Second OC Transpo Bus Route Review

Summary of comments heard at OC Transpo Route Review

On April 9^th, 2024, Councillor Stéphanie Plante held a second Route Review public meeting with residents from Ward 12 and OC Transpo staff. This meeting was the second in a series of two, the first being held in May 2023 when OC Transpo announced that they were going to make changes to their routes. The first Route Review was held in partnership with Wards 13 and 14.

The second Route Review was a chance for residents to react the announced once they had been finalized. OC Transpo presented the changes they made to routes that run through Ward 12 as part of their Route Review, and residents had the chance to ask questions.

The following is a summary of the questions asked, and points raised during the meeting.

You can view the recording of the meeting, as well as OC Transpo’s presentation, below.

Running routes along longer distances will cause more delays.

Creating longer routes with adding additional busses will expose the busses to more traffic and more pinch points, causing more delays down the line. If making the routes longer, add more busses to address this issue and protect frequency.

People want more connection with STO, not less.

There should be seamless compatibility between STO and OC Transpo. There should be a regional transit strategy that allows people living in Ottawa and working in Gatineau or vice versa to use their home pass to get to work and home. People are allowed to use their monthly passes, or day passes, or multi-day passes, to go between services, but you cannot transfer to the other service in the 90-minute window included on a single fare. Since federal workers are only required to go into the office twice per week, people are buying fewer monthly passes at the moment. These people, then, cannot transfer using their single ticket. This should change.

Priority bus lanes.

Residents want to see more priority bus lanes to reduce delays and promote public transit.

Paper route schedules.

People want access to paper schedules.

School transit to Immaculata

There is still no solution to making transit easier for kids living in Vanier to get to Immaculata high school without having to transfer through Rideau Station.