OC Transpo

This company maintains a toxic and disrespectful attitude towards the public which is reinforced by their customer service mechanisms and overall management structure.
A disturbing number of their bus drivers are unfathomably rude, aggressive and unprofessional. In fact, many well-​publicized incidents involving abuse towards riders have occurred for things as innocent as asking to be let off on a safe stop (an accepted OC Transpo policy) as well as boarding a bus a few seconds too slowly by physically disabled riders. Driving by passengers waiting at stops is also commonplace when drivers who have ample room on their buses simply don’t feel like stopping. If an OC Transpo bus driver is in a bad mood, you could be the target of their wrath, and for no justifiable reason at all.
OC Transpo is a prime and horrific example of the mean, passive-​aggressive culture of behaviour that permeates this cold, bureaucratic town.

Last night at 9:00 p. m I missed my bus by seconds so I ran after it. I waved him down at the stop sign at the station. He ignored me. So I stepped off the curb and walked up to the bus doors and knocked on the doors. He looks at me and say «the stop is on the other side» …(yeah I know that and just ran from there to here…) he repeated him self like 3 times. I gave him a look like… Seriously? He still didn’t open the doors. He waved his hand in the air like (pffftttt whatever) I pull out my phone to get his bus number but then he drove away. He had all that time to argue with me through a glass door, when he could of let me on and that takes five seconds. I had to wait 30 min for the next bus after that. This guy clearly was having a power trip. Next time I’ll just step in front of the bus and stand there till he lets me on. I didn’t know you had to do that to get on a bus now a days but. Apparently so.

For over two years now a vandal has been vandalising OCTranspo elevators and escalators. While OC does it’s best to keep up with this widespread vandalism he/​she has eluded them and continues to make life difficult for anyone who needs to use these services (elderly, mothers with carriages, and physically limited persons).
I think more needs to be done and I blame the City of Ottawa for not making this type of vandalism a more serious crime. I also blame the Ottawa police for not being able to catch this person, but most of all I blame OCTranspo for not catching the bastard. You obviously don’t care about the people who have to use your services, how can you expect the wealthier, and able-​bodied people to want to use you services when you as a corporation have this attitude. The corporation continues to suffer from an internal attitude problem and both the management and the union should be working together to get rid of people who don’t understand that you are not in the bus business, OCTranspo is in the people business. Moving people safely is not the same as hauling cattle. We have come a long way since the big strike but you really still need to step it up.

Oc transpo is the public transit agency in Ottawa Ontario. Generally speaking the system is efficient, they have the transitway routes which run on dedicated roads allowing a much faster commute. Buses are quite frequent on the transit way but can be a hit and miss on the feeder routes.
Oc transpo has a vey neat service where you can text your stop number or the station name to 560 560 and it will let you know when the next buses are. The website also features a trip planner which is helpful for anyone who needs trip assistance.
Fares are fairly straight forward 3.45 for cash fare, 2 tickets @ 1.55 $ each ($ 3.10)or presto transit card at 2.77 $ per ride, express routes costs a bit more. Monthly passes are also available.
For the best experience try to ride one of the double decker buses on the express routes they only run during rush hours tho.

Functions exceptionally well as a bus service, it is quite likely that for a number of paths, you are better off taking a bus than any other form of transportation, like say going from the airport coming downtown. I rode OCtranspo for about 9 years, and I found it was quite reliable, performed well under difficult conditions and the staff are far more attentive to customer needs than the TTC.
OCTranspo has been a service to the capital, and has enhanced the city as a whole.

Positive things to say about oc transpo are pretty hard to find when it comes to them. It is so frustrating taking a bus downtown with these inept idiots who truly do not know how to drive at all and had very little training in not much else. Circus monkeys are more experienced and would look cuter. Clearly the events of last year’s bus accident where people were killed and just recently with the driver running a red light and just getting a slap on the wrist with pay, is not a wake up call to them, wtf. There are so many things wrong with this company, with such a disregard for rider safety and treating riders like a piece of crap on a daily basis. They truly get away with murder every single day with what they are allowed to get away with. If this was any other place of employment, they would of gotten fired so fast for such reprehensible behaviour. These idiots to put it mildly get everything they want when they renegotiate their contracts as our bus passes and fares go up and up. The price increases must also be due to all the lawsuits they must get also. Which I’m pretty sure they do a good job to bury the truth from the public. I just scratch my head as to how we ottawa citizens can accept such mediocrity on a daily basis and not say or do anything about it. From buses never showing up on freezing cold days, when they show up we’re all stuffed like sardines, while you see these mega stretch strollers and wheelchairs take eight to ten seats while the person just pays for one seat. while for example I bring a small box and put it on my lap, they bitch about it. If you’re gonna take more than one seat, start paying for it. The greedy fat bastards at oc transpo would love to line their pockets with more money, there’s your extra revenue stream, oc. Truly oc should stand for obsession compulsion in total insanity. I wish I’d never have to take another damn bus ever again.

