OCTranspo. What to do?

 

OC Transpo: A National Capital That Can't Operate Its Own Transit System

Ottawa has a million people. We have one of the biggest geographic footprints for city services in Canada. And we cannot, for some reason, manage a reliable transit system.

This is not a failure of transit. It's a failure of governance.

The Structure of Failure

Here's what happened. We had buses. They worked—imperfectly, but they got people where they needed to go. Then someone/group decided: light rail is the answer.

They were wrong, but not in the way you might  think.

The problem wasn't the LRT itself. The problem was that bus service was cut before the LRT was proven to work. They made a strategic decision based on a theory. When the theory fell apart, and it did, people had nowhere else to go.

This is what happens when non-transit people make transit decisions. You remove your safety net before testing the new one. It's not good risk management. It is negligent.

An ex-driver said it plainly: "I have no idea why the same management team has been in place for all these repeated failures." That's the real question. Why? And the answer is: because voters re elect incumbents rather than hold them accountable.

The Transparency Problem

Go ahead. Try to find OC Transpo's daily activity log. Try to pull their action items, timelines, pass-fail marks. Try to understand why vehicles are degrading until they're no longer serviceable, which is what happens when maintenance gets deferred.

You can't. It's not public. Operations are not transparent. There's a black box between the taxpayer and the service rather than clarity.

This is the opening for real change: demand open data. 

Not just budget numbers but 

• daily performance logs, 
• maintenance schedules, 
• repair costs, 
• on-time performance by route, 
• customer complaint data, 
• internal recommendations from drivers that were ignored. 

All of it.

Why ignored? Because you get a system where:

• Management doesn't listen to drivers
• Union protects members without fixing actual problems
• Failures happen in the dark
• New operators inherit the same broken culture with fresh paint on the org chart

The Midnight Service Gap (And What It Says About Priorities)

The O-Train runs until 2 a.m. Buses stop by 11 p.m.

If you work a late shift heading to Innes, Tenth Line, or Mer Blue, OC Transpo's official recommendation is: use Uber.

Let me be clear about what this is: 

the city is already outsourcing public transit to private ride-sharing for people who can't afford it.

 That's not efficient transit planning. That's a subsidy for people who do have alternatives, paid for by people who don't.

Buses should run every 45 minutes until the trains stop. Not at peak demand—just running. Because shift work doesn't stop at 11 p.m. and public transit shouldn't either.

This is the decision you make when you've stopped thinking about equity and started thinking about schedules.

Who This Hurts Most

Here's the math:

• Youth: No car, can't get to jobs or university
• Seniors: Can't drive, can't afford Uber, stuck
• People with disabilities: Unreliable transit = unreliable independence
• Newcomers: Unfamiliar with driving, dependent on public transport
• Low-wage workers: Parking downtown costs $15–20/day. That's 20% of an $8/hour wage.

When the system fails, these people aren't just late. They miss job opportunities. They miss medical appointments. They don't go to school. They stop participating in the city.

And nobody tracks it. There's no public health data showing the cost of this in missed healthcare appointments. No economic data showing lost job prospects. Just anecdotes from people's lives that don't appear in council spreadsheets.

The $418.8 Million Question

While transit collapses, council approved $418.8 million for Lansdowne 2.0. A project phased to start in 2031. With 40-storey towers in a neighborhood already strangled by traffic and absent transit.

One resident after attending a downtown event gave up: "We drove and parked instead. We get home much earlier."

That's not a data point about parking preference. That's evidence that public transit has lost the city's downtown users. When reliable transit would create economy, we build towers instead.

This is the choice that happens when decision-makers aren't transit-dependent. They build what they want, not what the city needs.

Why Management Keeps Failing

The mayor has limited administrative experience running a city of a million people. It shows. Council members make decisions about transit without transit expertise. It shows harder.

And when failures stack up—wheels and tracks that don't work together, LRT sitting idle while tracks rust, express routes cut while the rail isn't ready—the response is: offer two free weekends of transit to people who commute weekdays.

That's not compensation. 

What Actually Needs to Happen

MetroLinx or some other operator will take over OC Transpo soon. New coat of paint. Same broken system.

Before that happens, demand this:

1. Open data mandate — Daily activity logs, maintenance records, service performance, driver recommendations (the ones management rejected), cost per route, everything accessible online.

2. Synchronized service — Buses and trains working together, including after midnight for shift workers. Every 45 minutes minimum.

3. Driver expertise — Drivers have spent years experiencing this system. Stop ignoring them. Document their recommendations, publish the response.

4. No more false choices — Stop forcing people to choose between reliable transit and affordable housing. Stop subsidizing Uber for people who have no other option.

5. Leadership that knows what it's doing — We need people running this city who have actually managed complex systems. Not amateurs learning the job.

The Real Cost

It's not just that you're late to work. It's that transit has become infrastructure for sorting people: those who can afford alternatives, and those who can't.

A sustainable economy needs a functional public transit system. Not just for environmental benefits,  we're building a city that's accessible to people who lack money.

Ottawa can do better. Is Leary the guy? Start with transparency, accountability, and someone finally admitting that the same management team has failed—repeatedly—and needs to change. 

Demand open data. Demand accountability. Vote for people who actually have experience running things.

This time around, inform yourselves, vote differently, vote wisely.  Vote for Peter Karwacki for Rideau Rockcliffe