of factories for years. This turmoil has introduced months-long delays for deliveries.

OC Transpo, relying heavily on the idea of ‘capacity planning’, has been reducing its bus fleet too aggressively. The April 29, 2009 report to the Transit Committee, supporting the future Industrial Garage, stated:

The present fleet size of OC Transpo is 1,025 buses. If LRT proceeds on schedule, according to the Transportation Master Plan, the City will actually reduce the bus fleet in 2017 and 2018. However, in 2019 and 2020, additional buses will be purchased to keep pace with growth. It is expected that by 2020, the City of Ottawa will have approximately 1,300 buses within its fleet.
[https://app06.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/tc/2009/05-06/ACS2009-ICS-TRA-0005.htm]

There were delays in getting the LRT up and running, of course, but simply added 3-4 years to the estimated timing. Thus, by 2024, based on the projections in 2009, OC Transpo should have had around 1,300 buses.

By 2011, the projected fleet size had shrunk somewhat due to the addition of the double-decker buses. Their higher capacity would reduce the number of buses needed to move the estimated ridership. But by four years after the first phase of the Confederation Line opened, the estimate was still about 1,050 buses.



[https://app06.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/tc/2011/02-16/03%20-%20Document%202.htm]

Even by 2021, after the most severe ridership reductions due to CoViD-19, the projection for the size of the required bus fleet was still almost 1,000 buses in 2024.



[https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?documentid=87677]

OC Transpo tried to minimize costs to meet unrealistic budget restraints. The current fleet has a total of 738 buses, of which, based on ‘Service Availability’ numbers, it is likely that only about 83% (613 buses) are actually available for service. This came about for the 2023 budget. OC Transpo retired 117 older buses to save $4.4M in maintenance costs. At the time, OC Transpo assured the Transit Commission that only 738 buses (of which 615 were to be on the road) would carry all of the, then-current, riders. Ridership ran about 1-1.5 million riders per month higher in 2023 than 2022 when that budget was being formulated, and has picked up another half-million per month in 2024. Thus, there has been a significant increase in ridership since it was determined that 738 buses matched the service need. Anecdotally, the last time I was out on the buses (a couple of Fridays ago), the #85 was so crowded, mid-afternoon, that it left people at stops from Westgate to Carlingwood. The #87 had no spare seats from Carlingwood to Baseline. And the #88 was packed heading west from Baseline.

OC Transpo management went along blindly expecting that the ordered e-buses would be delivered as scheduled. Rule #1 of everything: It always takes longer. (And its corollary: If it didn’t take longer, something was left out.) This was a management failure. A good manager always has something in their back pocket.

There we have it: Political interference rushed the changeover; new products took more time to get manufacturing set up properly – especially with the economic turmoil of a pandemic; penny-pinching to meet imposed (artificially low) budget restraints forced a fast reduction in back-up resources; and optimism about how the plan would play out.

Many saw all of this adding up to become a big problem. Why didn’t Councillors and OC Transpo management see it too.

[lrt's friend]

^ $$$$$ savings. Budget restraints.


We will see how the next round of service cuts go with increasing ridership. But they all say, there will be ample capacity until there isn't. I have already been told that. We haven't really seen the figures for PS return to work. The biggest cuts are to reduce downtown capacity. Something does not compute.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

OC Transpo's data secrecy needs to be smashed.

Leiper asked about the break-down in reason for cancelled trips, as well as the top 3 most cancelled routes - they had been presenting this data every transit commission. The answer was basically "we just want to give you that data quarterly, isn't that enough".

That lack of open data from OC is one of my biggest pet peeves about their culture. It indicates to me that they don't think advocates, the public, and councillors will be able to provide helpful feedback and/or make decisions with the data. Or, worse, they want to hide favoritism of some sort (i.e., suburban routes receiving more service than their ridership would warrant compared to urban routes).

Just release the data! Amilcar keeps saying that transparency is a big objective - and for sure she provides more info than Manconi at Transit Commission, but the lack of open data makes the promise of "transparency" ring hollow.

[rocketphish]

How return-to-office rules for public servants have impacted Ottawa transit, business one month in
Ottawa's public transit system has seen a boost in ridership while traffic has snarled the city's roads.

Catherine Morrison, Ottawa Citizen
Published Oct 12, 2024 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 3 minute read

Just a few months ago, Charlene Kolenosky’s pub on Sparks Street struggled to fill tables at lunch time on weekdays. But that is changing.

