Gabriella Caceros was “so excited” recently to get off work early for a change and couldn’t wait to get home.
Unfortunately, like other commuters coming through OC Transpo’s Tunney’s Pasture station, she found herself waiting almost 20 minutes longer for her bus to Kanata North than the Transit app had indicated.
It was one of many times Caceros, who started working full-time downtown near Parliament Station in September, found herself delayed at Tunney’s Pasture, the westernmost LRT station in Ottawa — where commuters who live in Kanata, Stittsville, Barrhaven, Bells Corners and Richmond catch their buses home.
“I give it that 10 to 15 minute buffer because that’s typically how much longer it ends up taking [compared to what apps say],” Caceros said.
In April, OC Transpo started New Ways To Bus, which changed many commonly used routes in Ottawa’s west end and disrupted reliable commuter travel. The affected routes changed included the 61, 62, 63. The 64 was removed.
Previously, the 63 and 64, as well as the 61 and 62, were paired, providing combined service every 15 minutes, but New Ways To Bus removed the 64 and combined the other three routes.
Now, the three provide combined service every 15 minutes, but commuters like Caceros rely on a specific bus to even get close to their neighbourhoods, which can leave Kanata North commuters waiting more than 45 minutes for the right bus.
With the return to work and school in September, Tunney’s Pasture has been more packed, Caceros says.
Lauren McDonald says the limited bus service from Tunney’s Pasture to and from Stittsville on the 61 and 62 routes has prevented her from hanging out with friends or enjoying downtown Ottawa at night.
McDonald says she has had to limit the time she sees her friends in central Ottawa because of the time and costs of getting to and from Centretown safely.
“It’s like once per month, max,” McDonald said.
Kayleigh Munro quit her job because she said she hated her commute from Billings Bridge to Kanata’s Terry Fox bus station.
What used to be a more reliable commute on the 88 changed when New Ways To Bus rerouted the 88 to end at Bayshore, which has lengthened Munro’s commute to more than two hours on some days.
“Now it’s two buses or sometimes even three. So then I’d get off bus number one and I’d have to just pray to God that this other bus is going to show up. Sometimes it wouldn’t. And then I’d have to Uber the rest of the way or else I’m going to be late,” Munro told Capital Current.
“I could just give myself half an hour of time to wait for the second bus to show up. But then I’m getting up at, like, 5:15 a.m. for a job that starts at 7:45 a.m. I don’t want to do all that.”
Safety was also a huge issue for Munro, who also says she was harassed on multiple occasions.
“There was a guy I had to file a police report about. I said to my manager, ‘I’m so sorry, dude, but I can’t keep doing this. I keep getting assaulted and I’m wasting my life doing this four-hour commute,” Munro said.
Barrhaven-West Coun. David Hill says that New Ways to Bus was necessary to use OC Transpo’s limited resources more effectively and avoid delays from LRT construction.
The previous system “saw too many buses getting cancelled and rerouted, which created more inconsistency,” Hill said.
“The New Ways to Bus goal is to improve reliability with the existing resources that they have and as more buses are procured, we will see that reliability improve,” he said.
McDonald and Caceros can’t wait for the LRT Line 1 and Line 3 West expansions to help cut their commutes, but Munro is doubtful the Line 3 route extension will be built by its projected 2027 date. Line 1, which will soon start operating to Trim Station, will expand to Algonquin station and Line 3, which will overlap with Line 1, will expand to Moodie station.
“The train’s not gonna happen. It’s never happening. Every time you go past any of the stations for it, there’s nobody there [constructing it],” Munro said.
Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower, chair of the city’s transit committee, says delays are in part because of the construction of OC Transpo’s Line 3 LRT.
“If you’re a transit user, the period right now is probably at the peak of disruption and construction,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve seen this level of disruption to regular transit in a long time and it’s almost entirely because of construction of the new LRT.”
While Stittsville is seeing an increase in public transit use, the community is facing increased delays because the construction is having a “huge impact,” Gower said.
The delays are “a lot of pain for what will be a big benefit” once the LRT line is completed, according to Gower.
Caehlin Sandeman, a Carleton University student, also used to take the 88 Hurdman bus as part of her commute to school, but now rides the 110 Limebank bus with other commuters from Kanata and Barrhaven for an hour — to access LRT Line 2 which goes past Carleton.
In theory, going to Tunney’s Pasture by bus should take the same time if not less than Sandeman’s new commute through Limebank using the LRT Line 2. But Sandeman chooses her current route for reliability.
