Ottawa commuters have long griped about buses that show up late, or don't show up at all, and the latest OC Transpo numbers help explain why, even as the picture slowly improves.
The trend is up, but off target
In August 2026, OC Transpo missed about 3% of scheduled bus trips, down from 5.2% in August 2025.
On-time performance has also nudged upward. Just over 76% of OC Transpo buses arrived on time in August 2026, up slightly from just under 73% a year earlier. But that's still well short of the transit agency's own target of 85% on-time arrival, defined as a bus leaving a stop no more than five minutes late or one minute early.
River ward Coun. Riley Brockington called the improved reliability numbers worth celebrating, saying, "This is a good metric to celebrate, and we're certainly heading in the right direction."
Why buses go missing
When a scheduled trip doesn't happen, OC Transpo points to a familiar list of causes: mechanical issues, traffic delays, and operator availability, including federally mandated driver breaks. None of those are unique to Ottawa, but they add up when the system is also short on cash.
The money problem behind the buses
Ridership is the bigger story here. OC Transpo's ridership in the first half of 2026 sat at just 67% of pre-pandemic levels, well below the 82% the year's budget had assumed. That gap shows up directly in the agency's finances: fare revenue for the first quarter of 2026 came in $9.8 million below budget, helping drive a deficit of almost $7.2 million in just those three months. That follows a $52 million deficit for all of 2025, a year that also saw missed reliability targets, a maintenance backlog with an aging diesel fleet, and delays getting new electric buses on the road. Rising global diesel prices, tied in part to geopolitical disruptions from the war in Iran, have added further pressure to operating costs.
Ottawa isn't alone in this squeeze. Back in 2023, fares covered only 23% of OC Transpo's operating costs, compared with 43% for Toronto's TTC, a gap that leaves Ottawa's system more exposed when ridership dips. Other Canadian transit agencies are facing the same math: Calgary Transit projected a $33 million shortfall for 2025, and Vancouver's TransLink is planning to halve bus service and cut local train service by a third by 2026 because of its own funding shortfall.
What it means for riders
For Ottawa riders, the numbers suggest the worst of this year's reliability problems, the January spike in missed trips especially, are behind us. But with fare revenue still lagging budget and a fleet in need of investment, the pressure that produces late or missing buses hasn't gone away. The reliability gains so far seem to be coming from operational fixes rather than new money, which means how long they hold may depend on decisions still ahead for the transit budget.
Sources: Yahoo News Canada, Yahoo News Canada, The Energy Mix
