Although lauded worldwide as a model BRT facility, Ottawa’s transitway system came under growing local criticism during the 1990s. Annual ridership more than doubled from 1971 to 1984, then fell thereafter as successive transitway segments were placed in service. The 1984 ridership level was not exceeded until 2002. Transit operating expense became a political issue by the end of the 1980s. Local controversies over transit financing intensified after 1995, when the Province of Ontario terminated all funding for transit, and labor disputes culminated in a lengthy strike at the end of 1996. A short diesel light rail transit (DLRT) service was started in 2001 October; this pilot project is marketed as “O-Train.” At 2005 February, the Ottawa city council approved by unanimous vote a plan for a build two new LRT lines over 20 years.

It should be obvious that a review of transitway operating results would be informative and useful. OC Transpo, Ottawa’s municipal transit service provider, publishes an excellent annual compilation of operating statistics, which is the primary reference for this paper. Although corrridor-level analysis would require additional research, OC Transpo statistics provide much useful information about trends systemwide.

Ottawa, which was then named Bytown, was incorporated as a town in 1850. Renamed and incorporated as a city in 1855, Ottawa was chosen by Queen Victoria as Canada’s capital in 1857. Carleton County, including Ottawa and adjacent townships, became the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (RMOC) in 1969 (together with one township from neighboring Russell County). RMOC was created to manage municipal services that crossed political boundaries. In 2001, in order to simplify the structure of local government and reduce costs, all suburbs and rural townships within the RMOC, and the RMOC itself, were amalgamated into an expanded City of Ottawa. The 2001 census counted 774,075 residents.

Ottawa transit came under public ownership in 1948, when the local authority purchased the Ottawa Electric Railway Company and organized the Ottawa Transportation Commission (OTC). This operator was succeeded by the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transportation Commission, trading as OC Transpo, in 1972. Following amalgamation, OC Transpo is currently operated by the municipal Transportation, Utilities and Public Works department. The Public Works, Transit and Infrastructure Services Committee of the municipal council oversees OC Transpo’s budget and operations.

 

CAPITAL REGION TRANSIT OVERVIEW	OC Transpo	STO
Data Year	2003	2004
Service Area	397 km2 (153 sq mi)	589 km2 (226 sq mi)
Population Served	737,000	240,000
Annual Passengers	87.9 million	16 million
Average Weekday Ridership	340,000	60,000
Fleet	924	219
Staff	2,152	523

 

OTTAWA TRANSITWAY OVERVIEW
Data Year	2003
System Length	46.3 km
	28.7 mi
Stations	36
Weekday passenger volume	* 200,000
Peak hour one-way passenger volume	** 10,000
Buses per hour, peak hour, CBD	190
Park & Ride Spaces	3,590

 

The CBD bus lanes consist of a one-way couplet on Albert and Slater streets, with curb lanes reserved for buses.

Only seven stations have park and ride spaces, and one station (Eagleson) accounts for 32 percent of these. Twenty stations are designated as “Bike & Ride locations.”

The authors note that the weekday transitway passenger volume reported by OC Transpo includes all passengers who travel along the CBD bus lanes in Albert and Slater streets. These are used by several routes that do not operate over other parts of the transitway system.

The authors have concluded that the “peak-hour one-way passenger volume” statistic reported by OC Transpo is in fact derived from the maximum passenger flow during a shorter interval, scaled up to an hourly rate. The actual maximum “volume,” the number of passengers transported past the maximum-load point during a 60-minute interval, is in the range of 4,000 - 5,000 passengers per hour per direction. Details are presented in a companion paper (Special Report .