The story
Early history
Ottawa's first public transportation system began in 1886 with the operation of a horsecar system. The horse-drawn streetcars travelled back and forth from New Edinburgh to the Chaudière Bridge. The horsecar would remain a staple means of public transportation until 1891 after Thomas Ahearn founded the Ottawa Electric Railway Company. This private enterprise eventually provided heated streetcar service covering the downtown core. Electricity had been employed in a few places in Ottawa since the first demonstration of the incandescent bulb in 1883; the earliest were Parliament Hill and LeBreton Flats. In May 1885, electric lighting commenced in the city. In 1885 council contracted Ottawa Electric Light Company to install arc lamps on the city's streets.
1970s: Formation, early Transitway and first strike
Transit in Ottawa was provided by the Ottawa Transportation Commission until 1973 when transit service in the city and its suburbs was transferred under the auspices of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton. Its formal name was the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, but the service was promoted in both English and French under the OC Transpo name, whose OC initials are derived from Ottawa-Carleton. This renaming to OC Transpo was a break from the practice of simply retaining the central cities' (when they existed per se) transit system's name following regionalization as was the case for Toronto's Toronto Transit Commission and Hamilton's Hamilton Street Railway.
The 20-day 1979 strike was fought over a wage difference of a nickel and became known as "the five-cent bus strike". A pay increase of 16.5% was rejected by the union.
1980s: Transitway
In the early 1980s, OC Transpo began planning for a bus rapid transit system, the Transitway. Construction of its various stations and segments followed over many years. The first segments were from Baseline to Lincoln Fields in the west end and from Lees to Hurdman (two immediate stations) in the east end.
1990s: Second strike and shooting
The second strike for OC Transpo ran from 25 November to 16 December 1996. The strike ended under arbitration.
On Tuesday, 6 April 1999, former OC Transpo employee Pierre Lebrun, armed with a Remington Model 760 pump-action rifle, shot six people, killing four, in a shooting spree at OC Transpo's St. Laurent Boulevard garage, before killing himself. Lebrun was fired in August 1997 but later reinstated, and quit in 1998.
An inquest into the shooting revealed Lebrun was the subject of teasing for his speech impediment, and that his complaints to management were not investigated. The inquest revealed an "atmosphere of bullying", described as a "poisoned" environment by an employment equity manager. In response, OC Transpo instigated zero-tolerance policies regarding workplace harassment, a new employee-management communications program, and increased training on workplace respect. However, studies in 2003 and 2004 found there to be lingering elements of a negative work environment, and employee-management communication was reported to be strained following the 1996 strike.
2000s: Trillium Line, expansions and third strike
OC Transpo launched the O-Train diesel light rail transit (DLRT) service on 15 October 2001, as a pilot project. The service consists of one north–south line, with major points of interest including Carleton University and the South Keys Shopping Centre. In late 2014, this line became known as the Trillium Line, or O-Train Line 2, to allow for expansion of the O-Train brand.
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The province of Ontario ordered the amalgamation of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton and its component municipalities into a single City of Ottawa municipality. When the new local governance took effect in 2001, OC Transpo became a department of the new city.
Following amalgamation, a bilingual replacement backronym for "OC" was sought, but no suitable candidates have been found. The anachronistic acronym has been kept, instead of the costly task of replacing the decals on all buses, bus stops, bus stations, and promotional material. Thus, "OC" is an orphan initialism.
A new section of the southwest Transitway opened on 12 December 2005, between the Nepean Sportsplex and Fallowfield Station. The new section runs parallel to Woodroffe Avenue and was built at a cost of $10 million. The new section has no stations and has replaced service along Woodroffe Avenue between the Nepean Sportsplex and Fallowfield. The Transitway was further expanded south into Barrhaven with Strandherd opened on 2 January 2007. There are also long range plans for other extensions in the Orleans and Kanata areas to keep up with more growing communities.
Following the 2006 municipal election campaign, Larry O'Brien was elected as mayor and cancelled the light rail expansion project, per a campaign promise. City Council decided to annul the project by a margin of 13–11 on 14 December 2006. The proposed northbound expansions from Bayview onward were later revived with the Confederation Line project, contracted in December 2012.
OC Transpo drivers, dispatchers, and maintenance workers under Amalgamated Transit Union local 279 went on strike 10 December 2008, at 12:01 am. The main causes of the strike were disagreements between the City of Ottawa and the union regarding scheduling, payroll and seniority. Rona Ambrose, the Federal Minister of Labour ordered a union membership vote on 8 January 2009, on the city's contract proposal in response to a request from mayor Larry O'Brien. Both the city and the union published their positions on respective websites. Vote results released on 9 January 2009, revealed that of those eligible to vote, 64% rejected the offer.
