Speaking notes: Rick Leary's 10 point plan for OC Transpo

Delivered today at a news conference at City Hall

This morning I joined OC Transpo General Manager Rick Leary and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at City Hall for a media conference. After joining OC Transpo in late March, Leary was ready to present his priorities for the transit agency.

Here is a copy of his speaking notes, plus a media hand-out distributed today. We’ll get additional information at Transit Committee on Thursday. (I’ve added bold at the start of each section for clarity.)

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Check against delivery

Good morning, Bonjour.

Thank you, Mayor. It’s my honour to be here today in the role of General Manager of OC Transpo in our Nation’s Capital.

In my first 30-days here, I have spent time listening and speaking to customers, union leaders, employees, and members of Council.

I have received a lot of feedback, and I appreciate all of the discussions.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about my initial assessment and the 10 points that will drive change in our transit system.

Since joining the City of Ottawa, I have been using our bus and O-Train system, and I’ve visited our control centre and garages to see them in action.

I am excited by the potential to improve transit in Ottawa.

I have said it before and I mean it, the sorts of issues OC Transpo has experienced are not unique to Ottawa. Transit agencies across North America have all faced similar issues.

City Council has invested in the bus fleet, O-Train, new Para Transpo vehicles, infrastructure upgrades as well as customer improvements and technology that lay a solid foundation for good transit service.

We have all the components to turn the page and improve OC Transpo service reliability for our customers.

My job is to turn those initiatives into real improvements residents can see and feel in a strong, more reliable transit system that is worthy of our capital city.

Based on my initial 30-day assessment, I have created OC Transpo’s Customer-First Action Plan.

This plan is grounded in one core principle: improving the customer experience at every step of the transit journey.

We want to build the most customer-focused transit service in Canada.

This action plan has four key areas of focus to drive results:

• Make service reliable

• Put customers first

• Strengthen financial stability

• Build a sustainable workforce

These areas reflect the clear direction the City Manager has provided to me, further supported by the Mayor and Transit Committee Chair, who are here with me today, as well as the feedback I’ve received so far and my experience at other transit agencies.

Improvements in all of these areas translates into the transit system this City expects and deserves – reliable, predictable and sustainable.

At the Transit Committee on Thursday, I’ll go into more details about the action plan. For now, I’d like to provide an overview of how we will drive change through this plan.

First, we need to make service more reliable.

We must improve the reliability of our O-Train, bus and Para Transpo services.

As I mentioned, the direction made clear to me on my first day was to restore capacity to Line 1. We’re making progress here.

I’m pleased to be able to say that double-car trains will be back in operation by mid-June.

Line 1 will have the capacity to welcome everyone, whether they’re returning to the office more often or taking part in Canada Day celebrations or Bluesfest this summer.

I’d like to let you know that in my short time here, I have observed that the O-Train service is frequent and reliable.

We have a positive and collaborative relationship with our maintainers – Rideau Transit Group and Alstom. Today I can tell you that they will join us at Thursday’s Transit Committee to answer questions about getting back to the capacity residents expect.

The second clear direction to me was to build back bus reliability.

We know that our customers’ experience of buses arriving on-time at their stops is only about 65 to 70 per cent.

We know we can improve this. To get there, we need to have:

• buses that are reliable

• and a schedule that is attainable.

Maintaining 20-year-old buses is very, very difficult.

Our intent will be to re-focus the way we plan maintenance. Right now, our team splits their time almost equally on corrective repairs and preventative work.

This needs to change.

We should spend 80 per cent of our time on preventative maintenance and only 20 per cent on corrective work.

We have a clear path when it comes to our fleet:

• Over the course of the next year, focus on putting into service new zero emission buses and the new 60-foot buses the City has purchased,

• Prioritize our maintenance hours on vehicles that will be dependable for customers, and

• Retire the least reliable buses that require the most frequent and intensive repairs.

The good news is that I have seen service start to improve.

I am confident that we will continue to see significant improvements in the coming months.

As I mentioned earlier, the second component is adjusting our schedules to reflect real travel times. We want our customers to have schedules they can rely on.

This action also addresses what I have heard from our union leaders and frontline operators.

We have already added time to the schedules of a number of routes to account for real travel times. We’re going to continue to expedite this work until all necessary routes have been reviewed and updated.

Allocating accurate travel time will mean that schedules are predictable for customers.

Para Transpo customers are another important part of our transit service.

