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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 16/09/2026

It was nice to see BTO and our bus data mentioned at the Student Mayoral Debate yesterday Transit is an election issue We need to see candidates pushing for a more reliable transit system via transit priority, accurate scheduling, and a system with the resources it needs to make these big reforms

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 20/08/2026

The new fall schedules are now released. Use our website to see what's changed. You can compare the fall schedules to the summer schedules, as well as the fall schedules to last sprint. bettertransitottawa.ca/tracker/sche...

The changes to Route 6 in the fall schedule, with a reduction of 5 trips on friday's

The changes to Route 75 in the fall schedule, with an increase of 6 trips on friday's

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Elysia♡ @ely.pub.moe · 15/08/2026

some of the processed photos i took at @strongtownsottawa.ca last night 😊 #elyisaphotos

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 14/08/2026

What a great turnout! Thank you to everyone who came out tonight.

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Elysia♡ @ely.pub.moe · 14/08/2026

Some of the unedited JPEG photos I took for @bettertransitottawa.ca 's invasion of @strongtownsottawa.ca tonight! Featuring @seandevine9.bsky.social and @jleiper.bsky.social

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yuka @dragons.tf · 14/08/2026

Yeah. They call me a "VJ" of sorts. 📲📸: @ely.pub.moe

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yuka @dragons.tf · 12/08/2026

tomorrow. one night only. we take over STO. two groups enter. one group leaves. be there. lyon station. 6pm.

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Rail Fans Canada @railfans.ca · 31/07/2026

O-Train Line 1 Fleet Update: Over the last 7 days, 53 unique trains were observed, equal to 85.5% of the full tracked fleet. Over the last 30 days, 56 unique trains were observed. 8 trains have not been seen for 15 or more days, and 9 trains returned to service this week after long absences.

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 30/07/2026

Join us at the @strongtownsottawa.ca monthly meeting on Thursday, August 13th at 6:15pm at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (near Lyon station)

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 25/07/2026

We forgot to take group pictures of the social last night, so please enjoy the only one taken. A selfie from Ajay of @bettertransitottawa.ca

Selfie of Ajay from better transit Ottawa with a thumbs up.

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 12/07/2026

We're doing our first outdoor gathering of the year at the new Street Seats location in Chinatown! We will be meeting this Wednesday, at 7pm. Everyone is welcome to join us! It's a great opportunity to get to know some local members! See you there :) Info here : luma.com/0tv3zeul?tk=...

luma.com

Outdoor Street Seats Gathering · Luma

Please note the change in date! Originally we planned for Friday the 17th, but that space is already going to be used for another event, so we've moved it to…

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 09/07/2026

Last week, OC Transpo implemented huge service cuts on weekends OC Transpo says that "A summer preventative maintenance program” is a reason But, we’ve been tracking every bus in operation by OC Transpo for the past several months, and there is no significant decrease in buses used on the weekend

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 25/06/2026

OC Transpo weekend service is about to be decimated starting this Sunday in the upcoming summer schedule. Check out our new tool at bettertransitottawa.ca to see the extent of the cuts and if a trip you rely on will be affected. (1/2)

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alex 🇨🇦🍉 @alex-is.online · 14/06/2026

A group of handsome individuals have partially fixed this bench at Pimisi which has been neglected for about 2 years

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

"Cities encourage what they accommodate. Designing streets for cars ensures more driving. More bus lanes would make transit an attractive option, improve access to the city, lower emissions and save people money on the ever-soaring costs of car ownership." ottawacitizen.com/opinion/grov...

ottawacitizen.com

Grover: Dedicated bus lanes in Ottawa would be a win for everyone

Giving half the road to idle cars is bad for business, the climate and transit.

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David Bellerive @dbellerive.ca · 14/05/2026

Hey, councillor @timtierney.ca Reminder that democratic participation doesn't rely on which ward someone comes from. They bring genuine concerns. @bettertransitottawa.ca has done something you haven't done: ask questions and identify what can be done to improve service. Not just slogans.

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 06/05/2026

The City of Ottawa released a report regarding compensation for transit users. One of the main ways they identified to make the service better in the short term was transit priority measures, one of the cheapest ones identified was continuous bus lanes! This is cheap and easy, do it now!

Illustrative option A2 – Implement additional transit priority measures

Some of the transit priority measures identified in the Transportation Master Plan – Part 2 (ACS2025-PDB-TP-0012), or measures identified through other work, could be introduced through one-time funding.

To improve travel times and reduce variability of bus service, funding could be invested in transit priority measures, such as:

Excerpt from the staff report :

Continuous bus lanes, at $20,000 to $100,000 per kilometre, if done by lane conversion. As examples, continuous bus lanes through lane conversion are currently being studied for locations on Carling Avenue.

