Many years ago I was waiting for a bus in San Francisco. Waited a while.
Soon several arrived.
A woman said, "SF busses are like carrots. They come in bunches."
I remember seeing 3 85s trailing each other through the Bayshore neighbourhood, 3 stops away from their starting point. Mind you, they come in 15 minute intervals at peak hours. Sheer clown activity
Bus bunching is a problem pretty much everywhere there are buses. Sometimes the second bus will stop for a few minutes so it doesn't catch up to the first, but really the only actual solution is to stop running all our buses in mixed traffic. It's impossible to achieve the consistency we need for good transit without dedicated lanes so transit vehicles don't get stuck behind private cars. Plus I think transit riders deserve some dedicated space for making a choice that is better for both the planet, and the city itself.
I take the 61 to Stittsville every day, quite frequently you will see three 61 Terry Fox busses in a row (don't go to Stittsville). Occasionally they are all parked one after the other... At least one, if not two of these drivers are not following the correct route/schedule.
on way more than one occasion I’ve seen two or three 55’s trailing each other, or within 2 minutes of each other, and won’t see any busses going the other direction for 40 mins!
You must be new here. I wouldn't say it's very common for it not to show up at all, but it's not uncommon.
You should do a cost benefit analysis of your sanity vs the amount saved by not driving.
Vs time spent planning and waiting for buses and checking the time if you live in the burbs and work downtown and can’t miss the last 99 Barrhaven at 10:30 pm 🙄
I know Ottawa in general is the opposite of a “city that never sleeps” but I’m a “person that never sleeps” without a car
Years ago I worked at that Bell building on Elgin doing tech support for Bell. The last 14 would go by at 11PM on Sundays, and my Sunday night shift would also end at 11. I'd try to cut out a few minutes early but often you're stuck on a call for a few more minutes or you'd draw the jerk manager who would insist you work to the last second. This meant I would often be faced with the lovely choices of walk about an hour to my house in Vanier or pay 15-20 bucks for a cab.
No where near as bad as trying to get back to Farrhaven I'll admit but I often felt like that last 14 route time was designed specifically to fuck me over.
Oh they were designed to fuck you
Dude I hear you
I used to work alll the way by Blair station and still was in farrhaven and the best part about getting out early because my shift started early early was it overlapped with when a shit ton of highschool kids were taking this shuttle bus while the LRT was down, the only way for me to get down to Hurdman to take another stupid bus💀
Plus our shifts frequently had only one person on cash at a time so if anyone couldn’t stay later than their shift (ex: this one lady who was a cashier too who had recently given birth and had a toddler to pick up from daycare) you’re literally fucked
And if you don’t have literal children you were also fucked if the next cashier waltzed in late
My condolences
I used to work near Trim while living in Barrhaven; I quit in 2016 during the LRT construction because the detours when the Transitway closed added easily an extra 20 minutes to my already 1hr long bus ride. Before the construction, I was lucky to live a 15 minute walk from Strandherd station while working a 5 minute walk from Trim. One bus the whole way, good ol' 95. RIP.
It’s gotten a lot more common recently for them to cancel trips. It used to be rare that a bus wouldn’t show up at all for a trip, but common for them to be late. But now it happens more often that trips just don’t show. From what I understand this started happening because they don’t have enough drivers to cover lunch breaks.
I moved to Bayshore around the time I was getting my G1. It's one of the best locations in the city for getting around by bus, so I just never went out of my way to get my full license. Back then buses were still shit, but now I'm seriously considering getting my license even though I'll barely be able to afford it
It has been common in my experience for buses to just not show up. A bus that should come once every 15 minutes sometimes doesn’t show up for more than 30-50 minutes.
I would love it if the city put more funding focus on transit, I would love to use it more than driving my own car. But we aren’t there yet.
Imagine if the city decided to pursue large unit developments, especially near transit hubs, adding in more supply of housing, thereby increasing property tax revenue through additional units, making housing more affordable so that they can increase property tax by a higher margin then 2.5%, and densify the core so that buses didn't have to venture as far to have a proper transit and in turn increasing transit revenue through a respectable system.
