OTTAWA - Service Hours and km per Road Call
Revenue Service Hours per Road Call
 
Vehicle km per Road Call
 
 
1982
1987
1992
1997
2002
Revenue Hours per Road Call
495
221
200
193
199
Index (1982 = 100)
100
45
40
39
40
Bus km per Road Call
12,128
6,227
6,018
6,057
6,291
Bus mi per Road Call
7,519
3,861
3,731
3,755
3,900
Index (1982 = 100)
100
51
50
50
52
Revenue km per Road Call
10,066
5,106
4,995
4,846
5,096
Revenue mi per Road Call
6,241
3,166
3,097
3,004
3,159
Index (1982 = 100)
100
51
50
48
51
Average Age of Active Fleet
8.55
8.57
8.9
13.7
9.6
Index (1982 = 100)
100
100
104
160
112
Bus Service and Maintenance Employees
287
308
349
353
393
Index (1982 = 100)
100
107
122
123
137
 
The indicators in the charts and table above imply a sharp increase in the incidence of road calls from the early 1980s - which in turn implies a sharp increase in the incidence of road failures. Moreover, the incidence of road calls stabilized at a much higher rate during 1987 - 2002. This implies in turn that OC Transpo service disruptions became - and remained - much more common after 1982 than during the undertaking’s initial decade of operation.
The questions are obvious: Did the increased incidence of reported road calls reflect actual, sustained increases in the rates of OC Transpo service disruptions and road failures? Or, did this rather abrupt change occur as the result of other factor(s), e.g. changes in work rules?
 
Trends - Average Age of Active Fleet and Incidence of Road Calls
(1982 = 100)
 
Trends - Maintenance Staff Level, Annual Revenue km and Annual Revenue km per Maximum Peak Scheduled Vehicle
(1982 = 100)
 
With the exception of the two charts above (and two below), all charts in this paper showing changes in index statistics (“Trends”) were prepared with a common scale to facilitate comparisons. The index range used elsewhere in this paper was not sufficient above because of the large relative increase in road calls (and was not sufficient below for the large relative increase in traffic accidents per passenger and per passenger-km).
The first chart above includes reciprocal indexes of “Revenue Hours per Road Call,” “Bus km per Road Call” and “Revenue km per Road Call” in order to display changes in the incidence of road calls. The sharp increase in the incidence of road calls was not accompanied by significant changes in average age of active fleet. In fact, the “spike” in average fleet age at 1997 was accompanied by only a small increase in the incidence of road calls per revenue km. Moreover, the significant increase in maintenance staff levels was not accompanied by significant increases in vehicle utilization (“Annual Revenue km per Peak Vehicle”), nor by an absolute increase in annual service levels (“Annual Revenue km”).
 
Trends - Incidence of Road Calls per Revenue km and Total Transitway km In Service
 
As before, the “Index of Incremental Transitway Expansion” in the chart above shows year to year changes in transitway system length.
A change in work rules leading to an increased incidence of road calls (e.g. requiring operators to make calls for certain events that did not require road calls previously) should result in an abrupt increase from one year to the next, standing out from “background” trends. Except for the incremental change to 1988 (when the absolute number of road calls reached a sharp peak), no such change is evident. The increasing trend in the incidence of road calls during 1982-1990 overlaps the period when the incidence of customer communications, and by inference the incidence of customer complaints, increased sharply.
Available data suggest - but do not establish - that OC Transpo experienced an increased incidence of service disruptions and road failures from 1982, coinciding with the initial period of transitway operation. Moreover, anecdotal reports suggest the association of high maintenance costs with operation of motorbuses in a manner that mimics typical (U.S.) “light rail” service patterns: relatively high cruise speeds (e.g. 70-90 km/h (45-55 mph)) and frequent acceleration cycles (e.g. stops spaced every 2-3 km (1-2 mi)). Additional research is clearly indicated.