Her eatery, Office Resto Pub, along with many businesses in the downtown core that cater to public servants, has been barely holding on. And help has been on the way for them ever since many government workers were forced to return to offices in person for at least three days a week, starting in early September.

Kolenosky said her pub has experienced a 25 per cent boost in business since the new return-to-office rules were implemented.

“Hopefully we can get more people back,” she said.

Foot traffic has been up all along Sparks Street since public servants have had to increase their office presence, according to the Sparks Street BIA.

Kevin McHale, the BIA’s executive director, said foot traffic has been up 12 per cent this fall from the spring and up 24 per cent from last year.

“We are still down 32 per cent from 2019 but the numbers are slowly tracking in a positive direction,” McHale said in an email.

Ottawa’s public transit system, which has not seen a full rebound in ridership to pre-pandemic levels and is facing a $120-million shortfall, has also seen encouraging growth since early September.

OC Transpo has had increases in fare sales, ridership and park-and-ride use in September, compared to the same period last year, according to Transit General Manager Renée Amilcar. And overall ridership has hit 78 per cent of what it was before COVID.

“It’s not a surprise September is one of our busiest months with students going back to school and many returning to the workplace,” Amilcar said at a Transit Commission meeting on Oct. 10. “This September we welcomed the feds workers as well.”

According to Amilcar, weekday bus boardings were up 4 per cent, with weekday O-Train Line 1 boardings up 11 per cent. Para Transpo ridership was up 14 per cent.

The number of vehicles parked in park-and-ride lots increased by 12 per cent. Adult, senior, EquiPass and Community Pass fare sales were up 24 per cent, with single-ride fares up 27 per cent.

“We are very encouraged by these early indications and so happy to see people were back,” Amilcar said, noting that final September 2024 ridership numbers would be shared at the next transit commission meeting.

But even before the return-to-office changes, it seemed like things were trending in the right direction. OC Transpo officials also said that in the 12-month period ending in August 2024, ridership was up 11 per cent from the year before.

When asked about how September ridership and revenue data compared to OC Transpo’s projections, which are based on pre-COVID numbers, Amilcar said it was “a little bit too early” to tell.

Meanwhile, drivers have endured brutal traffic on roads in and around Ottawa, particularly during rush hour.

According to the City of Ottawa, traffic was up at two of three major bridge crossings in September compared to the same time last year.

The Champlain Bridge saw a 15 per cent increase and the Macdonald Cartier Bridge saw a 8 per cent increase. The Portage Bridge, however, saw a 14 per cent decrease.

Longer commutes have been one of a number of reasons many federal public servants and the unions that represent them have been fighting the new return-to-office rules. The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the largest of the public sector unions, has filed a challenge of the rules in Federal Court.

The rules require all staff employed under the Treasury Board to work on-site a minimum of three days a week. For executives, the expectation is that they work in the office four days a week. As of June, that included more than 282,000 workers, of the more than 367,000 working for the federal government.

While the federal government hasn’t cited helping downtown businesses as a reason that it changed the rules, the increased presence of those workers has been a lifeline for retail and restaurants in the downtown core.

Kolenosky said her pub still hasn’t seen pre-pandemic levels of business, but it’s been much more busy during its lunch hour between Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“It’s much better,” said Kolenosky, who said she had to cut staff levels at lunch from three to one person due to the decrease in business. “Any numbers rising are good.”

Kolenosky said she’d like to see government workers back downtown five days a week as she and other businesses in the area need them to survive.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/how-retur...ted-ottawa-transit-business-one-month-in

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Not sure there's always a direct correlation between non-paying riders and something like violence. Paying riders can cause just as much havoc.

Maybe not, but there is enough of an overlap in the venn diagram that fare enforcement helps improve safety and comfort levels for paying passengers.

And the fare inspectors from OC Transpo are just that, fare inspectors. I doubt they would jump in to stop a violent fight or try to chase down undesirables...

Utterly irrelevant, though: fare enforcement keeps at least some of the assholes out of stations, trains, and buses. And that's a good thing.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

Leiper asked about the break-down in reason for cancelled trips, as well as the top 3 most cancelled routes - they had been presenting this data every transit commission. The answer was basically "we just want to give you that data quarterly, isn't that enough".

