Rob Attrell remembers when taking the bus from Orléans felt like an efficient and doable way to get around the city.
“I used to ride it fairly often, basically up until 2020 and the pandemic and work-from-home orders,” said Attrell. These days, he doesn’t.
“I don’t really rely much on transit just because in Orléans… we went through the transition of New Ways to Bus last year in 2024. And it was mostly a minus from the Orléans perspective,” he said.
Attrell is far from alone.
In December 2025, OC Transpo reported 5.5 million trips taken on buses and light rail — a drop from the 6.8 million trips recorded in November. While overall ridership has slowly climbed in recent years, it remains well below the pre-pandemic targets the city once set.
Orléans East–Cumberland Coun. Matthew Luloff said frustration with transit service is one of the most common complaints he hears from residents.
“I think that OC Transpo has reached its absolute low point in quality of service,” Luloff told the Ottawa Lookout. “The big consternation that we have right now is that we have a system that is failing its riders every day.”
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