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Travel Planner guide

Use this simple application to get customized transit information within seconds:

Trip Plan

Provides multiple itineraries to get to your destination so you can choose the best option for you

Route schedules

Gives the passing times for your route for a selected day

Stop schedule

Gives the passing times of all the routes that serve your stop on a selected day

Next departures

Shows you the next scheduled passing times at your stop

We are currently unable to provide Travel Plans adjusted with real-time data.

Planning a trip


Using the Travel Planner

Simply follow these 3 quick steps:

  1. Enter your origin and destination
  2. Pick the time of your trip
  3. Hit “Plan your trip” to get your trip plan results. Several different plans will be listed at the top of the screen. The quickest trip will usually be highlighted in yellow:
    Sample Travel Plan results

1. Entering your origin and destination

You can enter your origin Starting point iconand destination Destination Icon using one of the following methods:

  • Lookup an address or landmark
  • Pick location on the map
  • Detect your GPS location
  • Choose an address from your lookup history

Travel Tip:

If you have entered your destination in place of your origin, or if you would like to generate a return trip quickly, you can reverse the order of your entries.

Reverse entries icon

Lookup an address or a landmark
  1. Begin typing the address or the name of the landmark
  2. Select the location from the generated list (see examples below)
Example of address lookup and selection Example of landmark lookup and selection
Screen capture of how to type in an address Screen cap: how to look up a destination

The street types and landmark names are taken directly from the Google Maps database. They are entered in the language most spoken in the area where they are located, that is in English for Ontario addresses and in French for Quebec addresses.

Picking a location on the map
  1. Click once on the desired point on the map
  2. Select either “Set as origin” or “Set as destination”

Example of how to choose your destination or origin on the map

Detect your GPS location (for mobile users)

Screen cap: Use your GPS location as origin or destination

If you have enabled GPS on your mobile device, you can set your origin or destination to your current location.

Choose a location you have previously looked up (Travel Planner history)

If you have previously created a travel plan using a destination or an origin, you can click the history icon (round arrow with a clock dial) to select it without looking it up again.

Use a location in your history as origin or destination

In order to save your history, you need to allow cookies and not be in a “private” or “incognito” window.

2. Picking the time of your trip

Times use the 24-hour clock format as opposed to “a.m.” and “p.m.” times. Enter 00:00 for midnight and 12:00 for noon.

You can plan for your trip to begin at a specific time (Depart At) or to reach your destination for a specific time (Arrive at). By default, the trip time is set to “Depart At”.

Screen cap: Choosing between your arrival or departure time

Use the drop down menus next to the hour and minutes figures to choose the time of day for your trip.

To plan a trip on another day, click on the calendar icon next to today’s date:

Screen cap: Using the calendar date picker

You can even select a date next month by clicking the right arrow next to the month:

Screen cap: how to select a future month for your travel plan

3. Get your trip plan results: choosing the best option for you

When you generate a travel plan, you will be given many trip options. The default trip plan (highlighted in yellow) is best option for most customers. Screen cap: example of travel plan results

The visual display of options lets you quickly see:

  • Start time
  • Walking distance
  • Number of transfers,
  • Route and line numbers
  • Transfer periods
  • Arrival time

To choose an option other than the default, click on the corresponding row.

Trip plan legend
Symbol Meaning
Example of an active (selected) travel plan Default or selected trip plan option. The yellow highlight and arrow means this is the trip described below. The time next to the arrow is the trip’s start time.
Example of a walking segment in a travel plan Walking segment. The width of this band indicates the relative walking distance: the narrower the band, the shorter the distance; the wider the band, the longer the walk
Example of a transit route portion of a travel plan Transit route segment. The Route number is clearly indicated in the schematic. The width of the band represents the relative time aboard the bus.
Example of the transfer or layover time in a travel plan Transfer or layover time. The width of the band represents the relative time waiting to transfer between routes.
Example of a departure or arrival time in a travel plan Trip start/Arrival times. The time on the left is the start time of your trip. (When you leave your origin), while the time on the right is the time you should reach your destination under normal traffic conditions.
Travel Plan notes

On some Travel Plans, you may find yellow triangle Service note icon containing a letter next to a route or bus stop. Please click this icon because it provides important information about that portion of your travel plan, such as whether a route is on detour, if your bus has a destination other than the route’s main destination (so you know what to look for at the front of the bus). See example below:

Screen cap: Example of a note in a travel plan

Print your Travel Plan

Your Travel Plan is available in a printer-friendly version. Simply click on the printer icon on the top right corner of the plan description.