We have good discussions with Para Transpo customers, but we want to hear from you on how the service can continue to improve to support spontaneity, participation in the community and quality of life. As part of this plan, we’ll launch a new consultation process to hear how you would like to see Para Transpo continue to grow.

In the next area, our focus is enhancing how we put customers first.

I have said that this action plan will put customers first in every service-related decision that OC Transpo makes.

To do this, there are three action points:

• Customer safety and experience

• Communicate reliably, and

• Measure what matters to customers

These will shift operational decisions to deliver results for customers.

Part of service improvements is providing a clean, comfortable and safe experience on our vehicles and in our stations.

Our work here is already underway.

Our team is giving the entire bus, Para Transpo and O-Train system a deep clean for spring to increase customer comfort.

Our forthcoming Public Safety Strategy will outline a number of initiatives to improve comfort, safety and security on the system.

This strategy includes:

• The launch of the Special Constables’ community visibility team on bikes and foot patrols downtown

• In the coming weeks, you’ll see employees at Rideau Station as we put in new efforts to revitalize the station with repairs, signage and cleanliness

• And a more visible presence of our Special Constables and other employees across the network.

We’re also committed to ensuring our customers know the progress we’re making. Our commitment is to communicate regularly and effectively with customers to follow through on our priorities.

Finally, data will fuel our decisions. The data we use needs to reflect the daily experience of our customers, and our reporting needs to represent their real-life experience.

We’re developing new Key Performance Indicators that will help guide our discussions and decisions. By understanding what customers experience daily, we can better address their concerns.

I’m going to introduce KPIs at Transit Committee that will reflect the customer experience. For instance, we know that approximately 17 per cent of our fleet experiences issues while in service.

That means customers’ trips are impacted.

That needs to change, and we’ll report on how our efforts are making real improvements.

I’ll talk now about strengthening our financial stability.

Council has made significant investments in purchasing zero emission buses, improving the infrastructure around these buses, building a light rail system and customer improvements over the last number of years.

By uploading LRT to the Province, the City can eliminate $85 million in annual budget pressures creating capacity to reinvest in transit services, enhancing reliability, frequency and capacity while strengthening our financial position.

I look forward to working with the Mayor and our provincial colleagues to advance this very important work.

Another component to long-term financial viability and planning is building a 10-year capital investment plan for transit.

We’ll also make our federal partners aware of our long-term needs. We can deliver better transit when all levels of government are working together.

We are leaving no stone unturned to improve our bottom line.

The team is working to increase revenues from non-traditional sources, like digital advertising, and to bring OC Transpo’s program in line with other industry leaders. We are also pursuing innovative partnerships with major employers and other organizations to design fare packages that can result in additional revenue over the long term.

Finally …to do this, we need to build a sustainable workforce.

Our employees keep the entire transit system moving every day and they are our frontline ambassadors to customers. We want to ensure that they are supported, engaged and empowered so that we are the top transit employer in Canada.

Our integrated workforce strategy will accelerate recruitment of frontline positions that directly support service delivery.

These are mechanics, bus and Para Transpo operators and diesel and electric rail operators, as well as Controllers and Special Constables.

We have successfully hired nine mechanics since January, almost half of our target of 20 new mechanics this year to keep our buses running reliably.

In transit, we need to be two steps ahead of our hiring process and forecast our future needs.

I am also committed to building an engaged and informed workforce.

What you’ve heard today is the result of employee feedback, and I look forward to continuing these discussions.

I know it’s unusual to speak publicly ahead of Transit Committee, but I felt it was important to speak directly to customers.

Residents deserve to know that we have a clear plan to improve reliability, strengthen service, and rebuild confidence in OC Transpo.

I invite residents to tune into Thursday’s meeting at 9:30am to hear more about the work ahead. And I’ll be launching a series of town halls to hear directly from OC Transpo customers. I want their feedback and ideas on how we can improve service... I’m sure they have lots of things in mind.

Over the next 60 and 90 days, we will continue to peel the onion, to dig deeper to provide more details on the current state, the path forward and how we’ll achieve our goals and report back on our work.

I’m excited for OC Transpo’s future and realizing its full potential. As I said earlier, these issues are not unique to Ottawa.

OC Transpo has a solid foundation. There are good people who have the skills and passion to deliver quality service. From here we can build the transit service customers deserve and expect.

I am excited to bring my knowledge, experience, a fresh approach and direction to improving transit.

I would now like to invite Chair Gower to say a few words.

Thank you, Merci.