I don't want to see the data on the top 3 most cancelled routes.

I want to see cancellation and on-time data for every route.

All of them.

That lack of open data from OC is one of my biggest pet peeves about their culture. It indicates to me that they don't think advocates, the public, and councillors will be able to provide helpful feedback and/or make decisions with the data. Or, worse, they want to hide favoritism of some sort (i.e., suburban routes receiving more service than their ridership would warrant compared to urban routes).

It is 100% about hiding potential embarrassments and political annoyances, yes.

Just release the data! Amilcar keeps saying that transparency is a big objective - and for sure she provides more info than Manconi at Transit Commission, but the lack of open data makes the promise of "transparency" ring hollow.

The City of Ottawa writ large refuses to "just release data". There are data sets which exist, which have been recommended for release to their increasingly useless "open data" portal, which they find excuses not to release.

But there is no one at city hall or on council willing to champion this.

[lrt's friend]

Councillors will receive even more complaints if more data on cancelled and late trips is released. Of course, how many ignore the complaints? Mine does. Just wait for the complaints when the major service cut comes into effect with rising ridership.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Councillors will receive even more complaints if more data on cancelled and late trips is released. Of course, how many ignore the complaints? Mine does. Just wait for the complaints when the major service cut comes into effect with rising ridership.

The data won't generate any more complaints from their constituents than they already receive from constituents waiting frustrated at bus stops, train stations, or after they finally get to work or home after yet another bad experience.

It's the user experience that generates the complaints. Having some data might actually help generate some solutions by quantifying where and when the problems lie.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

The City of Ottawa writ large refuses to "just release data". There are data sets which exist, which have been recommended for release to their increasingly useless "open data" portal, which they find excuses not to release.

But there is no one at city hall or on council willing to champion this.

All real-time data is provided now through GTFS-RT, which is an industry standard, and the cancellation status of each trip is part of that data.

There are tools and websites that exist to intake and produce reports based on GTFS-RT data if you're so inclined.

The website TransSee (transsee.ca) has lots of pre-built charts and graphs built on that data.

E.g.: https://www.transsee.ca/operatechart?a=octranspo&r=7

[Richard Eade]

More proof that OC Transpo got rid of too many buses - without holding anything in reserve.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/lrt-back-up-and-running-after-brief-stoppage

I know that CoViD-19 threw a spanner into a lot of things, but I think that it is poor management to get rid of all of your back-up options before you have replacements in hand.

Management was too busy counting their chickens, well before they hatched, to foresee any potential problem.

[lrt's friend]

Isn't this at least partly because the planned bus service cuts have been delayed until April?

[eltodesukane]

-- Major bus stop at St. Laurent station --
A wide windsweept concrete plaza barely meters from the highway,
with no shelter, not one bit of protection from the weather.
~80 people waiting there when I took the photo today.
(I was careful to leave them out the frame.)

[ponyboycurtis]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

-- Major bus stop at St. Laurent station --
A wide windsweept concrete plaza barely meters from the highway,
with no shelter, not one bit of protection from the weather.
~80 people waiting there when I took the photo today.
(I was careful to leave them out the frame.)

I havent been to St.Laurent station in a while. Do they not have the old school transitway red shelters anymore?

Also... that post.. you can tell the zero fox level as normally the threaded rods are trimmed and have 4 caps on each. At least for anything with light standards installed by the city.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

-- Major bus stop at St. Laurent station --
A wide windsweept concrete plaza barely meters from the highway,
with no shelter, not one bit of protection from the weather.
~80 people waiting there when I took the photo today.
(I was careful to leave them out the frame.)

When improvements to bus amenities at St-Laurent were "scoped out" of the LRT project by Jim Watson's insistence on "cutting the suit to fit the cloth", as he would say in his fake-ass folksy way, we were also told that improvements to the bus passenger area would follow later.

The End.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

Do they not have the old school transitway red shelters anymore?

They do. And they continue to suffer from both their original design problems (being set way too far back from the curb, uneven surfaces that pool water); new design problems (stops being located with no consideration for how people use the station, especially during inclement weather); and four decades worth of deterioration.

The city just spent a bunch of millions doing basically emergency repairs to the rotting concrete, but even with that work having been budgeted and planned, they didn't deign to actually improve anything for bus passengers.

It's starting to get annoying.