Weekly newsletter: April 29, 2024

Hi, everyone!

Between hockey games and an election, there’s been a lot of good television lately. It’s been terrible for my bedtime.

OC Transpo service cuts – Monday field notes

OC Transpo’s New Ways to Bus is now in effect. The restructured bus network, which includes many service cuts, especially for peak period commuters, began Sunday. Yesterday was the first weekday for the new network.

I spent a few hours of the morning peak at Fallowfield Station and a few hours of the afternoon peak at Tunney’s Pasture Station yesterday to get a sense of the service delivery. Thanks and hi back again to the residents who came by to say hello and chat!

So much more can be (and has been) said about the cuts to peak hour service, but how did the first weekday go?

For the first day after a major change for both passengers and OC Transpo employees, I think service delivery was okay. From my observations, I think the morning went better than the afternoon, at least for Barrhaven routes.

Generally, buses departing Fallowfield Station in the morning were mostly consistent and spaced well, with high capacity buses assigned to all trips from 7:00 am to 8:45 am. There were two large gaps of 16 and 19 minutes at around 7:30 am and 8:30 am, respectively.

Service at Tunney’s Pasture was a bit shakier in the afternoon peak. Though the gaps were smaller than the morning, there were more gaps overall, and they all happened at the busiest time from 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm. Routes 74 and 275 performed relatively poorly, which contributed to those gaps.

Both peak periods had three cancelled trips each, while route 277 was the most punctual at Fallowfield in the morning and from Tunney’s Pasture in the afternoon.

The chart above sorts scheduled northbound departures in the morning from Fallowfield by time. OC Transpo, to their credit, did a decent job in ensuring routes are not scheduled in bunches with lots of time in between.

On the right is the actual departure and time between buses I noted during my time at Fallowfield Station. The 16-minute gap from 7:27 am to 7:43 am was created by a bus departing Fallowfield early followed by a bus arriving late. That gap caused the largest crowd at the station yesterday morning, at about 80 people.

A 19-minute gap from 8:14 am to 8:33 am was caused by a cancelled trip and two late buses, but did not create as big a crowd.

A total of three trips were cancelled (though it’s possible the last 275 was late and arrived after I left Tunney’s Pasture, hence the asterisks).

Still on morning service, the chart above sorts scheduled northbound departures from Fallowfield by time and by route, while the information is sorted into their actual departure time on the right.

Route 74 fared the worst, with a cancelled trip at 7:45 am and two later trips delayed by more than 15 minutes each, which created a period of service from 7:26 am to 9:05 am where the trips on the route were effectively operating at a 30-minute frequency.

Shifting to afternoon service, this chart sorts scheduled departures and gaps from Tunney’s Pasture by time, while the chart on the right has the actual departure times and gaps.

Peculiarly, the afternoon peak features three larger scheduled gaps of 14, 10, and eight minutes in the 4:00 pm hour (the busiest).

Not surprisingly, the fullest buses of the afternoon followed relatively larger gaps in service, particularly 4:10 pm and from 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm.

My main takeaway from the afternoon service is actually the performance of the individual routes. Large gaps on routes 74 and 275 were caused by cancelled trips and very late buses, respectively.

Another takeaway is I still enjoy making spreadsheets and visualising data.

My observations from yesterday have been shared with OC Transpo staff. Again, given it was the first weekday of a major change, I think the service was okay, but the gaps and issues noted above require eyes and quick action before they prevail.

There are also a few other related items I am working on:

• The Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School trips on route 80

• Errors in the school service map for LDHSS

• A few funny bus stops, including one at Stoneway/Woodroffe that would force a bus into an illegal left turn

• The weird afternoon schedule gaps at Tunney’s Pasture

• Omission from the route 73 map about the direction of travel for the peak period extension to/from Tunney’s Pasture

Service will continue to be monitored, and any remedial actions will be communicated as they become available. Please feel free to share any additional feedback with me by replying to this newsletter or by emailing Wilson.Lo@ottawa.ca directly.

Enjoy the last bit of April ahead!

-Wilson