Meetings were held with a mediator throughout the month, but talks were repeatedly broken off. The ATU had requested to send all issues not related to scheduling to arbitration, which the city refused as it requested all issues to be sent to an arbitrator. As the strike entered the 50th day, Ambrose, who had initially refused to table back-to-work legislation, announced that such legislation would be introduced. However, on 29 January, the city and the ATU reached a deal that sent every issue to binding arbitration, thus ending the 51-day-long strike. On 2 February 2009, the O-Train Trillium Line started service after being out of service due to the strike. Buses followed the following Monday, 9 February 2009. Not all buses returned at once and OC Transpo said that all buses and routes were due to return by 6 April 2009. OC Transpo offered free transit for a week. December pass holders could either use their December passes until March or could get a refund. December pass holders were also subject to a 60% discount on March passes in order to win back transit users.
2010s: Confederation Line and bus collisions
In December 2012, Ottawa City Council approved a major infrastructure project to build a 12.5 km east–west light metro line, the Confederation Line through the downtown. Construction of the line began in 2013.
On 18 September 2013, a double-decker OC Transpo bus, running on Route 76 from Barrhaven to downtown at 8:48 a.m., collided with a Toronto-bound Via Rail passenger train at a level crossing, equipped with active warning systems, near Fallowfield Station in Ottawa's southwest end. Six people on the bus (including the driver) were killed and at least 30 others were injured, of which at least eight were critically injured. There were no injuries or fatalities to passengers or crew of the train. The cause of the accident is unknown at this time. It was announced the following year that Route 76 would be retired and changed to route 72 in recognition of those who died in the accident.
Incidentally, this route was spotted under a crossing gate at the Barrhaven Crossing Plaza on 6 November 2014; although no accident occurred, it sparked a lot of fear and questions in Barrhaven on whether these crossings are safe.
On 11 January 2019, another accident involving a double decker occurred, this time at Westboro station. The bus, operating Route 269, collided with the station's shelter shearing off part of the roof. Three people were killed (initially reported as two passengers, and one bystander from the platform. Later corrected to all three deaths were passengers) and 23 people were injured.
After several delays, the Confederation Line opened to the public on 14 September 2019. This line is also marketed as O-Train Line 1.
2020s: O-Train maintenance and COVID-19 intervention
The Confederation Line continued to suffer from reliability issues throughout the first quarter of 2020. This is in contrast to the Trillium Line, which had a lower ridership and different technology, but generally better reliability. In response to this, and due to lower ridership in 2020, OC Transpo scheduled several temporary closures of Line 1, allowing Rideau Transit Maintenance to work on the line and improve its reliability. During maintenance, the R1 bus route replaced train service.
On 16 March 2020, as a preventative measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, OC Transpo began limiting front door boarding and seating to riders with accessibility needs. All other customers were required to board at the back of the bus. As a result, cash fares were neither accepted nor enforced on buses, but a valid fare was required to begin a trip at an O-Train station. Hand sanitizer was installed on all Line 1 stations, and later installed at most Transitway stations. From 15 June 2020, to 10 June 2022, the agency required employees and riders to wear face masks while riding busses and trains, and inside all stations.
On 3 May 2020, the Trillium Line was shut down for construction and expansion. Bus replacement service is provided by Route 2 from Bayview to South Keys.
On 8 August 2021, an empty train on the Confederation Line derailed while switching tracks after leaving Tunney's Pasture after one of the ten axles derailed. There were no injuries.
On 19 September 2021, a train with passengers on the Confederation Line derailed before entering Tremblay station after two axles became dislodged from the second car. After leaving Tremblay station in a derailed state, the train increased speed to about 35 km/h, crossed a bridge over Riverside Drive, struck a signal mast and switch heater and finally came to a stop between Tremblay and Hurdman station using train-initiated emergency braking. There were no injuries.
The city of Ottawa's public transport system has historically catered to exclusively 9 to 5 public employees, a population that largely switched to remote work during COVID-19. This, combined with decades of underinvestment and thinned resources, has led to OC Transpo having a poor ridership recovery rate from before COVID; sitting at only 70% as of 2023. Council estimates that ridership will return to pre pandemic levels by 2030.
The low ridership recovery rate put OC Transpo into a difficult financial position. Despite this, city staff remain hopeful for the future of the project, with current mayor, Mark Sutcliffe, pointing out that the project would have always require funding from the federal or provincial governments anyway, and so OC Transpo budget shortfalls shouldn't affect it. City staff have proposed further funding through raising taxes, increasing fares, or lobbying higher levels of government. On 13 November 2024, OC Transpo announced an increase in fares for all passengers, with a larger increase for seniors and youth riders.
On 6 December 2024, OC Transpo announced a phased re-opening of lines 2 and 4, beginning with 5-day service that expands to 6- and then 7-day service over the following weeks. The expanded line includes six new stations along Line 2, with two additional stations connecting to Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport. Lines 2 and 4 opened as scheduled on 6 January 2025.
From Wikipedia’s article on OC Transpo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4