Screen cap: Where to find the print icon

Get earlier or later trip plans

You can check earlier and later trip options by clicking the buttons above and below your trip plan results.

Screen cap: where to find the earlier and later trip options

Advanced Travel Planner options (Service options)

Use the Travel Planner’s Service Options to customize your trip even more:

  • Filter by vehicle type (bus or train) — If you would prefer to not use a vehicle type, click its icon to uncheck it
  • Filter out school routes (600s) or special event routes (400s and 450s) — Click to uncheck
  • Exclude STO routes — Click to uncheck
  • Use only buses with a bike rack — Click to select (Available only during Rack & Roll season, from spring to fall)

Using the map interface

Action Description Example
Zoom You can zoom in on the map by clicking the appropriate icon (“+” to zoom in and “-“ to zoom out) located on the bottom right corner of the window Screen cap: Zooming in/out of map
Move the map To display a different area on the map:
  1. Hold down the left click button on your mouse until the cursor hand makes a fist.
  2. Drag the mouse to desired location (upward to scroll south, to the right to scroll west, downward to scroll north or left to scroll east.
Screen cap: moving the map focus area
Check out your stop with Google Street View

Zoom into the nearest intersection

Click on the yellow person icon and while holding down the mouse button, drag the icon the desired point (must be on a public roadway)

Screen cap: Exploring a neighbourhood with Street View
Expand map to full screen For easier navigation, you can expand the map to take up your entire screen by clicking the red icon with two arrows. To return to the Travel planner interface, click the icon again. Sceen cap: Expanding the map to full screen
Aerial view You can view an area’s satellite images by clicking the “Satellite” button. This will only change the presentation and not the functionality of the map. Screen cap: Display aerial map view (satellite images)

Travel Planner icons

Icon Function
main menu icon Display the OC Transpo website main menu
major Travel Planner functions icon Display major Travel Planner functions: Trip Planner, Route Schedules, Stop Schedules, Next Departures
calendar icon Launch the calendar date picker to enter a date
GPS location icon Detect your GPS location
lookup history icon Access your route or location lookup history
language icon Switch the language of the application to French
Expand to full screen icon Expand the map to full screen
Displays earlier or later trips icon Displays earlier (up arrow) or later (down arrow) trips in a route schedule
print icon Print schedule or travel plan
Scroll up icon Scroll up to the top of the window
service notification icon Show a service notification related to a route, stop or trip
Select icon Select a trip to display on map
Reverse icon Reverse origin and destination entries

Other Travel Planner features

Route schedules

Create your own route timetable:

  1. Choose the date
  2. Pick your route
  3. View schedule
  4. Create a custom printable schedule (optional)
     

1. Choose the date

Schedules vary day-by-day depending on daily ridership (weekdays, Saturdays or Sundays) and planned events. You need to specify the day to get an accurate schedule.

Today’s date is already entered by for you. If you would like a route schedule for another day, use the calendar  Calendar icon to pick the date.

2. Pick your route

To choose the route for your schedule, start typing your route number in the “Select a route:” box, then click on the suggestion with the desired route number and direction (see example below). Only routes scheduled to run on the selected day appear in the list of suggested routes.

Screen cap: How to pick a route from the list

Instead of typing in your route number, you can browse the full list of routes scheduled to run on the selected day by clicking the down arrow in the “Select a route:” box:

Screen cap: how to expand the route list to lookup a route

Route history

Once you look up a route’s timetable, the route number and direction are saved in your history and can be called up quickly by clicking the history icon.

Screen cap: looking up a route in your search history

In order to save your history, you need to allow cookies and make sure you are not in a “private” or “incognito” window.

3. Viewing your schedule

When you have set the date and chosen a route, click on  Get Route Schedule Button to generate your schedule.

Departures are based on scheduled times. The Travel Planner is currently unable to give departure times adjusted with real-time (GPS) data. For real-time departures, please text your stop number to 560560, call 613-560-1000 or download a transit app.

