In light of ongoing delays along the O-Train Line 1, Ottawa City Council last Wednesday voted in favour of a motion introduced by Coun. Shawn Menard to investigate compensation options for OC Transpo riders.
The motion reads as follows: “… that staff be directed to explore scenarios to compensate transit users for the latest transit disruptions, which could include refunds, capital improvements to reliability, discounted future service or another method of compensation or combination thereof, and report back to a future meeting of the Transit Committee in May 2026.”
Although Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has expressly stated that he is against offering refunds to riders, preferring to see money directed at long-term improvements of OC Transpo service, he still voted in favour of Menard’s motion.
“I supported Councillor Menard’s motion that we need to see options for how we can look at this issue going forward,” said Sutcliffe. “If it were up to me, I wouldn’t label all of that as compensation — the focus should be on making the service better.”
Discussions at Wednesday’s meeting also explored the possibility of withholding payment to Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the transit provider of OC Transpo’s light rail since 2019.
Troy Charter, Interim General Manager of Transit Services for OC Transpo, explained the nature of such an action.
“Every day, every week, every month, RTG is subject to performance requirements in accordance with the project agreement, and if they don’t meet those project requirements, there’s potential failure points that get attributed, and then money can be deducted,” he said.
“So that’s part of the normal business and that’s part of the project agreement and that’s how we incentivize them for good performance.”
But councillors remained wary, with Coun. Ariel Troster pointing to ongoing issues with the OC Transpo app.
“One of the issues that we’re hearing about all the time is the famous ‘ghosting’ and the unreliability of the app,” she said. “I had a recent experience, I was standing on Elgin waiting for a bus. It said a bus was coming in six minutes, I waited six minutes, and then it said the next one would be in 40 minutes.”
“People are giving up,” Troster continued. “They’re frustrated, they’re angry… All I’m hearing from people is that the service is unreliable. We’re failing right now. We’re just in a really bad position, and people are losing faith in the system.”
At a media availability after the council meeting, Sutcliffe reiterated statements he’s made previously regarding service improvements.
“I understand that riders are impatient and that this is taking longer than anybody would have wanted, but I think there are steps in place that will lead to a better service being delivered to our customers in the future,” he said, referring to OC Transpo’s hiring of more mechanics, and the ongoing delivery of more electric busses, which have been ordered but have taken longer to be delivered than council had initially expected.
“Better times are on the way for OC Transpo,” said Sutcliffe. “We just have to get through this very, very challenging, difficult time — frustrating, irritating time, in the weeks ahead.”
