Shoddy service is the secret to OC Transpo woes
OC Transpo ridership was down again in the first three months of this year. City staff are unsure why, although they suggest the shortfall could be due to external factors such as population, employment numbers, gasoline prices and weather.
Curiously, Transpo has not yet told the public what the actual reduction is, saying the numbers are still being analyzed. We do know that revenue for the quarter was $3.9 million less than anticipated. Were that kind of shortfall to persist throughout the year, Transpo would miss its revenue projection by about eight per cent, so it’s not quite the tiny deal the city would have us believe.
OC Transpo’s top people have been trying to explain ridership decreases since 2011. Ridership hit its high point then and has been slowly eroding ever since. It’s time to admit the obvious: City buses are often slow, unreliable and unpleasant to ride. Maybe, just maybe, that has something to do with why fewer people are choosing the service.
Take a personal example. My younger son has been looking for a house with a quick transit connection to his job at TD Place. A bus from his home in the Kanata suburb of Morgan’s Grant takes an astounding one hour and 32 minutes, 22 minutes of that being walking time.
The solution would seem to be one of the 1960s suburbs inside the Greenbelt, but the numbers are discouraging. A neighbourhood near St. Laurent, only 6.6 kilometres from work, still takes 38 minutes by bus. It’s a 10 minute drive. Nearby Elmvale Acres is a 43-minute trip for the same distance. Queensway Terrace North is a 56 minute bus trip, but a 15-minute drive. Even a street off Bank, just 8.8 kilometres south of work, takes 44 minutes
A long stand on a packed bus isn’t much of an inducement to take transit.
by transit, 13 minutes by car.
The circuitous journeys, frequent stops and requirement to walk part of the way are all part of what make transit slower, but when it comes to trip time, transit is wildly uncompetitive unless it involves the transitway and a major destination. And that’s when the buses run on schedule. OC Transpo aims for 90 per cent on-time service. It describes this as “what may be the most ambitious on-time performance target for transit anywhere in North America.” Great target, but Transpo is not hitting it, not even close.
Transpo says “the emphasis is placed upon not running early, which exposes customers to missing their bus,” but in 2016, 25 per cent of buses ran early and between 11 and 13 per cent ran late.
In the first half of last year only 65 per cent of buses ran on time, and the number eroded to 63 per cent in the last half of the year. Finally, there is the issue of service quality. A long stand on a packed bus isn’t much of an inducement to take transit. Neither is the performance of the minority of OC drivers who seem to think their real calling is in Formula One racing.
The city points to the new LRT as the answer to our transit woes. Too bad it won’t be. Phase one of light rail will benefit those with direct access to its 12.5-kilometre line and a destination near the tracks. For others, the train will just be a nuisance that forces them to make a transfer. Phase one’s biggest plus is that it will increase capacity downtown, should there be more riders.
The second phase will significantly improve east-west transit for a much larger area, but it still won’t serve growth areas in the south or farther west in Kanata or Stittsville.
Transit enthusiasts wonder why everyone doesn’t take bus, but the simple answer is that the system isn’t designed to serve everyone well.
Even after a decade of construction and $5 billion of spending on rail, that won’t change.
The city is making the best part of its system better, but the slow and unreliable bus transit will still be a second-rate service.