Jan. 9, 2026: Update on Current Bus Service Delivery and Action Plan
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To |
Mayor and Members of Council, |
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From |
Troy Charter, Interim General Manager, Transit Services Department |
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Subject |
Update on Current Bus Service Delivery and Action Plan |
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Date |
January 9, 2026 |
The purpose of this memo is to provide the Mayor and Members of Council with an update on the short and long-term actions OC Transpo is taking to improve bus service delivery for customers.
Recently, there has been an increase in undelivered bus trips due to an increased number of buses requiring maintenance work. This has resulted in longer wait times for customers during winter weather, unpredictable commute times, and has resulted in an increase in undelivered trips. This does not meet our service standards and we feel for our customers at this time. Addressing this and providing reliable service for customers is the top priority for everyone at OC Transpo.
Sustainable improvements to service delivery and reliability require consistent investment in transit. Through Budget 2026, Council invested $433 million to support short-term and longterm measures that will help improve service reliability for customers. This includes investments in upgrading software used to manage bus fleet maintenance, upgrading communications systems, scheduling and control systems on buses to the latest technology, funding the modification of road configurations and traffic signals at key locations. This funding builds on previous budgets that support bus procurement and lifecycle replacement of buses. These investments, in conjunction with OC Transpo’s five-year roadmap and the Transportation Master Plan, will ensure that the focus remains on improving service.
Several factors continue to affect fleet availability:
- The age of our fleet results in the need for more complex and lengthier maintenance work, meaning buses are out of service for longer periods of time; and
- Ongoing challenges to recruit required licensed mechanics resulting in a backlog of buses needing repairs.
- Supply chain issues impacting the delivery of Zero Emission Buses (ZEBs).
The challenge of fleet availability to deliver daily service is further exacerbated by traffic congestion and winter weather.
There are a number of plans and initiatives in progress to improve bus availability that will result in noticeable and consistent improvements in service delivery for customers. OC Transpo’s focus is making incremental improvements through these measures.
To mitigate the current daily reduction in bus availability, the Transit Operations Control Centre actively monitors the bus network in real time and adjusts where possible, with a focus on minimizing service gaps and improving trip consistency for customers. When there is a gap in resources, schedules are adjusted to provide customers with updated information in the Travel Planner, Transit app, and octranspo.com.
Service Delivery Action Plan
OC Transpo remains committed to improving service delivery, as we recognize service reliability is critical for our customers. OC Transpo is taking a range of short, medium, and longterm actions to address fleet issues. These include:
Short-Term Actions:
- Prioritizing critical fleet work: The maintenance team is working to triage and prioritize work, and to streamline maintenance operations to get buses back into service as quickly as possible while continuing to ensure the safety of customers and staff.
- Prioritizing critical trips: Additional schedule adjustments have been made to some routes for the winter service change in order to provide customers with more predictable bus schedules that prioritize critical trips to locations like hospitals, schools, and the first and last scheduled trips. Customers can use the OC Transpo Travel Planner, the Transit app, text 560560, or call 613-560-1000, for the latest information.
- Preventative maintenance plan: Our maintenance plan has been revised to optimize maintenance workflow, reduce preventable bus defects, ensuring that buses are returned to delivering service more quickly.
Medium-Term Actions:
- Recruitment campaign: A robust campaign to recruit mechanics and bus operators is underway. This includes a targeted ad campaign and various on-site events to increase touch points with potential employees. Recruitment of these specialized roles is an industry-wide, global challenge. The new Collective Agreement with the union representing mechanics allows OC Transpo to offer competitive wages and benefits, which will strengthen our ability to recruit and retain staff in this highly competitive labour market.
- Electric bus procurement: ZEBs to replace our aged fleet have been ordered and are being manufactured, but delivery will not be complete until late 2027. There are currently 36 electric buses in service, and we expect to receive an additional 110 electric buses by April. By the end of 2026, it is anticipated that there will be 234 new electric buses in the fleet, which will help improve bus availability. Progress on this work is provided monthly on octranspo.com. As new buses are onboarded and put into service, this will incrementally improve fleet availability and service for customers.
Long-Term Actions:
- Transit priority measures: Work is ongoing on long-term and short-term projects to reduce delays and travel time variability for buses.
- Shorter-term projects include traffic signal changes, bus-only lanes, bus stop relocation and parking adjustments on important corridors across the city.
- Long-term investments include new and expanded Transitway corridors, such as the Baseline-Heron Transitway, the Cumberland Transitway, the Kanata North Transitway, and the Heron-Walkley Transitway. Building these planned Transitway projects will remove buses from congested roads, where they experience delays from traffic.
We recognize and appreciate that this situation is frustrating and disruptive for customers, and we are working on a number of fronts to ensure buses are consistently available to deliver the service customers deserve and expect. In order to continue to provide Councillors with the latest information on the status of the fleet and service delivery, we will be providing weekly updates to Council on the incremental improvements made through our key initiatives.
If you have any questions, please contact Rami El Feghali at [Personal information redacted] or me at [Personal information redacted].
Original signed by
Troy Charter
cc:Senior Leadership Team
Transit Services Departmental Leadership Team
Director, Public Information and Media Relations