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 11/04/2026

We spoke with Kristy on 580 CFRA about the motion brought forth by Councillor Menard, which cut bus lanes on Bank Street by 33% (2 of the 6 hours). We strongly urge you voice your concerns to his office respectfully : capitalward@ottawa.ca Here's the recording : drive.google.com/file/d/1R91m...

drive.google.com

2026-04-09-MarkoCFRAMenardMotionToCutHoursBusLanes.mp3

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 09/04/2026

Today Ajay of @bettertransitottawa.ca had a wonderful delegation at Transit Committee about the decision to cut back on the already watered down Bus Lanes on Bank Street pilot. We highly recommend watching it! www.youtube.com/live/p09lCEc...

youtube.com

Transit Committee– April 9, 2026

YouTube video by Ottawa City Council

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 09/04/2026

Yesterday a last minute walk-on motion undid years of planning from city staff, which sought feedback from thousands of residents from all across the city. This makes people lose trust in our system. If you want to help plan to fix this, join us tonight at our monthly meeting. luma.com/u9c357ol

luma.com

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Sean Devine @seandevine9.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I’m just learning of this in the last half hour and trying to get a sense of what Council just passed. I’ve also reached out to Councillor Menard for more info. But certainly, this has caught many by surprise. There was no debate or discussion on this motion. 1/

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 08/04/2026

After 30+ people showed up to the Public Works commission last week in support of expanding bus lanes on Bank Street, City Council has now passed a motion to reduce the scope of the bus lanes even further This motion was passed with absolutely no debate Passed without a single question

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 07/04/2026

Tomorrow City Council will discuss and vote on the final approval for the Bank Street bus lane pilot. We still think it is a huge mistake that the city took out their planned event day bus lanes. Every side seems to support this, here's Darrell Cox (BIA Executive Director) saying it's a great idea

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 04/04/2026

Join us for our monthly meeting this upcoming Thursday, April 9th, at 6:15 pm, 400 Sparks Street. We'll be looking back on our campaign for bus lanes on Bank Street, planning for the upcoming election, and discussing upcoming future projects for the group! RSVP : luma.com/u9c357ol?tk=...

luma.com

Monthly Meeting—April · Luma

Join us for our April monthly meeting, meet new people, learn about our priorities, and consider taking that first small step to get involved. All experience…

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It's Jamie @sjamieit.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

The Glebe BIA has taken down their 2025 RETAIL MARKET & GAP ANALYSIS report that pro-Bank-Street-Bus-Lanes delegates were using to counter the BIA's own talking points, presumably for that exact reason. Dead link: intheglebe.ca/wp-content/u... Backed up copy: filebin.net/y3xt647u5dip...

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 30/03/2026

Bank street time So many people that we are in the big room today

Sitting in council chambers while holding a better transit Ottawa business card

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 29/03/2026

Today is the final day to be able to sign up to delegate tomorrow at PWIC in favour of bus lanes on Bank Street. Please if you haven't done so and are interested take a read through our page here that explains how to take part! Every voice matters! strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/23/f...

A collage of images from Strong Towns Ottawa efforts to support 24/7 bus lanes on Bank Street

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 25/03/2026

Notice something special about last week? Last week had far fewer cancellations than other days. They even brought back the 255 trips cut from the schedule back in January. Almost no bus shortage How's this possible? This was because last week was March break, so no school routes were running.

Graph showing the cancellations and trips removed from the schedule since January over time. Last week had a major drop in missing trips

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 25/03/2026

We have sent a letter out with our 4 key asks for the upcoming Bus Lanes on Bank Street report coming to PWIC on March 30th. You can read the asks here : strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/24/o... The letter is also attached in the post. Want to delegate? strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/23/f...

The first page of a letter from Strong Towns Ottawa to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, sent on March 24th, 2026. The letter makes the argument that our transit system is in a crisis and our city needs to be bold because of that. The asks are to implement the pilot project by summer of 2026, not 2027, to extend dedicated bus lanes to weekends and events, to operate bus lanes in both directions, and to extend the hours to at minimum 6am-6pm, and ideally to 24/7.

The full letter can be found here : https://strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/24/open-letter-bus-lanes-on-bank-street.html

The second page of a letter from Strong Towns Ottawa to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, sent on March 24th, 2026. The letter makes the argument that our transit system is in a crisis and our city needs to be bold because of that. The asks are to implement the pilot project by summer of 2026, not 2027, to extend dedicated bus lanes to weekends and events, to operate bus lanes in both directions, and to extend the hours to at minimum 6am-6pm, and ideally to 24/7.

