Beyond the question of reliability, many tell CBC they worry their tax dollars are being wasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the solution touted by many in Ottawa \u2014 getting the Ontario government to take financial responsibility for the LRT<\/a> \u2014 remains far from the finish line.<\/p>\n In the latest installment of our election issue series, we explore how transit reached this point and what voters can expect this election.\u00a0<\/p>\n The numbers<\/p>\n Complaining about the bus in Ottawa is nothing new, but issues reached crisis proportions on the first Monday of January when one in ten trips were cancelled. <\/p>\n Many more were late.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the shortage of buses and drivers has begun to ease, other underlying issues remain. <\/p>\n At the September meeting of the\u00a0 transit committee, the last one before the upcoming election, OC Transpo general manager Rick Leary presented August statistics showing just 76 per cent of buses showed up on time. <\/p>\n Roughly five per cent of trips were missed.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the easiest explanations comes down to changing traffic patterns and, as David Cooper of transportation and planning consultancy Leading Mobility points out, the lack of \u201cpredictability\u201d with the federal government\u2019s return-to-office plans<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have your factors that change, sometimes there\u2019s a bit of lag,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that\u2019s just the start.\u00a0<\/p>\n Buses that used to be packed with public servants are now dealing with roads clogged by workers opting to drive instead.<\/p>\n Part of the problem goes back to 2019.<\/p>\n Patience and public trust took a major hit that year with the bungled opening of the first segment of east-west light rail. <\/p>\n The launch was rushed, with city officials changing testing criteria to accept a system that wasn\u2019t fully proven.<\/p>\n What followed was a myriad of technical issues, including malfunctioning doors, frozen overhead wires, derailments and wheel bearing issues that still plague the system.<\/p>\n The situation became so bad, it sparked an unusual move: a public inquiry, with weeks of testimony and questioning of top LRT executives and city officials in front of a judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n “There were persistent failures in leadership, partnership and communications in the construction and maintenance of the LRT,\u201d Justice William Hourigan told media as <\/a>he tabled his final report just days after the current city council was sworn in.<\/p>\n Premier Doug Ford had a more concise description<\/a> of the new LRT system\u2019s problems: \u201cIt was just absolutely in shambles, and it stunk to high heaven.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The trains were meant to provide a faster and easier ride, but they also complicated bus commutes into the city.<\/p>\n People used to getting from the suburbs to downtown in 25 minutes via the transitway now had to transfer between a bus and train \u2014 sometimes more than once.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then those riders, still adjusting to their new commutes, all but disappeared.<\/p>\n Pandemic tanks ridership<\/p>\n When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, transit systems couldn’t rely on their core customers \u2014 including commuters and newcomers to Canada \u2014 and politicians panicked, said Josipa Petrunic, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium.<\/p>\n \u201cMost transit agencies and leaders know that it\u2019s temporary. But then you go to city council and city councillors are spooked,\u201d she said, reflecting on the mindset at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cut the frequency and convenience. You kill off the riders who are the dedicated clients of the service. That is a knee-jerk reaction. It\u2019s a problem, but it\u2019s very hard for cities to maintain service when the buses are running around empty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ridership numbers are now slowly ticking up, but OC Transpo says the network remains at 67 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n As traffic patterns change, the system is forced to react.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooper said scaling up service takes time, explaining that agencies need a six-to-nine-month lead time for hiring operators and two and a half years for acquiring new buses. <\/p>\n That longer-than-normal delivery time from bus manufacturers is just one more holdover from pandemic upheaval.\u00a0<\/p>\n Look around Ottawa\u2019s streets and you\u2019ll see a mix of buses.<\/p>\n The most common are diesel \u2014 both 12-metre and 18-metre articulated models from manufacturer New Flyer \u2014 many of which are well beyond their scheduled end of life<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the roads weren’t meant to look this way in 2026.<\/p>\n The city had planned to be well on its way to converting its full fleet to zero-emission vehicles, thanks to federal funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n The flood of orders, however, created a strain on the budding industry, which has been stymied by bankruptcies, pandemic-era supply chain issues and now tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n That means delayed deliveries and rising costs.<\/p>\n WATCH | Tour Ottawa’s electric bus-ready garage: Tour OC Transpo’s electric bus-ready garage<\/p>\n OC Transpo wants to deliver a zero-emission bus service by 2036. CBC’s Elyse Skura got a look inside the garage at the centre of this billion-dollar revamp to the transit system.Pushing past retirement<\/p>\n Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto, said transit systems like Ottawa\u2019s are used to relying on \u201cheroic maintenance\u201d to keep aging fleets on the road.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of our infrastructure was purchased or built years if not decades ago,\u201d said Siemiatycki. \u201cAs it gets older and older, it has to be either fully overhauled or replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyone who\u2019s driven an aging vehicle will be well aware of the strain it can place on their wallet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Older vehicles are less fuel efficient and it becomes harder to source replacement parts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The same is true of buses, resulting in what Petrunic calls a \u201cScotch taping\u201d of vehicles and the need for creative solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n All these issues have led to ballooning budgets.\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635453_184_default.jpg\")
Dozens of people rally against the city’s decisions around its light rail system in 2019. (Nicole Williams\/CBC)Solving the rail problem<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635454_779_default.jpg\")
Caution tape is strung up next to the site of a train derailment on O-Train Line 1 in 2021. Derailments and other issues sparked a rare public inquiry into the city’s LRT network. (Nicholas Cleroux\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635454_997_default.jpg\")
Like many public transit agencies across Canada, OC Transpo is still working to get back to ridership levels seen before the pandemic. (Stu Mills\/CBC)Ottawa goes green \u2014 and so does everyone else<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635455_257_default.jpg\")
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635456_610_default.jpg\")
This electric bus is being charged by a pantograph at OC Transpo’s newly renovated depot. The city had planned to be well on its way to converting its full fleet to zero-emission vehicles, but that’s been delayed. (Mathieu Deroy\/CBC)’The bill has come due’<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635456_144_default.jpg\")
OC Transpo’s administration building on St. Laurent Boulevard is seen in February 2025. (Michel Aspirot\/CBC)Is uploading the answer?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790635457_740_default.jpg\")
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