“There’d be more transfers, so more chances of a bus not showing up or being late,” Sandeman said. “So there’s more chance of me missing the next transfer I’d have to go on. I opt for the more straightforward route.”
City of Ottawa information officer Katrina Camposarcone-Stubbs said, “There has also been a recent investment in our control and dispatch systems, which now equips all of our buses with a system that indicates the status and real-time location of in-service buses.”
However, reliability continues to be the main complaint, Hill says, which he says is “just a function of bus availability, so as more buses are procured … the reliability will get better.”
Why when the Ottawa river parkway (insert current name) is open to cars on weekends after the “cycle and walk days) is oc ranspo still cut off while all other motor vehicles may pass while we still must detour that takes minimum 15 mins extra per route. And I cant even begin about the no show buses, specifically the 14 both ways. That’s why we call it No-C transpo because we no see them but we keep paying for the worst service in the country and we are the Capital, we should be embarrassed and we are.
Service to stittsville a disgrace.
One day bus was 15 mins late.
I stood on the sidewalk as he accelerated past.
Presumably because he/she was late and not about to stop for one passenger!!
As transit gets increasingly starved of funds, service deteriorates. Less people ride it because it is unreliable, so more cuts are made. A death spiral of public affordable transit has begun. These are the consequences of voting in a neoliberal mayor, and a conservative provincial government. The LRT should have not been a P3, but fully publicly owned and operated.
The sad part is that most people across the city, including many in this comment section, who are complaining about poor transit service, also support Mayor Sutcliffe and his obsession with “keeping taxes low”. People don’t realize that you get what you pay for – and that’s certainly the case with the budget OC Transpo has been given
Feeling blessed to be on one of the better routes for now. I guess they jumped the gun on the new bus route overhaul thinking the LRT would be running to Kanata by now
I never had to call an Uber so often after the changes last April.
Octranspo & the city do not care about us.
Now I have to take two busses instead of one to go to work to my job from Teron Rd to Palladium and navy time they do not show up.
I used to brag with my friends from other country’s about the reliability of our bus network, not anymore.
OCtranspo increased the ride price but reduced the service quality.
So I have to call an Uber quite often.
Is OCtranspo working for Uber?
The people responsible for route planning and bus allocations should all be required to use public transit for a full year in all weather conditions. No personal car, or motorcycle, no taxi, no Uber or Lyft, no bike, no rides with friends or colleagues, ONLY public transit.
I used to work in Kanata and almost every day after work at the McNeil stop I’d wait 40 mins to an hour and a half past the scheduled route I was waiting for. Most times it would be in the winter so you end up standing in the cold for over an hour before a bus comes by.
You would see three 61 busses run towards stittsville within mins of each other but no busses coming back for the scheduled times.
I’ve stopped going for walks in the woods (I need one bus to get there) because delays and cancelations would leave me waiting for sometimes more than an hour just to get home. What was supposed to be an experience to improve my mental health ends up taking up my entire day and leaves me feeling defeated and frustrated.
I used to go to McCarthy Woods every week.
I live in Gatineau(Hull Sector) and I am handicapped. Almost every friday I need to go to bayshore. I used to hop on my first bus and only need to ride it until Terrasses de la Chaudière. Which was about a 5 minute ride. Then wait for the 85 and stay on it until the end of the route which was Bayshore. It would take me about an hour in tital to get there but it was very reliable. Now with the new bus routes I no longer have that luxary. I have to take my first bus to Lyon Station, take the train to Tunney’s Pasture, and then finally wait for my third bus (61, 62, or 63) and ride it the rest of the way to Bayshore. It takes mre more than an hour and a half most days to get there now. It’s hard with all the extra walking, and standing around for the transportation. I’m dreading when winter hits…
Ever since that change in April, busses have been very unreliable. A lot are late because according to the app, the drivers are just sitting there. 20-30 minutes go by and they are still sitting at a certain stop. Are they reading the paper or something or just don’t care they are running late? What’s going to happen during the winter? Are we going to be freezing while the drivers are in the warmed heated busses and still decide to wait an extra 20 minutes before moving? How is this acceptable, we deserve better. I’m always late for work because the bus I need to take is always 20-30 minutes late, if I take the earlier bus that one is either canceled or 30 minutes late. It’s ridiculous.
There needs to be a shuttle service during peak hours (or even off peak hours) that goes directly from Tunney’s to Eagleson Park & Ride. People that need to go further than there are getting blocked out by people who just need to get off at Eagleson!