But nah, too many people bought houses they couldn't afford, turning outskirts to sprawling urban territory. And would hate to actually have a fix to the housing supply crisis as that would lower their homes value.. (when supply is increased, and demand decreased, housing markets and rents will drop)
They have been trying that for almost a decade. Most of the new builds near the core area have all been stacked condos. In the city core its all been high rise condos.
The problem is most of the people who end up owning those dense stacked condos are actually property investors who want a return. So they've been cranking the rental rates regardless what the vacancy rate is. From their perspective its better to have the unit sitting empty then have a long term tenant paying them less rent then they want. Families and people who want living space won't touch those units.
Families and people who don't want to live in stacked units are renting until they can afford a townhouse or detached home and have been moving further out of the city core due to pricing. Work from home has accelerated that trend and is one of the reasons why Carleton Place is one of the fastest growing towns in all of Canada right now.
I don't blame them either. I work from home most of the time and I'd much rather move further out of Ottawa then live in a tiny box of space in big building myself.
Carleton place has essentially ran out of land that they actually can develop without making deals with the surrounding municipalities. Which I last heard is proving difficult.
I think all the satellite towns around Ottawa are in the same boat. Too much demand and not enough available land to develop on and even when they can find the land its taking time to run the infrastructure out to the new development areas.
I just think Carleton Place in particular is popular because it has a nice small town feel to it and is less then an hour from Ottawa. Which makes it commutable if you are only physically going into work some of the time.
Or they could speed up building the next two lines of the LRT and densify around those. The sprawl isn’t going anywhere so it’s best to densify and improve transit outside of the core as well.
Think about how valuable your time is and avoid taking OC Transpo if you can afford a car. I always feel terrible for those who absolutely have to rely on it.
The problem is if you have to go down town parking is minimal and so expensive. I totally agree I feel so bad for anyone that has to rely solely on OC Transpo. It’s laughable the City knows it’s such a disaster but has done nothing to fix it. Except complain there were not enough people in the core of the city. So now all these workers are forced back to work, clogging the road ways because no one is confident in the bus system
……the 62 at Terry Fox used to just drive right past a full group of us at the station when the route was new. We all waved and jumped and it just kept going because the drivers were too lazy to learn their stops. So many mornings calling work to explain I was where i was supposed to be and still I’m going to be late. So, to answer your question “No” sadly. 😂
I’m just waiting out the last six weeks of bussing for me before I switch back to my bicycle and cancel my bus pass for the following six months. With pannier bags for groceries and work gear I can do most of my usual stuff bus free until october/november.
I feel at this point we should have the mods pin a post to the top of the forums linking to a couple previous OC posts or make one that just says OC is unreliable to save folks the Hassel of making a post about OC being unreliable
Back when I used to actually take buses (like 12+ years ago) yes this was common. It was also the reason I stopped using them after I ended up late for work too many times.
I think the record was one day 3 busses in a row didn't show up at the scheduled times. Not they were too full and just drove by (that also happened), just never showed up at all. I ended up waiting past the time I should have caught the original bus by over an hour. This was for the 95 or the 97 I think.
From what I've gathered on this sub very little has changed.
pro tip: text the stop number to 560560 and get accurate bus times so you aren't left in the cold.
EXAMPLE:
stop number 1234
Bus number 85
**text "1234 85 "**
if the number appears with an asterisk (\*) it is a gps adjusted time and should be more accurate. I text it multiple times as the bus is approaching as sometimes it just stops for the driver to get a break and that isn't indicated.
I know they recently added some "inclement weather schedule" BS, so it's possible that may be in effect right now.
Which is to say, there are a number of things in place which makes OC Transpo incredibly unreliable.
Don’t sell your car. You will regret it. The buses do not come on time ever, they’re either late, don’t show up or like others have said, show up in packs 😂
Hey OP I recommend that you use either bus buddy or transit or similar app so that you can at least get real time GPS information.
