less frequent daytime service on line 1 likely here to stay: oc transpo
in a cost-cutting measure introduced late last summer, oc transpo halved service on line 1 outside of the morning and afternoon rush hours.
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a westbound lrt heads toward bayview station on the confederation line.
blair crawford
/
postmedia
less frequent train service during off-peak hours on the confederation line appears to be here to stay.
in a cost-cutting measure introduced late last summer, oc transpo halved service on line 1 outside the morning and afternoon rush hours, reducing frequency to every 10 minutes instead of every five minutes. the move saves oc transpo $1.6 million a year, but was unpopular with customers.
in response, council ordered oc transpo to study its passenger loads to make sure the cut was justified. in a memo to the mayor and members of council on monday, transit general manager renée amilcar said that, though ridership was down slightly, fewer trains had not led to overcrowding.
“based on the data shared in this memo, sufficient capacity is currently being provided on o-train line 1 during off-peak periods to meet demand,” amilcar wrote in her feb. 10 report.
the service reduction went into effect on aug. 26 and reduced capacity from 7,200 passengers per hour to 3,600 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays. rush-hour service stayed the same with a train every five minutes.
the analysis found trains were at 58 per cent capacity during peak periods and 67 per cent capacity in off-peak periods. in addition, staff monitored station platforms by cctv to see how crowded they were. they found in only one instance of their 140 observations were the platforms deemed to be crowded, and that was when a stopped train had partially disrupted service.
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while ridership did dip slightly below expected in the months after the reduction, it didn’t affect revenue because most riders buy pre-paid fares, amilcar said.
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