The disaster on Christmas eve is the last straw for me !
Why haven’t the suits at OC transpo learned that on Christmas eve, the city shuts down at 12 pm?
STO was prepared, even the bus to Russell was ready at 12 pm.
I don’t think OC Transpo added a single extra bus at noon to meet the demand.
The result was you waited 20 minutes for your first bus, and another 20 minutes to transfer to another bus because they were all full.
Other cons of OC Transpo are:
1. Some of their stops are literally 20 feet apart from each other. They are a taxi service and perceive Ottawaians as fat and lazy. If they spread the stops further apart, they would save us a lot of time and our tax dollars as well by reducing operating costs.
2. It’s fascinating that in the mornings, the express bus will not pick up at nepean sportsplex, hunt club, baseline, iris, queensway, lincoln fields, dominion or westboro. But on the way home in the afternoons, they will drop off at westboro, dominion, lincoln fields, queensway, iris, baseline, hunt club and nepean sportsplex, cause we all know these people getting off at these stops have an express pass.
Do the suits at OC transpo even have a high school degree?

After a month of using this service now, I have found that the buses a pretty close to keeping schedule, the drivers are pretty friendly even at the ungodly hour I get the bus out in Kanata.
I was surprised when I first arrived in Ottawa when I realized that there is no underground system like Toronto or Montréal, or most major urban centres. Instead though they have a dedicated transitway, which I can’t imagine is effective come winter, but without experience I can’t say for sure it’s not.
I have been impressed with the simplicity of the system, once you get used to it of course. I had found myself overwhelmed at first and the teller where I purchased my monthly pass wasn’t very helpful and I had to go back to upgrade my regular pass for an express pass since the regular bus didn’t start service early enough for me.
The only real problem I have had is the terribly long slow moving lines to get the pass. Other than the wait the service has always been friendly.

I’ve been on public transport in Toronto, Montréal, London, Paris, Jerusalem and Managa, but OC Transport is the worst. Much too expensive by half, with a crappy schedule that seems to end at 9:00 am, with a management that is spectacularly into breaking the drivers’ union to the detriment of service. And the O-​Train? A light rail experiment that runs from a lousy strip mall to the literal middle of nowhere. Give me the TTC or the Metro anytime.

I’ve seen some buses. Oh I have seen some buses.
And you don’t know what you Ottawa, until it’s gone.
Try Halifax Metro Transit, and you’ll see.
Clean buses that. and here’s a novel idea. make a trip to the airport so that tourists have a way to get into town! Trust me. it’s not so common sense elsewhere.
The offering of tickets and passes in the buses. ABSOLUTE genius. Just think, you could have to venture to a Lawton’s or Shoppers every 10 bus rides instead.
The fact that the buses telling each and every stop they are approaching. A God send for a tourist venturing out into the town.
Your bus shelters at major outposts like Kanata? Heaters!!! Excuse me while I settle down. Haha, Heat at a bus stop, not a chance that happens in Halifax.
I had heard quite a few people complaining about the Transit. but trust me. You have no idea how bad it could be.

I’ll keep this simple… some people love public transit, some tolerate it, some detest ‘riding the bus’. We are somewhere between tolerate and loving it, generally speaking.
If you want a cheap trip from the airport to downtown (or other places via connections) then this is the method to use. Ottawa transit has several major transit ‘stations’ along the route, so assumable there are a number of different directions you can travel by using transfer points. The trip to-​from the airport is quick. These chaps drive fast, but it did not seem obnoxious or hinging on unsafe. I guess you could say they move you along expeditiously.

I’ve used public transit on and off for many years. I have also used Public Transit in many cities across the world. Comparatively, Ottawa’s is trash. Mexico city in a poor developing nation has an awesome subway system. Don’t get me started on European cities like Amsterdam. Seems like as the fares increase the service levels keep decreasing. City council needs to get it together and create a proper system that will keep the city moving!

I’ve been to other cities, I’ve used their transit systems. None of them are as bad as OC transpo. About half of the time you’ll get lucky and get a polite bus driver who will say hello and will help you find where you’re going, the other half… Not so much, I’ve met some unimaginably rude bus drivers. For someone who makes as much as a Registered Nurse (kind of makes me wish I knew this BEFORE nursing school), you’d figure they would be kind enough to help. I apologize for how ranty and angry this review will be.
My bus is never on time. Ever. And that is the 101 and the 4, I don’t know anything about public transportation or how it works but I feel they need to work on this, I know to go extremely early anytime I want to go anywhere at a certain time now but that doesn’t seem to help, sometimes busses don’t show up. I’ll never forget when the 4 didn’t show up 5 times in a row for no apparent reason. The bus being on time isn’t much to ask considering we have some of the highest bus fares in NORTH AMERICA! They made all these changes to the bus routes, cutting tons of them off and for what? An increase in price.
I also think they need to change their policy about elderly people and people in wheelchairs having to move or wait for another bus because of strollers. The other day there was a woman who came on with a 3 – 4 year old in a stroller who asked these elderly people to move so she could sit, they kindly did. A few stops later a man in a wheelchair tried to get on the bus but was told he couldn’t because there was a wheelchair and a stroller already on the bus. I’m not saying that when someone in a wheelchair needs the spot the person with the stroller needs to get off, but if they have a 3 year old child in their stroller they should fold it up, I’m sure these people in wheelchairs would love to fold theirs up if they could.
I also find OC transpo has a very hard time planning what size busses they need. I take the 106 everytime I need to go to CHEO and every time it is full to the point that some people are turned away. Nurses who are going to work and people who have appointments, people who NEED to be on time.
For a company who posts signs that say things like «you can count on me to get you there» — they sure are unreliable.
Edit 08÷08÷12: Just thought I’d tell everyone OC transpo decided to slap all students in the face. There was quite the commotion when I came here to get my pass, all these students were yelling because they get charged an adult fee now instead of a student fee. Why, you ask? Well apparently if you’re 20+, you’re not a student! But you are if you’re 13 – 19! OC transpo, my my, I thought the reason places give us a break is because we’re paying thousands of dollars in tuition to try to better our lives. I don’t know a single 13 year old that pays tuition.

I have lived in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and Winnipeg. For 8 years from 2001 to 2009 I had an annual pass for OC Transpo which costs close to $ 1000 dollars for the non-​express routes. I stopped getting the pass because in Sept. 2009 my local bus route was cancelled.
Of the above 5 Canadian cities Ottawa service is the worst almost as bad as Victoria’s, although the transitway routes work great. The non-​transitway routes are insane some of them, I think these must be historical routes and nobody has tried to change them.
Considering all the tourists we get here, these drivers are also not trained in being local ambassadors like they are in other cities. In Vancouver they were all sent on the SuperHost program which made a huge difference. Of course most of the drivers are helpful and pleasant people. But the jerks are allowed to be jerks. I have been yelled at for minor mistakes in protocol (like having my pass upside down), I have witnessed people not picked up because they have children in strollers now the news media has started reporting these incidents (yes I find three or four uncollapsed strollers blocking the aisle a bit problematic too).
I think the tandem buses are unsafe. Besides jack-​knifing on icy roads, I refuse to ride in the back half of tandem buses no matter how much the driver yells at me because there is lots of bad behaviour going on in the back that the driver has no idea about.
And no nighttime routes. In other cities they put SMALL buses the size of the Parliament Hill buses for the routes at night and off peak, in Ottawa they buy the biggest buses they can find and stop running at night. E.G. the #7 I was told was the highest volume route and only runs 16 to 18 hours a day. As if nobody on that route works shifts or returns home late at night in Ottawa. If you have to get to work for 5 or 6 in the morning even if you work downtown you can’t take that bus.
But other than that, the service is great for accessibility and bike racks and the new announcement service is quite a bit better.

I’d give it a 3 and a half if I can, but in my opinion the local areas suck in terms of service. Minus 1 star. The Transitway, on the other hand, was the best experience of my life when I was in Ottawa.
The automated announcements (called Clever Devices) are the best out of the transit systems I’ve ridden. It’s the only I know that displays the route, destination, time, and next stop all in one screen. No need to wait for scrolling and such! Although some of the AA volume was rather low… so they lost half a star for that.
If I were to ever move to Ottawa, I’d live right on the Transitway. Then I won’t ever need to own a car.