The full letter can be found here https://strongtownsottawa.ca/2026/03/24/open-letter-bus-lanes-on-bank-street.html

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 23/03/2026

It is unfortunate that even though the city staff running the study for Bank Street Bus Lanes agrees with us that bus lanes should be in effect longer, on weekends, should operate in both directions, and that they should be running on events is being stifled by a small minority of very loud voices.

Section of the city staff report for Bus Lanes on Bank Street that says "Ultimately, bus lane hours extending beyond these peak periods, and in the off-peak direction, are recommended, including during a greater number of Lansdowne events and on weekends."

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 20/03/2026

One concerning piece from the city's proposal for Bank Street bus lanes is that they seem to have removed large event bus lanes. Even though according to their own report, this is probably the most important time for bus lanes to be present. Please sign up to delegate for the March 30th meeting!

Text taken from the City of Ottawa's report for bus lanes on Bank Street with the following text : "Travel times are longest during major events, up to 18 minutes, when the high volume of buses, passenger drop-offs, staging, and increased pedestrian and vehicle activity affect both event attendees and other road users traveling through the corridor." The text "Travel times are longest during major events, up to 18 minutes" has been highlighted in yellow

Text from the City of Ottawa study on Bank Street reads : "During major events, parking demand within the study area exceeds supply, and this contributes to the large-scale adoption of transit by people travelling to major Lansdowne events." with the text : "large-scale adoption of transit by people travelling to major Lansdowne events." highlighted.

Text from the City of Ottawa study reads : "At this time, the pilot is not envisioned to affect transit or road operations during major events at Lansdowne"

The City of Ottawa's proposal during the open house in 2025 showing that they had intended for bus lanes to be in effect "in both directions during major events".

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 19/03/2026

The current plan calls for changes not to take effect for more than a year from now (Summer 2027) This is unacceptable when we are facing a severe bus shortage and bus reliability crisis. Any bus wasted sitting in traffic means a bus cancelled elsewhere in the network.

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Derrick Simpson @derricksimpson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

The Centretown Community Association has sent a letter suggesting changes and improvements to the Bank Street Transit Study. As the busiest bus corridor in Ottawa, Bank street needs to prioritize moving people over cars.

Dear Lise Guèvremont,

While we are optimistic for the Bank Street Active Transportation and Transit Priority Feasibility Study, we believe the most recent public proposal does not go far enough to prioritize public transportation and move as many people as possible.

The Centretown Community Association would like to make the following suggested changes to the Bank Street Transit Study:
Bus lanes should be bi-directional whenever in use and the city should consider expanding the duration of active bus lanes.
The number of 24/7 bus lane sections should be expanded.
There should be more frequent use of transit priority signals throughout Bank Street.
The definition of large events requiring bus lanes should be expanded to include events like 613flea and Ottawa Charge games.
Signage should be improved to direct drivers to the 2nd Avenue parking garage.

As OC Transpo faces reliability and confidence issues, we need to prioritize fast and reliable public transit. Bus lanes are a great way to reduce operating costs, speed up travel times, and increase the number of people that will ride the bus.

We would also love to see the city lean into the pilot project aspect of the Bank Street Transit Study. Once implemented, we believe the project should be reviewed within the first six months with consideration taken to increase bus lane durations and to expand bus lane locations, including into Centretown.

As the busiest bus corridor in the city, we need to be maximizing the efficiency of bus travel to ensure traffic flows smoothly and reliably. A reminder that the City’s own data collected outlined that 77% of respondents want more space for people outside of private vehicles on Bank Street.

Thank you,
Robert Dekker
CCA President

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 15/03/2026

An amazing member of ours put together this graphic that really encapsulates perfectly the situation on Bank Street. There is only so much space available, and we must use it as efficiently as possible. Parking isn't that. Please sign up to delegate on March 30th in favour of bus lanes!

An OC Transpo #6 bus in a bus lane. Inside of the bus there are multiple people, each with a text showing what they're going to be doing. They say "Grabbing a bite to eat", "Going to Lansdowne", "Getting a haircut", "Bought groceries", and "Can finally fit on the bus". The final one was a user in a wheelchair.

Beside the bus there is a single person in a truck in the regular travel lane. Pointing to him it says "Just driving through". They have a thought bubble coming out from their head saying "That bus lane is going to ruin local business!".

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 14/03/2026

With R1 running this week, we are back to January levels of undelivered service when you include the service cuts See our new dashboard to see if things are actually improving or not: bettertransitottawa.ca/tracker/hist...

Cancellations and trips removed from the schedule over time since January 7th

Cancellations and trips removed from the schedule over time since January 7th

On 2026-01-15, 584 trips were undelivered

On 2026-03-13, 589 trips were delivered

Which bus types are running in service each day since January 7th.