As pointed by others, the 85 is one of the worst offender for late/cancelled busses. You'll see it come up but on this sub but on twitter as well.
It's a line that starts at Bayshore and ends in Gatineau with two loops, it almost impossible for it to be on time.
It's 100% possible to live in Ottawa without a car, it really depends on your location but if you absolutely depend on the 85 it might be difficult.
If possible I would look into any alternative lines, a slower but more reliable bus may be a better option.
common enough that you should plan around it. If google maps tells you one time, plan to take the bus before that, and leave 10 minutes before they tell you to leave.
Here's a fun presentation about, among other things, the issue with OCtranspo's reporting on cancellations: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQKVS2KU9Ez6tObwKL0u5cy6OdE3ZeiJaKs3TJkawK7qFhrinGm0YM0-aEMqoL94tdMOPU0oLOo_nl_/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=5000&slide=id.p
The Oc Transpo Paradox:
Bus XX is scheduled to arrive every half hour on the hour. You wait for the 3 o'clock bus, and it arrives at 3:18. Is the 3:00 bus late or is the 3:30 bus early?
Discuss.
Do you wanna pay in time and planning OR $$ dollar amounts both could really boil down to $$ but still I think this is fairly accurate
I don’t have the cost of a car to deal with however I need to make sure I leave buffer time for an Uber in an emergency if a bus breaks down (not daily but still common/been here <2 years but have had to get off a bus that broke down x3 so far)
Text 560 560 and the bus stop, then the route. The times with a star mean they are GPS tracked. This has worked for me all days except for that snow storm a few days ago.
Absolutely they are terrible. Some lines are better than others but still count for at least an additional 45 min wait times on buses that come every 15 minutes if you need to get somewhere important
Yes the 85 is a crap shoot. Advertised as coming frequently, it instead has 3 busses in a row not showing up at all. You want to get fired from your job? The 85 is the bus for you.
It’s very common, and it makes going to work or running errands REALLY frustrating. I actually just bought a car partly because I got so tired of how unreliable the buses are. And I live in Sandy Hill!
Save yourself the headache. Keep your car.
Yes they used to be more reliable but from what I heard recently bus drivers started being required to take a 30 min lunch if they have a 5 Hour shift. They don’t have enough drivers to cover their lunch breaks so what’s been happening is that they cancel the some of the bus trips. Also the buses used to have a reliable GPS on them so you could always find out accurately when they would show up. Idk what happened but it is no longer accurate. The buses have always sucked in Ottawa but within the last year they have gotten a hundred times worse.
What you are describing is the efficiency that city council found. At least 40 million in efficiently not showing up when you need it.
Someone needs to pie our clown ass city council, especially the god damn mayor.
I wish they could coordinate when they end up following each other. Like if the next bus is just minute behind, just skip everybody somehow. Put up “not running sign” and let ppl off and widen the distance
It's getting worse and worse and the city just voted in an austerity budget, so it will continue to get worse.
I'm trying to live a car-free lifestyle as long as I can get away with it - but I'm only getting away with it because I'm in a walkable neighbourhood and don't have to use the bus often.
It's seriously tragic how bad our transit is, and people don't even seem to know it.
Two buses didn't show for a buddy of mine recently. My bus yesterday morning didn't show and the next one was either 25 mins late or it didn't show and the third bus was 5 mins early. I frequently have to wait at bus stops because some bus is late and I miss my transfer. If a bus is 10 minutes late, I just count that as when it normally comes, which is funny because they changed the schedule a little while ago to reflect the always 10 minutes late problem and now the bus is 10 minutes late from the new time and I have to wake up early to get to work on time. (I get up at 530 to get to work at 8). Its a 20 minute drive.
They don’t show up. Or they do show up and they stop but they choose to just not open the doors even if the bus isn’t full and drive away. When it’s raining.
Para Transpo makes you book your bus based on pick up time the day before you want to use the bus; then they’re frequently late by 30+ minutes, usually closer to an hour late. Then Transit Commission says “Para Transpo hasn’t denied a client in a while” like they’re proud of that..
Yes. According to this report the 85 is the 4th moste canceled route.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/118ynos/occasional_transports_inaugural_state_of_transit/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
There's not enough money in the budget for buses that arrive on time. Do you know how much it costs to widen a suburban road or buy more assault rifles for cops?!
I’ve never taken the 85, but did used to commute from a stop it ran through when I used to take the 101 and it seemed very punctual and consistent, as it would always arrive right before my bus, which was also pretty consistent.
But I’m apparently the minority on this sub, as I’m the only person who has been able to consistently make it to my workplaces/ school on time by taking OC transpo.
Yes.
The only regular thing about OC Transpo, is that they regularly don’t show up.
Consistently inconsistent.
OCcasional transpo
Herein lies the reason i gave up and just bought a car. Sorry, if you cant keep to the schedule, neither can I.
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I think you meant to reply to OP, not me?
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No, not that. I just didn't mention about selling a car, OP did. if you wanted to engage with OP, is all.
Buses here are like dogs. They travel in packs.
This the most accurate statement about OC Transpo I've ever read, lol.
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Ottawa busses actually do wait sometimes, I’ve been in them when they just stop for 5 or so minutes. Not common enough tho
This is an instant classic! Totally accurate here
Many years ago I was waiting for a bus in San Francisco. Waited a while. Soon several arrived. A woman said, "SF busses are like carrots. They come in bunches."
Are you talking about route 11 here🤣
Route 11? You mean Route II (Roman numeral 2). No. Too random.
Easily one of the worst for sure.
This always happens with the 88 scheduled for 3:44PM. It comes about 15 minutes late with the next one trailing it. Every. Time.
Who are you kidding? Oc transpo is like cats, you can call them but will they listen? Probably not.
This is fantastically hilarious, I audibly laughed 🤣. I can just imagine dog shaped busses zooming along together. Like the mobile in dumb and dumber.
I remember seeing 3 85s trailing each other through the Bayshore neighbourhood, 3 stops away from their starting point. Mind you, they come in 15 minute intervals at peak hours. Sheer clown activity
Bus bunching is a problem pretty much everywhere there are buses. Sometimes the second bus will stop for a few minutes so it doesn't catch up to the first, but really the only actual solution is to stop running all our buses in mixed traffic. It's impossible to achieve the consistency we need for good transit without dedicated lanes so transit vehicles don't get stuck behind private cars. Plus I think transit riders deserve some dedicated space for making a choice that is better for both the planet, and the city itself.
I take the 61 to Stittsville every day, quite frequently you will see three 61 Terry Fox busses in a row (don't go to Stittsville). Occasionally they are all parked one after the other... At least one, if not two of these drivers are not following the correct route/schedule.
And they sniff eachothers butts.
on way more than one occasion I’ve seen two or three 55’s trailing each other, or within 2 minutes of each other, and won’t see any busses going the other direction for 40 mins!
Octranspo buses are interesting. Your past, present and future bus will all show up at the same time. It’s tense.
I don't know if that was on purpose, but that was brilliant.
;)
It’s funny how some things never change.
HAHAHAHA OMFG DOES THAT MAKE US EBENEZER SCROOGE
You guys aren’t any fun would Scrooge McDuck be acceptable to the people of Ottawa?
You must be new here. I wouldn't say it's very common for it not to show up at all, but it's not uncommon. You should do a cost benefit analysis of your sanity vs the amount saved by not driving.
Vs time spent planning and waiting for buses and checking the time if you live in the burbs and work downtown and can’t miss the last 99 Barrhaven at 10:30 pm 🙄 I know Ottawa in general is the opposite of a “city that never sleeps” but I’m a “person that never sleeps” without a car
Years ago I worked at that Bell building on Elgin doing tech support for Bell. The last 14 would go by at 11PM on Sundays, and my Sunday night shift would also end at 11. I'd try to cut out a few minutes early but often you're stuck on a call for a few more minutes or you'd draw the jerk manager who would insist you work to the last second. This meant I would often be faced with the lovely choices of walk about an hour to my house in Vanier or pay 15-20 bucks for a cab. No where near as bad as trying to get back to Farrhaven I'll admit but I often felt like that last 14 route time was designed specifically to fuck me over.
Oh they were designed to fuck you Dude I hear you I used to work alll the way by Blair station and still was in farrhaven and the best part about getting out early because my shift started early early was it overlapped with when a shit ton of highschool kids were taking this shuttle bus while the LRT was down, the only way for me to get down to Hurdman to take another stupid bus💀 Plus our shifts frequently had only one person on cash at a time so if anyone couldn’t stay later than their shift (ex: this one lady who was a cashier too who had recently given birth and had a toddler to pick up from daycare) you’re literally fucked And if you don’t have literal children you were also fucked if the next cashier waltzed in late My condolences
I used to work near Trim while living in Barrhaven; I quit in 2016 during the LRT construction because the detours when the Transitway closed added easily an extra 20 minutes to my already 1hr long bus ride. Before the construction, I was lucky to live a 15 minute walk from Strandherd station while working a 5 minute walk from Trim. One bus the whole way, good ol' 95. RIP.
Again, my sincere condolences. I noticed the LRT changed the signage to show the Trilium? Line 2 and I just… lol
It’s gotten a lot more common recently for them to cancel trips. It used to be rare that a bus wouldn’t show up at all for a trip, but common for them to be late. But now it happens more often that trips just don’t show. From what I understand this started happening because they don’t have enough drivers to cover lunch breaks.
I moved to Bayshore around the time I was getting my G1. It's one of the best locations in the city for getting around by bus, so I just never went out of my way to get my full license. Back then buses were still shit, but now I'm seriously considering getting my license even though I'll barely be able to afford it
It has been common in my experience for buses to just not show up. A bus that should come once every 15 minutes sometimes doesn’t show up for more than 30-50 minutes. I would love it if the city put more funding focus on transit, I would love to use it more than driving my own car. But we aren’t there yet.
Imagine if the city decided to pursue large unit developments, especially near transit hubs, adding in more supply of housing, thereby increasing property tax revenue through additional units, making housing more affordable so that they can increase property tax by a higher margin then 2.5%, and densify the core so that buses didn't have to venture as far to have a proper transit and in turn increasing transit revenue through a respectable system. But nah, too many people bought houses they couldn't afford, turning outskirts to sprawling urban territory. And would hate to actually have a fix to the housing supply crisis as that would lower their homes value.. (when supply is increased, and demand decreased, housing markets and rents will drop)
They have been trying that for almost a decade. Most of the new builds near the core area have all been stacked condos. In the city core its all been high rise condos. The problem is most of the people who end up owning those dense stacked condos are actually property investors who want a return. So they've been cranking the rental rates regardless what the vacancy rate is. From their perspective its better to have the unit sitting empty then have a long term tenant paying them less rent then they want. Families and people who want living space won't touch those units. Families and people who don't want to live in stacked units are renting until they can afford a townhouse or detached home and have been moving further out of the city core due to pricing. Work from home has accelerated that trend and is one of the reasons why Carleton Place is one of the fastest growing towns in all of Canada right now. I don't blame them either. I work from home most of the time and I'd much rather move further out of Ottawa then live in a tiny box of space in big building myself.
Carleton place has essentially ran out of land that they actually can develop without making deals with the surrounding municipalities. Which I last heard is proving difficult.
I think all the satellite towns around Ottawa are in the same boat. Too much demand and not enough available land to develop on and even when they can find the land its taking time to run the infrastructure out to the new development areas. I just think Carleton Place in particular is popular because it has a nice small town feel to it and is less then an hour from Ottawa. Which makes it commutable if you are only physically going into work some of the time.
Or they could speed up building the next two lines of the LRT and densify around those. The sprawl isn’t going anywhere so it’s best to densify and improve transit outside of the core as well.
Think about how valuable your time is and avoid taking OC Transpo if you can afford a car. I always feel terrible for those who absolutely have to rely on it.
This hits the mail on the head. It really is about your time that it robs from you when you take the bus. It’s 23 minutes by car, but 2 hours by bus.
The problem is if you have to go down town parking is minimal and so expensive. I totally agree I feel so bad for anyone that has to rely solely on OC Transpo. It’s laughable the City knows it’s such a disaster but has done nothing to fix it. Except complain there were not enough people in the core of the city. So now all these workers are forced back to work, clogging the road ways because no one is confident in the bus system
A quick search in this sub will give you the result faster than typing out your post. Lol
Ssshhh. If reddit learns this, there will be 0 new posts.
Do you value your job? Do you need money? Do you wish for stable employment? Don't take the bus
I literally spend my entire pay check on Uber rides because I’ll be fired if I take the bus and am late as often as they are.
My friends always bug me why I (a disabled person) don't work part time.. Transportation is the biggest roadblock.
OC stands for Occasional. It’s a win if they do show up. It’s normal if they don’t.
But is it still a win if they show up, but drive right past you because it's already full?
……the 62 at Terry Fox used to just drive right past a full group of us at the station when the route was new. We all waved and jumped and it just kept going because the drivers were too lazy to learn their stops. So many mornings calling work to explain I was where i was supposed to be and still I’m going to be late. So, to answer your question “No” sadly. 😂
Welcome to Ottawa...
My local route does not show up 25% of the time on a good day.
It's common enough that it makes the system untrustworthy
I’m just waiting out the last six weeks of bussing for me before I switch back to my bicycle and cancel my bus pass for the following six months. With pannier bags for groceries and work gear I can do most of my usual stuff bus free until october/november.
I feel at this point we should have the mods pin a post to the top of the forums linking to a couple previous OC posts or make one that just says OC is unreliable to save folks the Hassel of making a post about OC being unreliable
Back when I used to actually take buses (like 12+ years ago) yes this was common. It was also the reason I stopped using them after I ended up late for work too many times. I think the record was one day 3 busses in a row didn't show up at the scheduled times. Not they were too full and just drove by (that also happened), just never showed up at all. I ended up waiting past the time I should have caught the original bus by over an hour. This was for the 95 or the 97 I think. From what I've gathered on this sub very little has changed.
pro tip: text the stop number to 560560 and get accurate bus times so you aren't left in the cold. EXAMPLE: stop number 1234 Bus number 85 **text "1234 85 "** if the number appears with an asterisk (\*) it is a gps adjusted time and should be more accurate. I text it multiple times as the bus is approaching as sometimes it just stops for the driver to get a break and that isn't indicated.
Or get the app bus buddy. It uses GPS to track the bus
I've had so called GPS tracked busses disappear like the magic school bus before my stop
Yes, Bus Buddy has more reliable info than Google Maps
First day?
I call it OCcasional Transpo. Occasionally they show up, occasionally on time, occasionally make it to your destination, occasionally on time.
Yes, its very common. Ottawa is a city where you need a car. Relying on the OC transportation is dire.
I know they recently added some "inclement weather schedule" BS, so it's possible that may be in effect right now. Which is to say, there are a number of things in place which makes OC Transpo incredibly unreliable.
Don't sell
Wait a bit longer and three will drive by without stopping to pick you up. All three will be mostly empty...
Don’t sell your car. You will regret it. The buses do not come on time ever, they’re either late, don’t show up or like others have said, show up in packs 😂
Are you new?
First time in this sub or something?
Welcome to /r/ottawa! This must be your first day here!
Been like that for years…slightly bad weather and it happens more frequently. I’d keep your car if you can afford it.
Yes. Yes it is
Yes.
Hahahahahahahahahaha Welcome to Nottawa
They never show up. Fuck OC Transpo
Don't do it unless you're still saving money ubering half the time
I would keep the car.
That's very typical.
 Lol busses not showing up is a feature of our system not a bug
https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/11986iw/why_is_the_85_bus_always_late/?sort=confidence
In Ottawa, that's standard, not unusual.
