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Better Transit Ottawa
@bettertransitottawa.ca
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Let's make public transit in Ottawa better.

bettertransitottawa.ca
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bettertransitottawa.ca
Despite some opposition, transit committee voted YES to re-open the door to more high capacity buses at transit commission yesterday following our support

We welcome this first step, while still pushing council to buy more buses sooner, instead of delaying our next order until 2027
Transit Committee said YES to more high capacity buses
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
bettertransitottawa.ca
Transit commission day
Transit commission room
November 24, 2025 at 3:55 PM
bettertransitottawa.ca
Another normal day for Ottawa's bus shortage where council still is insistent that increasing the size of our bus orders is not necessary

This is what we call 97% trip delivery
Bus cancellations on the 98 before rush hour even starts Bus cancellations listed on OC transpo's website before rush hour even starts Bus cancellations listed on OC transpo's website before rush hour even starts Bus cancellations listed on OC transpo's website before rush hour even starts
November 18, 2025 at 8:31 PM
bettertransitottawa.ca
The 2026 draft Ottawa budget announces further delays to the Carling bus lane project, estimating the completion time for a bus lane project at 2035. This project was started in 2016 with designs released in 2017, which would make this be a 19 year long project just to install interim bus lanes.
City of Ottawa 2026 draft capital budget item for Carling Avenue showing a year of completion of 2035 Blog post about this delay The 2026 draft Ottawa budget announces further delays to the Carling Avenue bus lane project, estimating the completion time for a bus lane project at 2035. This project was started in 2016 with designs released in 2017, which would make this be a 19 year long project just to install simple interim bus lanes. To put this in perspective, the O-Train Line 1 project took 7 years to build an entire train system, even after the excessive delays of that project. This is not a complicated BRT project, this is meant as an interim solution until a real BRT is complete. The initial project design (https://ottawa.ca/en/parking-roads-and-travel/transportation-planning/environmental-assessment-completed-projects/carling-avenue-transit-priority-measures) released in 2017 suggests the project is almost all relabeling existing lanes from mixed traffic to bus-only to give priority to buses on the busy corridor or Carling Avenue. Projects like these are the easy and cheap projects that need to be prioritized as much as possible. Not only will this improve travel times and reliability of one of the top bus corridors in the city, but this also allows us to use our limited bus fleet as efficiently as possible. Ottawa faces a severe bus shortage, which means we must make sure every bus is used as efficiently as possible. When a bus sits in traffic, it can’t be used to serve other important routes. Carling Avenue is also facing intense redevelopment with new apartments with very limited parking. That means many new transit-using residents need to cross the corridor. We urge city council to determine what is making this project take so long and speed up easy and cheap transit projects like this to get our city moving. \- Better Transit Ottawa
November 13, 2025 at 1:38 AM
bettertransitottawa.ca
The next three 7s are cancelled at the start of evening rush. This is an every day occurrence due to the lack of working buses to run the schedule we need.

OC Transpo needs to order more buses to replace the over 15 year old fleet and hire enough mechanics to get the existing buses in service.
Screenshot from the Transit app, showing a 56 minute wait time for OC Transpo Route 7 during peak hours, and multiple canceled trips on Route 7 during peak time.
September 17, 2025 at 9:12 PM
bettertransitottawa.ca
OC Transpo is discussing potentially cutting off-peak Line 2 and 4 service to as low as every 30 minutes in response to council asking Line 2 and 4 to start at 5 AM.

Let your councilor know so we can avoid a repeat of last year’s Line 1 cuts and not fall down the public transit death spiral.
"Staff are making arrangements to start service on O-Train Line 2 earlier from Monday to Saturday, aiming for a start date of September 2, 2025. The increased cost and maintenance pressures associated with an earlier start time would be offset by adjustments to the service frequency on O-Train Line 2 and Line 4 during lower ridership times. Monday to Friday, the first northbound train from Limebank Station will be at 5:01 a.m., matching the 4:56 a.m. morning start time of O-Train Line 1. On Saturdays, the first northbound train from Limebank Station will be at 6:13 a.m., shortly after the 6:00 a.m. start time of O-Train Line 1. No changes are being made at this time to the scheduled last trips or to the start and finish times of airport service on O-Train Line 4. The additional costs of this earlier service, six days a week, would be offset by some service reductions on O-Train Lines 2 and 4 at other times, when ridership is lower. Staff are working on possible frequency reductions late in the evening in the less-busy direction and on possible frequency reductions on Sundays. Trains on O-Train Lines 2 and 4 at these times would still run at least twice per hour." This is a quote from OC Transpo's response to Councillor Desroches's O-Train Line 2 Service Schedule Inquiry from September 11th's Transit Committee agenda.
September 3, 2025 at 12:42 AM
bettertransitottawa.ca
BTO is fighting for a transit system that is useful and reliable by focusing on smaller scale projects and changes to internal operations. We support bus lanes on corridors such as Bank St and Carling Ave, and we are working on solving the bus shortage.

Want to know more? Have ideas? Contact us!
July 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM