OC Transpo is missing its reliability targets, but fares are still set to rise
Transit riders and watchdog groups lined up to speak out against OC Transpo’s proposed fare hikes on Monday as city staff tabled a
that includes a 2.5 per cent increase in transit fares, while bus reliability metrics continue to fall short of their targets.
OC Transpo executives
at the Nov. 24 transit committee meeting, with the $938.7 million operating budget representing a 10.8 per cent increase over the 2025 budget after seeing 11.4 per cent increase the year before.
The 2026 draft budget includes a 2.5 per cent fare increase, which equates to an additional $4 million in revenue, while an eight per cent increase to the property tax levy equates to another $43.4 million.
The rate increase means an adult monthly pass will rise from $135 in 2025 to $138.50 as of Jan. 1, 2026. Monthly passes for seniors will increase from $58.25 to $59.75 next year and single-ride tickets will increase from the current $4 to $4.10.
“We certainly welcome the increase in the transit levy, we see this as an essential and needed investment,” said Angela Keller-Herzog, executive director of the Community Action for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) advocacy group.
“However, in light that we’ve just seen a significant reduction in service, we think that having a fare increase is tone deaf in terms of how this city is functioning. We don’t think it makes any sense. And we think that a fare increase in an affordability crisis is an inequitable policy choice.”
Keller-Herzog was one of 22 public delegations who signed up to speak at the transit committee, with many pointing to bus reliability metrics that continue to fall short of targets, despite OC Transpo implementing the massive “New Ways to Bus” route overhaul in April.
“It’s hard to square this budget’s stated theme of affordability with yet another fare increase,” said Nick Grover of Ecology Ottawa. “Everyone’s paying into OC Transpo without a clear sense of what they’re actually getting out of it. For the transit rider, the service remains unreliable, infrequent and inconsistent, and for the suburban homeowner seeing their levy increase, transit remains by and large unusable.”
New Ways to Bus saw a reduction in service hours, Grover said, and “many commutes that have become longer, less convenient and with more transfers.”
According to OC Transpo senior staff, OC Transpo ridership increased incrementally to 70.6 million total customer trips between October 2024 and October 2025, representing a 3.9 per cent increase over the same period a year earlier. Ridership is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Bus reliability continues to be a key concern among staff, councillors and riders, with OC Transpo delivering 97.8 per cent of its planned trips over the past 12 months, which is 1.7 per cent below the target of 99.5 per cent and about the same rate as it was a month ago.
Of the 2.7 per cent of total bus trips that were not delivered in October, staff blamed on-street adjustments due to traffic and construction, mechanical breakdowns, a lack of available drivers and a lack of available buses.
Metrics for on-time performance also continue to fall short of targets, with 82 per cent regularity for OC Transpo’s frequent routes (three per cent lower than the target) and 72 per cent punctuality for less frequent routes (13 per cent lower than the target) over the past 12 months.
On average, 11 per cent of less frequent trips arrived more than one minute early, while 17 per cent arrived more than five minutes late.
OC Transpo general manager Troy Charter told the committee that staff are “committed to improving service reliability.”
“We need to be focused on continuous improvement,” he said. “Some of the key investments and the actions that we’re taking are really improving the service and setting the path forward for us as we move into 2026…. There’s so many initiatives that are going on in transit right now that we’re really starting to gain some momentum, and I’m confident that you’re going to see those improvements in terms of reliability and public perception of the system.”
Charter said the bus fleet is expected to grow with the long-delayed delivery of zero-emission e-buses. There are currently 30 e-buses in the fleet, and that number is expected to rise to 56 by the end of 2025.
The transit authority has also purchased 50 new diesel buses that will be arriving in 2026, along with 11 second-hand diesel buses that are expected to be in service by the end of this year.
The 2.5 per cent fare increase is “in line with the rate of inflation,” Charter said, while fares for the community pass, Access Pass and EquiPass will remain frozen.
River Coun. Riley Brockington said his constituents are “so upset with the level of service now they’re not willing to pay an extra nickel.”
“That’s what I am confronted with every public meeting I go to, that’s the reality I’m faced with. So when we ask for a 2.5 per cent fare increase and an eight per cent levy increase, and there’s no improvements, there’s no added service, that’s a huge challenge for me to sell this to my residents.”
Noah Vineberg, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, which represents 2,300 frontline OC Transpo employees, said the 2026 budget “continues in a direction that is clearly not working … and the data continues to confirm it.
“We are cancelling hundreds of trips daily — even more when there is weather or traffic or construction — and we have been consistently missing our reliability targets year after year,” Vineberg said.
“When the system does not work, it’s the riders and the workers that pay the price. This budget does not fix that problem. It raises fares once again and tells the riders to pay more for the same unreliable service.
“Ottawa is already on track to have some of the highest transit fares in Ontario, while ridership remains well below pre-pandemic levels. That is defined as the transit death spiral: fewer riders, higher fares, more cuts, then even fewer riders.”
