OC Transpo focusing on ‘quick wins’ maintenance to keep buses on the road through the winter

An OC Transpo bus pulls up to a transit stop in the winter. (CTV News Ottawa)

OC Transpo warns the winter weather has “significantly challenged” the bus availability for operations, with 150 defects reported per day on its aging bus fleet due to the winter weather.

The transit service has been struggling to keep its aging fleet on the roads due to maintenance backlogs and delays with the arrival of new electric buses.

The Transit Committee was told Monday that maintenance work has been focusing on “quick wins” over the winter to keep buses on the road.

“We have a backlog of major repair work that has continued to grow and we have struggled with some limited resources, which is compounded by a number of factors like dealing with approximately 150 defects per day during the winter,” Transportation Manager Troy Charter said, adding staffing levels have been impacted by seasonal illness.

Charter warned there is a backlog in larger, time-consuming repair work on OC Transpo’s aging bus fleet.

“We’d like to assure everyone that we are not changing the safety and reliability standard to put buses in service, but the hours of labour required per bus to meet the standard continues to be a challenge for our operations,” Charter said.

OC Transpo was forced to retire five buses over the winter due to maintenance issues, and “more of these buses” will need to be decommissioned in the spring due to issues.

“Which will ultimately pull from our pool of buses while we wait for the E-Bus delivery,” Charter said.

Charter told councillors that maintenance is now focusing on “quick wins” to keep buses on the road without disrupting service.

“To ensure the maximum bus availability with limited resources, we’ve had to allocate the majority of our resources to prioritizing the shortest work orders to put the highest number of buses in service each day,” Charter said. “Prioritizing short-term bus availability is effective during short-term periods of strain. However, it pulls resources away from the longer-term repair work.”

Charter added it also “increases the strain” on its younger buses to meet service.

Heading into the spring, OC Transpo will be focusing on addressing long-term structural repairs and addressing the backlog of major work on buses.

OC Transpo has a target of 99.5 per cent bus service delivery.

The Transit Committee was told in February that OC Transpo is looking to buy 40 new diesel buses, while also hunting for used 60-foot used buses in Canada and around the world.

OC Transpo is using the Metrolinx Joint Procurement Initiative and working with New Flyer Industries to buy 40 or more 60-foot diesel articulated buses. The buses will be delivered at the end of 2026 or the start of 2027.

OC Transpo had planned to buy 450 electric buses, at a cost of $1 billion. Seventy-four buses were scheduled to arrive last year, but only four e-buses have arrived in Ottawa and 47 buses will not be arriving until the start of 2026.

Four to six new electric buses are scheduled to arrive by the end of the month.

Ottawa’s target is to have 350 zero-emission buses on the roads by 2027.

Lessons learned from February storms

OC Transpo and its rail partners are amending the winter maintenance plan and implementing additional switch protections after heavy snow disrupted service on O-Train Line 1, Line 2 and Line 4 in mid-February.

Nearly 70 centimetres of snow blanketed Ottawa during two storms between Feb. 12 and 16, causing issues with the light-rail transit line and slowdowns on the roads. OC Transpo implemented its severe storm schedule during the two storms, reducing the number of articulated buses on the roads.

• Snowstorms led to more than 2,000 OC Transpo bus trip cancellations

Staff told the Transit Committee Monday that the back-to-back storms caused snow accumulation on the tracks and blowing and drifting snow around the rail infrastructure, particularly on O-Train Line 1 between Lees and Hurdman stations.

“(Rideau Transit Maintenance) snow clearing teams were out in full force overnight at the commencement of the storm. However, with the rapid snow accumulation coupled with the strong winds and the blowing snow, the tracks over the Hurdman Bridge could not be sufficiently cleared for rail operations to start in that section of track on Thursday, Feb. 13,” Charter told councillors.

“Snow and blowing snow, as well as the second storm, continued to pose some challenges, especially with the switches and the switch heaters in the west end.”

Service continued with minor delays and single tracking between Tremblay and uOttawa stations throughout the two weather events, according to staff.

OC Transpo says Line 2 and Line 4 service operated with minor delays and “reliance on parallel bus service for short disruptions,” according to staff.

Charter said there were impacts to service during the two storms, “primarily related to the vehicle sanders” and engine faults, along with issues with the switches.

The Transit Committee was told OC Transpo has identified several initial actions to take as part of the operational debrief.

For operations on Line 1, Rideau Transit Maintenance is amending their winter maintenance plan, reviewing resources, equipment and staffing during storms and investigating additional switch protections from the snow.

For Lines 2 and 4, OC Transpo and TransitNext (T-Next) are implementing additional permanent and temporary switch protection/covers. Staff are implementing additional maintenance procedures in yard operations.

“They’re looking at installing snow fences to help mitigate future snow accumulation,” Charter said. “T-Next has already implemented a solution to address some of the challenges with the switches, which have already improved the switch heat function and reliability.

Councillors on the Transit Committee were told that the implementation of the severe storm schedule “saw positive impacts on our bus service.”

“With a reduction in our articulated bus fleet in service, we observed a significant reduction in the number of immobilized buses when compared to similar events in prior years,” Charter said.

OC Transpo is reviewing its severe storm plan to further limit the use of articulated buses during storms and extend its severe storm plan to multiple days to assist post-recovery operations.