On 2026-01-07, 473 buses were in service

On 2026-03-13, 508 buses were in service

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 13/03/2026

Last month, we presented data on the true severity of our bus cancellation crisis to Transit Committee The only way we're getting out of this is using our limited buses as efficiently as possible with - Emergency bus lanes on key corridors - Hiring and retaining the mechanics to fix our aging fleet

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 13/03/2026

The city staff seem to have confirmed that the Bank Street study will be coming to PWIC on the 30th of March. We strongly urge anyone who is interested in pushing for a better solution to Bank Street to sign up to delegate! If you need help with signing up to delegate, we're more than happy to help!

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Transit Ottawa @transitottawa.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

With oil prices rising, it's such a good thing City Council funded so many initiatives out of fuel price savings rather than general revenues. What could go wrong with that plan?

A City Council motion that says: WHEREAS staff are recommending a downward revision to the Draft 2026 Operating and Capital diesel budget price from $1.16/L to $1.10/L;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

That fares for riders ages 18 and under shall be free on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, effective July 1, 2026;
That staff be directed to explore the technical feasibility to implement free fares after 5:00pm to riders ages 18 and under, effective July 1, 2026;
That the user fee table be amended to provide that seniors aged 65+ using Para Transpo be provided a credit each month of four standard urban fares (in 2026, $3.28), for up to four urban trips at no charge or for trips to or from the rural area at a reduced cost (in 2026, $7.72). The credits would expire at the end of each month and would not carry over into subsequent months;
Transfer time for weekdays between 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. shall be extended to 105 minutes. This measure would be temporary until the launch of LRT Stage 2 West to Algonquin Station and Moodie Station, expected in 2027; and

A chart that shows WTI crude prices rising by 50% since the beginning of the month

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 24/02/2026

Reminder we have our monthly social get together coming up this Friday at Braumeister! Come chat about Ottawa related urbanism, or whatever sparks your interest, with local members! No need to RSVP, but info can be found at the link below! luma.com/kyq3f7ic?tk=...

luma.com

Social Gathering—February · Luma

Join us for our monthly social gathering, have some food/drinks, and have a good time!

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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 18/02/2026

We are very frustrated that this is continually being delayed over and over again. People who want to sign up to delegate have to set aside time to be able to do so, constantly pushing things back makes things harder for the people trying to make their communities better.

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Jeff Leiper @jleiper.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I was very pleased to host @railfans.ca and @bettertransitottawa.ca online for a webinar on transit tracking data. Watch that here.

youtube.com

Transit data webinar HD 720p

YouTube video by Kitchissippi Ward

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 27/01/2026

Our cancellation tracker now can filter for peak periods. This is when most people experience the system, and when most cancellations occur This morning: On the 15: 63% of trips cancelled On the 5: 56% of trips cancelled On the 41: 48% of trips cancelled bettertransitottawa.ca/tracker/canc...

Cancellation statistics during morning peak of Monday January 26th 2026

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Jeff Leiper @jleiper.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Join @railfans.ca, @bettertransitottawa.ca and Jeff for a webinar exploring citizen-led data tools that provide insight into public transit in Ottawa on February 2 at 7 pm. Use the QR code in the flyer below to register or kitchissippiward.ca.

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 23/01/2026

We now have a bus cancellation tracker available at bettertransitottawa.ca/tracker/canc... This dashboard lets you view the cancellations on each route for each day and see the gaps in service that get created by each cancellation. You can also see the percentage of cancelled trips per route.

A block diagram for block 88-11 and 901-704. A “block” generally is the path one bus will take throughout the day. This diagram shows how a bus was pulled from one block to another block to complete a higher priority school run. This resulted in all other trips being cancelled.

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 22/01/2026

Having sufficient buses to respond to problems with our train is essential. Instead, because of a newly discovered issue with our trains, we are stuck dealing with both a bus shortage and a train shortage at the same time with no ability to roll out supplemental buses.

E1 supplemental service can't be run during a bus shortage

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Jeff Leiper @jleiper.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

At pop-up hours today, Ajay Ramachandran showed me the data visualizations he's been working on using GTFS data on bus delivery. Bus by bus, scheduling block by scheduling block, Better Transit Ottawa has built an incredible tool to dig deep into trip delivery and reliability. bettertransitottawa.ca

bettertransitottawa.ca

Better Transit Ottawa

Let's make public transit in Ottawa better

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 20/01/2026

We need emergency bus lane and transit priority measures enacted on key corridors to ensure our working buses are used as efficiently as possible. We can't have our limited bus fleet standing still in traffic.

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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 16/01/2026

300 high capacity buses like this one are reaching 16 years of age this year, which is past the expected lifetime of a bus. Another 40 buses will be turning 18. We can't expect to replace them with just 50 new high capacity buses, and we can't expect shorter electric buses to replace them 1 for 1

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