Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission routes 800-899
Early morning service routes were routes that provided convenient connections to transit stations as well as OC Transpo Garages. These routes would run from 4:00 AM to 6:00 AM, Monday to Friday, with some routes providing Saturday service between 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM. These routes are not shown on the bus stop flag, but rather by a sun indicating the presence of early morning service at the stop.
All routes except route 891 were cancelled on September 5th, 2010, and were replaced by other routes that already provide early morning service. Route 891 was cancelled on December 19th, 2010, concluding a specific type of transit service that has existed since the 1980's.
Early morning routes overtime were severely reduced and replaced by existing regular routes. The biggest change was in June 28th, 1992, where nearly 80% of early morning routes were either combined, replaced by regular routes, or outright cancelled. In June 1992, 7 new early morning routes were created to consolidate the majority of early morning Routes. These routes were Route 825, 829, 835, 837, 844, 846 and 873. Of those, 2 were grandfathered by keeping everything the same or adjusting the routing slightly. These routes were Routes 824 and 891. As a result, OC Transpo had only 9 Early morning routes left, 2 of which survived the early morning service reductions and mergers.
Cat and Mouse with OC Transpo Early Morning Routes
OC Transpo would then go to add more early morning routes, and take some away in a constant switch between early morning routes and local routes that provide early morning service. In 1995, OC Transpo killed Route 844 in favour of existing local service provided by Route 144. That same service change, they added Route 817, and then proceeded to cancel it the following year. In 1996, they added Route 874, which replaced Route 174 early morning trips. In 1999 they cancelled Route 846 in favour of existing local service provided by Route 146. In September 2000, they brought a new early morning route, Route 830, to replace Route 120 service, while just 3 months later, OC Transpo would then go to cancel Route 873 in favour of Routes 85 and 173, which then in April 2001, they brought back Route 873... By 2001, OC Transpo finally decided on what early morning routes would be kept. However, with changes in government and subsequent lack of funding, the early morning routes would then start to be put on their death beds, with cuts in 2004, which stripped many 800 series routes of their routing and or hours of operation (835, 837, 873 *replacing 874*) or lead to an outright cancellation (829, 874, 891). These cuts was what ultimately lead to the final death blows in September 2010 to any remaining 800 series routes, with stubborn Route 891, which was the original early morning route to have survived in it's original form since inception, was finally retired and replaced by regular service in December 2010, 3 months later than its other 800 series counterparts.
Inactive past routes
Billings Bridge to St. Laurent | |
Downtown to Colonnade | |
Downtown to Alta Vista | |
Billings Bridge to St. Laurent | |
Downtown to St. Laurent | |
Downtown to St. Laurent | |
Downtown to Billings Bridge | |
Downtown to Britannia | |
Billings Bridge to St. Laurent | |
St. Laurent to Britannia | |
St. Laurent to Britannia | |
St. Laurent | |
Hurdman | |
Gloucester North to Local East | |
Downtown to St. Laurent | |
Orleans | |
Orleans | |
Orleans | |
Downtown to Britannia | |
Riverside to St. Laurent | |
Downtown to Britannia | |
Britannia to Billings Bridge | |
Nepean Centre | |
Baseline | |
Britannia to St. Laurent | |
Britannia to Nepean Centre | |
Lincoln Fields to St. Laurent | |
Baseline to Lincoln Fields via Transitway |