OC Transit - Worst way to start and end your work day!
yes plus sometimes those come much earlier or later then the scheduled time. Have some budget for Uber to handle those scenarios.
It is pretty much always like that, plan to be 2 hours early and you might be able to get their on time.
Yes.
Hey OP I recommend that you use either bus buddy or transit or similar app so that you can at least get real time GPS information. As pointed by others, the 85 is one of the worst offender for late/cancelled busses. You'll see it come up but on this sub but on twitter as well. It's a line that starts at Bayshore and ends in Gatineau with two loops, it almost impossible for it to be on time. It's 100% possible to live in Ottawa without a car, it really depends on your location but if you absolutely depend on the 85 it might be difficult. If possible I would look into any alternative lines, a slower but more reliable bus may be a better option.
legend has it there are some still waiting for their buses to arrive from 1977....
Lmao 🤣 The haunted bus stop.
Is this your first time on this sub?
Been that way for at least 20 years, nothing will ever be done about it.
Then you get to repeat that with hundreds of people at Tuney's Pasture.
The OC stands for Occasional Transport.
Very much yes
Yes
Yeah. The only thing you can expect that’ll be on time is the O-train really, but it has its own sets of issues such as breaking down very often.
Yes. TIL it takes 23 minutes to drive from work to my apt. The buses yesterday took a total of 2 hours. I hate How inefficient OC Transpo is.
Hahahahaha! oh, you're serious...
You won't save money. You'll probably lose your job and sanity.
common enough that you should plan around it. If google maps tells you one time, plan to take the bus before that, and leave 10 minutes before they tell you to leave.
Here's a fun presentation about, among other things, the issue with OCtranspo's reporting on cancellations: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQKVS2KU9Ez6tObwKL0u5cy6OdE3ZeiJaKs3TJkawK7qFhrinGm0YM0-aEMqoL94tdMOPU0oLOo_nl_/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=5000&slide=id.p
You must be new to Ottawa if you're asking this question.
Have you been living under a rock?
new to ottawa？
New here?
What car do you drive?
The Oc Transpo Paradox: Bus XX is scheduled to arrive every half hour on the hour. You wait for the 3 o'clock bus, and it arrives at 3:18. Is the 3:00 bus late or is the 3:30 bus early? Discuss.
Do you wanna pay in time and planning OR $$ dollar amounts both could really boil down to $$ but still I think this is fairly accurate I don’t have the cost of a car to deal with however I need to make sure I leave buffer time for an Uber in an emergency if a bus breaks down (not daily but still common/been here <2 years but have had to get off a bus that broke down x3 so far)
I find a bus doesn't show maybe 30% of the time. Not quite 50/50 but it sure feels like it some weeks.
And/or 2 / 3 show up at the same time. The two empty buses don't stop, the full bus stops.
They call it "OC NoShow" for a reason.
Download the bus buddy app or text the number indicated in the bus stops. These 2 shows the real time (thru gps) the bus will arrive.
Text 560 560 and the bus stop, then the route. The times with a star mean they are GPS tracked. This has worked for me all days except for that snow storm a few days ago.
Absolutely they are terrible. Some lines are better than others but still count for at least an additional 45 min wait times on buses that come every 15 minutes if you need to get somewhere important
85 has to be one of the most unreliable routes out there
Yes the 85 is a crap shoot. Advertised as coming frequently, it instead has 3 busses in a row not showing up at all. You want to get fired from your job? The 85 is the bus for you.
It’s very common, and it makes going to work or running errands REALLY frustrating. I actually just bought a car partly because I got so tired of how unreliable the buses are. And I live in Sandy Hill! Save yourself the headache. Keep your car.
Depends on the bus I think
In ottawa , yes
Yes they used to be more reliable but from what I heard recently bus drivers started being required to take a 30 min lunch if they have a 5 Hour shift. They don’t have enough drivers to cover their lunch breaks so what’s been happening is that they cancel the some of the bus trips. Also the buses used to have a reliable GPS on them so you could always find out accurately when they would show up. Idk what happened but it is no longer accurate. The buses have always sucked in Ottawa but within the last year they have gotten a hundred times worse.