You showed a nice picture of the people on platform B you forgot to show the most frustrating part and it’s the 12 busses parked, on average, during these 45-60 minute wait for a specific bus to get you to where you want to be in Kanata. Like break management needs also to be looked at for better consistency.
It’s really sad when I have to tell employers I don’t have reliable transportation because I take OC Transpo. But they get it.
We watched a nearly empty double decker bus bypass 5 people waiting on Richmond rd in westboro. They all tried to flag the bus down, but it completely didn’t see them. Happy to be driving a car, I saw the disbelief then anger on their faces. Disgraceful service.
It’s a disgrace what OC Transpo as been since all the changes. It’s not much better at Blair Station. Bottom line drivers don’t care about passengers. They show up when they feel like it leaving passengers waiting much longer than their scheduled times of departure. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve waited for the 34 and it doesn’t show up. It’s a disgrace. I’ve taken public transportation in many cities around the world and OC Transpo is light years behind.
I have been there countless time with this situation.
The frequency they set up is so trashed. there are many routes that go to west like 57, 61, 62, 63. But all of them depart in a 10 minutes time frame all together. So if you miss those 10 mins, congratulations for standing there for another 20 to 30 minutes. Since there are 4 major routes to go to west as i said earlier. The ideal frequency should be adjusted that each one of them departs at 5 to 7 minutes gap so that west commuters don’t have to wait for extended hours.
Another troublesome change is the late hours frequency. I work in Kanata during the weekends and the ony bus that can take me back to home neae bayshore/Lincoln fields that i can take from the nearest stop is 61. But it comes once every hour. And timings are also not favorable.
shifts usually end at 11 and the bus arrives around 10:50 and the next one comes around 11:50.
Imagine during harsh weather, you are stuck at there. And worst part, there are no buses from bayshore for the route 57 or 11 or 81. So i have to walk for 20 minutes to reach home at midnight. Sometimes it’s so raining or so cold that it feels hellish.
I personally suggest that there should be enough bus frequency until midnight. Even though it’s weekend, people are working.
Another thing is the morning frequency during the weekend, ad i said people like me are working during the weekend. We need to get to work at 7 for kanata so we rely on our only option of 61. But the earliest 61 stittsville comes around 6:40. It sucks.
Using the construction of the new line as an excuse just shows that the management is incompetent in planning and in operation.
I don’t commute, but the New Ways to Bus has made any trips from my Kanata home take longer. It’s now 2 hours+ to CHEO – if the buses are late, you have to pay an extra fare. And splitting the 88’s route adds 20+ because now instead of one bus from Clyde & Baseline, there’s a 20 minute layover waiting at Hurdman for the 68.
The bus routes are horrible now. Just when I thought routes couldn’t get any worse , they did. In April the buses became increasingly unreliable. Time delays. Busses not showing at all. Waiting for an every half hour bus not showing to one hour. Workers in Ottawa cannot rely on the transit system in Ottawa but they have no problem raising fares. It’s shameful and a disgrace that our Capital city has such a disorganized, unreliable, unsafe and brutal transit system.
That’s because “New Ways to Bus” in April was a service cut of 74,000 hours. Of course service was going to get worse. I don’t know why Ottawans continue to elect politicians who promise lower taxes and then act shocked when city services go down the drain. The Mayor and Council and responsible for OC Transpo’s unreliability, and Ottawa voters are responsible for putting them into office.
This news is very frustrating. I live in East Ottawa, at Blear Station. I work part-time near Parliament House. I always leave at 3:40 pm and go to work at 5:30 pm. We’re supposed to be closer by train, about 25 minutes away, but waiting for the bus from my neighborhood to the station is an ordeal of more than 30 minutes. Route 12 and Route 24 are a pain. Sometimes they don’t even cross the street they’re supposed to cross so they don’t have to stop. They put up an “out of service” sign and just drive right past it, or they don’t stop at all. Bad, bad service.
It’s sad reading all these comments from people who don’t realize all this hardship is BY DESIGN. “New Ways to Bus” was a service cut of approx. 74,000 service hours. The current hole in the transit budget is almost exactly the same figure as the amount Mayor Sutcliffe cut from the budget a couple of years ago. The Mayor and Council are so eager to keep taxes low (as their suburbanite voters wished for) that they’re willing to destroy and and every city service to achieve that, including transit. The longer you blame OC Transpo for poor service, the longer this pain will last. The Mayor and Council set the transit budget, but they’d love for you to keep blaming OC Transpo so they can continue to shrug their shoulders.