Ottawa Public Transit History

1866: The charter is signed to form the first transit company in Ottawa,the Ottawa City Passenger Railway Company (OCPRy).

1870: The OCPRy begins operation with 36 horses, six horse-drawn cars and five bobsleds.

1891: Electric trolleys make their debut. The Ottawa Electric Street Railway Company is incorporated, carrying 1.5 million    passengers in its first year of operation.

1924:  The OER experiments with buses for the first time.

1948:  The City of Ottawa buys the OER for $6.3 million and forms the Ottawa Transportation Commission.

1959: On May 1, the last streetcars made its last run. They were replaced by buses.

1972: OTC (Ottawa Transportation Commission) becomes Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission (OC Transpo), extending service into neighbouring communities (like Nepean, Kanata, Gloucester, Vanier, and Orleans). Buses receives a red and white paint scheme a year later.

1976: Monthly Bus Passes were introduced, so was exact fare system.

1978: The Transitway proposal has been approved.

1982: OC Transpo receives the first articulated bus added to their fleet, manufactured by GM.

1983: First sections of the Transitway (exclusive busway) open between Algonquin College and Carling Avenue in the west, and across the Rideau River in the east. Stations open at Baseline, Iris, Queensway, Lincoln Fields, LeBreton, Lees and Hurdman.

1998: First lowfloor bus purchased (Nova LFS).

1999:

2000:

2001:

2002: Rural Transit Service was launched on September. Going to these communities: Cumberland, Navan, Notre-Dame-Des-Champs, Vars, Carlsbad Springs, Manotick, Osgoode, North Gower, Kars, Richmond, Munster Hamlet, and Stittsville. These were the routes that were introduced:

2003:

Sources from http://www.octranspo.com