Dec. 5, 2025: 2026 Draft Budget - Investments in Bus Reliability
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To |
Mayor and Members of Council, |
|---|---|
|
From |
Troy Charter, Interim General Manager, Transit Services Department |
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Subject |
2026 Draft Budget - Investments in Bus Reliability |
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Date |
December 5, 2025 |
The purpose of this memo is to provide Members of Council with information requested at the November 24, 2025, meeting of the Transit Committee. During the 2026 Draft Budget discussion, staff were directed to provide a memo by December 10 that briefly outlines all the investments in the 2026 Budget that address, or will go toward, bus on-time performance.
Bus reliability targets and improvements
OC Transpo uses three metrics to report the performance of the transit network:
- Service Delivery
- Regularity
- Punctuality
Service delivery measures the degree to which planned trips are delivered, and the target defined in the Transit Services Five-Year Roadmap is 99.5 per cent. Regularity, for O-Train service and frequent bus routes, measures whether trips are evenly spaced, with a target of 85 per cent. Punctuality, for less-frequent bus routes, measures whether trips arrive at stops no more than one minute early and no more than five minutes late, with a target of 85 per cent.
A number of initiatives and investments to improve bus service reliability have been approved by the Transit Committee and Council in recent years. On September 11, 2025, Transit Services tabled a report on Improving Bus Service Reliability (ACS2025-TSD-TS-0003), which outlined a number of these measures, including:
- Stage 2 O-Train extensions
- Zero-emission bus program
- Bus maintenance action plan
- Bus Route Review and New Ways to Bus
- On-Demand Transit
- Transportation Master Plan (TMP), which includes transit priority measures
The report also outlined existing contexts and environmental factors which impact OC Transpo’s ability to reach reliability targets, including increased traffic, an aging bus fleet, and challenges in the hiring of operators and mechanics.
In addition to the recent significant investments Council has made in Ottawa’s transit system, including the O-Train extensions of Line 2 and Line 4; the upcoming launch of Line 1 to the east; new zero-emission and new 60-foot diesel buses; and transit priority measures, the following funding has been identified in the 2026 Draft Budget to improve the reliability of transit service:
Operating budget
|
Page |
Item |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
16 |
Annualization of compensation and other operating costs for the opening of O-Train Line 1 East extension |
$24,708,000 |
|
17 |
Increase in expenditures for bus maintenance |
$1,586,000 |
|
17 |
Increase in funding for instructors to support training of new operators |
$1,559,000 |
|
18 |
Partial year compensation costs associated with the opening of O- Train Lines 1and 3 West extension |
$5,394,000 |
|
Total |
$33,247,000 |
Capital budget (Transit Committee, and Public Works and Infrastructure Committee):
|
Page |
Item |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
|
32 |
911734 Bus Replacement – Conventional |
$20,000,000 |
|
35 |
911963 2026 New Operator Training for Stage 2 |
$3,880,000 |
|
35 |
911966 Operational Facilities Lifecycle |
$24,365,000 |
|
36 |
911967 2026 Renewal of Operational Assets |
$2,125,000 |
|
37 |
911969 2026 Unplanned Infrastructure Response |
$1,000,000 |
|
38 |
911974 2026 Transit Materials Management Improvements |
$650,000 |
|
39 |
911975 2026 Scheduling and Control Systems |
$5,980,000 |
|
39 |
911976 2026 Comms and Control Systems Onboard Vehicles |
$1,295,000 |
|
40 |
911979 2026 Fleet Maintenance Technology Systems |
$1,135,000 |
|
41 |
911980 Operations Management Systems |
$1,155,000 |
|
42 |
911984 2026 Bus Refurbishment – Conventional |
$22,035,000 |
|
43 |
911985 2026 Bus Refurbishment - Para Transpo |
$250,000 |
|
46 |
911956 2026 Transit Priority Road & Signals Projects |
$3,075,000 |
|
112 (PWIC) |
Baseline-Heron Twy (Algonquin College to Billings Bridge) |
$295,800,000 |
|
113 (PWIC) |
Southwest Transitway Ext (Barrhaven Centre to Kilbirnie) |
$7,650,000 |
|
114 (PWIC) |
Carling Ave (Lincoln Fields Stn to Sherwood Dr) |
$1,020,000 |
|
117 (PWIC) |
Transit Priority Isolated Measures |
$8,160,000 |
|
120 (PWIC) |
Transit Corridor Protection |
$2,040,000 |
|
Total |
$401,615,000 |
If you have any questions, please contact Pat Scrimgeour, Director, Transit Customer Systems and Planning [Redacted to remove personal information] or me at [Redacted to remove personal information].
Original signed by
Troy Charter
cc:Senior Leadership Team
Transit Services Departmental Leadership Team
Director, Public Information and Media Relations