There are so many pros and cons when it comes to public transit. Sometimes there are smelly, loud, rude, and/​or annoying people, and other times you get exactly where you need to be, on time and with no problems.
The biggest pro of OC Transpo is that you can always find a way to get to your destination. Since the city is filled with students, it’s by far the most popular mode of transportation. They now have buses that show the next stop electronically, which are supposed to say it out loud as well, but don’t always do. You can also choose to use the Travel Planner online or their mobile travel planner for cell phones so that you can figure out routes and times while you’re on the go.
If you pay the fare with change, you’re in for a pretty expensive ride. The fare has increased significantly in recent years, currently at $ 3.25 per ride. I’d suggest using bus passes or tickets, and make sure you take note of when your transfer ends!

Ottawa’s public transit system is heavily used and you’ll find a lot of variety in the people who take the bus compared to other cities.
The drivers vary in Ottawa from being sometimes miserable to being so cheery that they’ll try to lead the bus in a sing along (it was funny for about three blocks then I wanted to just jump off).
My biggest beef with OC Transpo is not their drivers or the infrastructure but rather the technology. They were required to add automated voice systems which call out each stop based on GPS and routes. That’s a great system for those who need it. However, the technology is then there to add GPS tracking for riders to catch the bus and for drivers to follow the routes a little more consistently.
Other cities even use mobile apps to let riders know where their bus is so they don’t have to wait extra long at the stop. In a city like Ottawa where the winds can be near deadly in the cold winter months — that would be awesome.
If you’re just visiting the city and plan to use the service DON’T USE CASH FARE. It’s some of the most expensive fare in North America (more than $ 3) and instead ask around at stores about buying tickets or just a day pass which are more reasonable.

I’m a major fan of OcTranspo, since I really strongly dislike driving, especially in the city.
I have always had good experiences catching the bus, but tend to leave early to avoid missing connections. The bus drivers are usually very friendly and on the local routes sometimes even stop closer to home when it’s raining or late at night.
The strike a few years ago was really inconvenient, but luckily I was only here for part of it. I think it has made everyone appreciate the bus services more since.
There could be some improvements made, but I think we are lucky to live in a city (and country) where we can rely on such a regular, timely service.

OC Transpo has its weaknesses like any other municipal transit system. But if compared with many other cities of the same size, OC Transpo buses are clean and efficient, mostly all wheelchair accessible, provide a bicycle rack in the summer and various programs to provide added convenience to its riders.
Many additions to the transit system are also in planning since Ottawa is growing. The O-​Train will be expanded, an underground bus /​train passage will be created and this will help Ottawa cope with its current and future expansion, as it is Canada’s capital and was not affected much by the recent financial crash.
Taking all of this into consideration, there are many improvements needed, but OC Transpo is tackling the problem and the city is actively planning to answer many of the citizen’s complaints, as well as planning for the future.

Of course there’s a lot about OC Transpo that I can complain about, but I think that’s the norm with every city’s public transit system. There’s definitely a need for a more amped up transit system in Ottawa, but this isn’t the venue to debate Larry’s transit plan.
The current state of OC Transpo’s bus transit is pretty good in my books. The transitway is a much needed corridor that makes getting from one end of the city to the other faster than driving a car. However, once you’re out in the suburbs of Ottawa (e.g., Barrhaven, Orleans), it can be a pain to take the local buses to your specific destination since they come so rarely.
The price of tickets is moderate compared to other cities. I almost always find the bus drivers are friendly. The buses are rarely cramped, but it’s not extremely rare that I have to stand either. Also for people reading this that cluster at the front of the bus like cattle when it’s standing room only, please wake up and move all the way to the back. Argh.
My biggest complaint, which can be fixed without the aid of more money or infrastructure, is that bus drivers don’t slow down or wait at stops when they’re ahead of schedule. Many people I know, myself included, have learned to not rely on the schedule’s times because the buses seem to be ahead of schedule so often, which will only leave you waiting there for the longest possible time until the next bus.
For newcomers to the city, OC Transpo’s website (link located at the top of this review page) has a feature called the Travel Planner. Just put in your start location, your destination and the time you want to arrive and it will tell you exactly where to go, when to leave and what neighbouring streets to look for to alert you the bus is approaching your stop.