Transit has emerged as a particularly contentious issue for Mayor Mark Sutcliffe following the announcement at Council of a plan to raise the senior monthly pass rate to $108, marking a 120 percent increase. The proposed fare changes also suggest eliminating youth fares, which previously allowed 11 and 12-year-olds to ride the bus for free. Additionally, the budget proposes single-trip fare increases, pushing the cost per ride to over $4.
Fare hikes were discussed at the Transit Commission’s Monday meeting, which commenced with OC Transpo head Renee Amilcar presenting general service metrics. She reported that less frequent bus routes have a 75 percent rate of normal service delivery. This means that 25 percent of the buses on these routes are late to their stops. Conversely, the more frequent routes achieve an 82 percent average for on-time service.
The statistics indicate that there has been no improvement from the previous month, confirming that Amilcar has not yet resolved the issue of “on-time delivery,” which veteran transit commission member Riley Brockington has identified as one of the most frequently raised concerns by his constituents in his ward.
At a March 2024 transit meeting, Amilcar stated, “It’s very hard to get on-time service delivery right because we just try to deliver the service.” Amilcar appears to continue to believe that “service delivery”, which she defines as buses simply being on the road, is a higher priority than on-time. She fails to see the correlation between buses showing up late and the impact it has on their ridership.
A polite but frustrated Brockington said, “The data is flat; we’re not making improvements.” He candidly inquired about Amilcar’s plan to achieve 85 percent on-time service delivery, reminding the transit chief that the city had hired hundreds of maintenance workers and mechanics at Amilcar’s request, which was supposed to enhance service.
Rather than deliver a direct answer, Amilcar responded, “We have seen an increase in traffic since September,” and claimed that road congestion impacted on-time performance. It is worth noting that service levels have been consistently below standard since the 2022 term of Council began.
Brockington criticized Amilcar’s performance metrics, stating that the budget meeting was the appropriate time to request resources. If not, a clear plan and consistent, monthly improvements in service delivery were necessary.
The proposed fee increase to a monthly seniors pass was discussed next. It was determined that the 120 percent increase to the monthly senior’s pass was too high. A motion was brought forward by Councillor Tim Tierney, with support from the mayor, that would see the cost of the pass increase by 60 percent to $79.50 per month, still a substantial increase.
Former City Councillor and Transit Commission Chair Alex Cullen, who represented Bay Ward from 2000-2010, attended the meeting as a delegate and made an interesting point on ridership. He suggested that transit ridership in Ottawa peaked in 2011 at 103.5 million trips and has declined since because fare raises have gone higher than the rate of inflation. Cullen candidly pointed out that OC Transpo was already losing riders before the pandemic at 97 million rides in 2019 and said that the higher fares would cause a further loss in ridership.
Addressing the senior pass issue, Cullen pointed out that only about 4 percent of the 169,000 seniors in Ottawa use the system, and those who use it “need the system” and cannot pay for a 60 percent increase in fares.
The Tierney fare increase motion ultimately passed, with only Councillor Shawn Menard voting against raising pass prices for seniors.
The draft transit budget of $856 million was passed but without the support of Councillors Wilson Lo, Riley Brockington, and Shawn Menard.
PHOTO: OLM Files