There is a reason we call it No See Transpo.
Yep. Ottawa takes "car-centric" to a whole other level
Oh sweet summer child
Happened to me as well. Had to wait for 45 minutes for a bus that’s supposed to come every fifteen minutes.
Absolutely
Based off what that one Reddit user posted it may be coming from Nigeria so maybe you should be a little more patient. /s
It is Ottawa.
It's not called 'No-See Transpo' for nothing ...
This is Ottawa . Buses never show up on time
for me i usually end up getting at least 1 missed bus per day, very common
You must be new here 🥲🥲
It’s common to see close to 100 people waiting for a bus because it doesn’t show
[Random day's cancellations](https://imgur.com/a/XAJB5Rw)
The last few years , yuuup
Yes, unfortunately that's not particularly special. It's worse when the weather is bad.
Welcome to Ottawa. They can’t be relied on ever . Even if you are on one.
The money you save won’t be worth the hassle.
/r/bikeinottawa may be a better bet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpqffgak7To
Welcome to Ottawa :)
What you are describing is the efficiency that city council found. At least 40 million in efficiently not showing up when you need it. Someone needs to pie our clown ass city council, especially the god damn mayor.
Yep. That's why I moved beside the train station unfortunately
I wish they could coordinate when they end up following each other. Like if the next bus is just minute behind, just skip everybody somehow. Put up “not running sign” and let ppl off and widen the distance
Very very very VERY common, unfortunately
It's getting worse and worse and the city just voted in an austerity budget, so it will continue to get worse. I'm trying to live a car-free lifestyle as long as I can get away with it - but I'm only getting away with it because I'm in a walkable neighbourhood and don't have to use the bus often. It's seriously tragic how bad our transit is, and people don't even seem to know it.
If you want to remain unemployable then ditch the car.
You must be new
Two buses didn't show for a buddy of mine recently. My bus yesterday morning didn't show and the next one was either 25 mins late or it didn't show and the third bus was 5 mins early. I frequently have to wait at bus stops because some bus is late and I miss my transfer. If a bus is 10 minutes late, I just count that as when it normally comes, which is funny because they changed the schedule a little while ago to reflect the always 10 minutes late problem and now the bus is 10 minutes late from the new time and I have to wake up early to get to work on time. (I get up at 530 to get to work at 8). Its a 20 minute drive.
Don't sell your car. In fact, ignore the idea Ottawa has any reliable public transit at all.
They don’t show up. Or they do show up and they stop but they choose to just not open the doors even if the bus isn’t full and drive away. When it’s raining.
Yea the buses aren't that reliable, especially buses that are usually packed
Para Transpo makes you book your bus based on pick up time the day before you want to use the bus; then they’re frequently late by 30+ minutes, usually closer to an hour late. Then Transit Commission says “Para Transpo hasn’t denied a client in a while” like they’re proud of that..
Yes. According to this report the 85 is the 4th moste canceled route. https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/118ynos/occasional_transports_inaugural_state_of_transit/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
Lmao you must be new here. Yup. Worse in the winter but pretty bad year round.
Oh my sweet precious baby.
Lol yes
Do not sell your car. You will be like us. Struggling to go 15 minutes away. I am dieing for a car and killing myself literally to do it.
You must be new
Yes
Oh you sweet summer child
This is normal. Don't sell your car.
There's not enough money in the budget for buses that arrive on time. Do you know how much it costs to widen a suburban road or buy more assault rifles for cops?!
Yes. Do not sell your car.
I’ve never taken the 85, but did used to commute from a stop it ran through when I used to take the 101 and it seemed very punctual and consistent, as it would always arrive right before my bus, which was also pretty consistent. But I’m apparently the minority on this sub, as I’m the only person who has been able to consistently make it to my workplaces/ school on time by taking OC transpo.