By default, every stop served by a route will be included in the schedule. Because most routes serve too many stops to fit on the screen (or to print – but you can Create a custom printable schedule), you will need to scroll right to display the passing times at later stops.

Screen cap: stop scroll bar location

Route schedule icons

Icon Action
Trip selector icon Select the trip you would like to show on map. Once you have chosen your trip, click “View selected trip in map” above the schedule.
Earlier/Later icon Show earlier (up) or later (down) trips
Schedule note icon Click to view a  service notice related to a stop or trip. This may be a trip-specific destination, a routing detour or a caution order.
Print icon Print your schedule

4. Create a custom printable schedule

  1. Choose your stops
  2. Click on "Show selected stops" 
  3. Print

Choosing your stops

To select a stop, click on the stop name and number cell at the top of the schedule (see example below).

Screen cap: how to pick your stops to refine your schedule

To show and select stops later along the route, click the right arrow on the scroll bar under the passing times.

Screen cap showing the route scroll bar

Stop schedules

Use this feature to get the schedules of any route serving your stop on the chosen day:

  1. Pick the date
  2. Select the stop
  3. Choose your route

Selecting a stop

You can look up a stop using any of the following:

  • Enter a stop number or station name and click on the corresponding suggestion
    • Some stop numbers are also street address numbers so the stop will not necessarily appear first in the list; if this is the case, simply scroll down the list until you find it.
  • Pick a location on the map and search for nearby stops
    Screen cap: how to look up a stop on the map
  • Enter an address and lookup nearby stops
    screen cap: how to enter an address and look for nearby stops
  • Detect your location (for GPS-enabled mobile device users)
    Screen cap: how to look up a stop near your GPS location
  • Choose a stop in your history (stop history icon only shows up if you have previously looked up a stop)
    Screen cap: how to lookup a stop near an address you have entered
    • In order to save your history, you need to allow cookies and make sure you are not in a “private” or “incognito” window.

Choosing your route

If more than one route serves your stop, you need to choose the route for your schedule. Click the small downward arrow next to the route name and number shown to expand the list of routes (see below).

Screen cap: location of arrow to expand list of routes for stop schedules

Routes are ordered by number (from smallest to largest).

Only routes that run on the chosen day appear in the list.

Once you have chosen your route, the schedule will appear. The schedule is broken down by time of day, defaulting to the current time period. To view later or earlier trips, please click on the appropriate period, Morning, Afternoon or Evening.

Screen cap: how to choose the time of day for the stop times at your stop

Schedule notes

If you see the yellow triangle icon next to the times for your trip, click on one for important service-related notices such as a different trip destination, or detour or routing info.

Screen cap: Example of a stop schedule note

Next departures

Use this convenient tool to find the next passing times at your stop or station for any (all) routes or for selected routes.

  1. Select your stop
  2. Click on “Next Departures”
  3. Get departures for only the routes you choose (optional)

Selecting a stop

You can look up a stop using any of the following:

  • Enter a stop number or station name and click on the corresponding suggestion
    • Some stop numbers are also street address numbers so the stop will not necessarily appear first in the list; if this is the case, simply scroll down the list until you find it.
  • Pick a location on the map and search for nearby stops
    Screen cap: using the map to lookup stops for next departures
  • Enter an address and lookup nearby stops
    Screen cap: entering an address to lookup nearby stops for next departures
  • Detect your location (for GPS-enabled mobile device users)
    Screen cap: using your GPS location to lookup nearby stops for next departures
  • Choose a stop in your history (stop history icon only shows up if you have previously looked up a stop)
    Screen cap: fetching a stop in your history to see its next departures
    • In order to save your history, you need to allow cookies. You cannot  be in a “private” or “incognito” session either.

Get departures for specific routes serving a stop

You can narrow your results to show the next departures for only the routes you want (for example, only routes heading downtown):

  1. From your “next departure” results screen, click on the downward arrow next to “All routes” to view the routes serving the selected stop.
    Screen cap: show all routes at a stop for next departures
  2. Click the checkbox next to “All routes” to deselect it. Check the boxes for routes you want to include, then collapse the list of routes by pressing the up-arrow icon to view passing times:
    Screen cap: selecting and deselecting routes for next departures