OC Transpo says the percentage of bus trips running on time during the morning rush hour in the last three months of 2011 has improved compared to the same period in 2010, but they have not made any progress during the afternoon rush hour, according to a quarterly report released March 16.
A trip is considered on time if the bus arrives at a stop within five minutes of the scheduled time.
Nearly 71 per cent of trips made it to all stops on-time during peak morning hours in the last quarter of 2011, compared to 67 per cent of morning rush hour trips in the same quarter of 2010.
However, Ottawa’s public transit service saw a decrease in the percentage of afternoon rush hour trips that were running on time compared to anytime in 2010.
About 55 per cent of all peak hour afternoon trips made it to every stop on time in the last three months of 2011. This is the poorest afternoon showing for the transit service since mid-2010.
The report also provides data on the number of trips that weren’t on time.
Trips were more often early than late during the morning rush hour in 2011, but a fifth of the morning trips arrived early during the last three months of the year, putting potential passengers at risk of missing their buses, the report states.
More than one quarter of all afternoon trips were more than five minutes late. The report attributes this to “volatile traffic conditions and other sources of delay in the afternoon, especially downtown.”
Afternoon express routes should become more reliable starting in April because of new scheduling practices, the report predicts.
OC Transpo released the report in advance of the March 21 city transit committee meeting. The report also gives data on passenger trips, service delivery, ride comfort, mechanical failure rate, operating costs and park and ride users.
The service ran a record-setting 103.5 million passenger trips in 2011, a figure that excludes Para Transpo trips.