Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) is the transit service of the

Outaouais Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western Quebec, Canada. It includes the city of Gatineau, the municipality of Val-des-Monts and the Papineau region. Geographically, it is located on the north side of the Ottawa ...

region of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It operates conventional services and the

Rapibus The Rapibus is a bus rapid transit system for the Société de Transport de l'Outaouais ( STO) in the city of Gatineau, Quebec. Construction was completed in the summer of 2013 with service beginning in the fall. The Rapibus aims to speed up ...

, a

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

service, in

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

, Quebec, including the districts of Hull,

Aylmer Aylmer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Edward Aylmer, Welsh MP * Edward Aylmer (cricketer), first-class cricketer and Royal Navy officer * Felix Aylmer, English stage actor * Sir Fenton Aylmer, 13th Baronet, British Arm ...

, Gatineau,

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

and

Masson-Angers Masson-Angers is a former municipality and now a sector within the city of Gatineau. It is located on the north shore of the Ottawa River, in Quebec, Canada, approximately northeast of downtown Ottawa, Ontario. According to the Canada 2011 Ce ...

. STO provided limited service to

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and Cantley until June 2015 whe
Transcollines
began operations in the Collines de l'Outaouais MRC. STO is located on the Quebec-side of Canada's

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

, and operates several bus routes through

Downtown Ottawa Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the ea ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

History

Prior to 1971, public transportation in Gatineau was operated by private sector companies. In 1971, these companies had a total of 42 buses and 2.5 million clients.About the STO – Looking Back
/ref> This same year, the Commission de transport de la communauté régionale de l'Outaouais (CTCRO) was created to improve regional transportation services that would otherwise exceed the means of the constituent cities. In 1972, for $6.25 million, CTCRO purchased 8 private transit companies in the region: Transport urbain de Hull, Transport Hull métropolitain, Transport d'écoliers du nord de l'Outaouais. A year later, the CTCRO created an agreement with

OC Transpo OC Transpo, officially the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, is the public transit agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It operates an integrated hub-and-spoke system including light metro, bus rapid transit, conventional ...

to make transfers between the two services easier. It purchased only air-conditioned buses from its first one, 1990. In 1991, it changed its name to ''Société de transport de l'Outaouais'' (STO) In 1998, the STO was named the "Canadian public transit operator of the year" by the

Canadian Urban Transit Association The Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) is a national association for urban mobility and both the public and private transit industries in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories exten ...

(CUTA). From 1999 to 2001, to satisfy growing demand, the STO purchased additional second-hand buses from the

Société de transport de Montréal The Société de transport de Montréal (STM; en, Montreal Transit Corporation) is a public transport agency that operates transit bus and rapid transit services in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Established in 1861 as the "Montreal City Passenger Ra ...

Société de transport de Laval Société de transport de Laval (STL) is the public transit system in the city of Laval, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in June 1971 as the ''Commission de transport de la Ville de Laval (CTL)''. STL came about in 1984. It serves the growing subu ...

Société de transport de Sherbrooke Société de transport de Sherbrooke (STS) provides public transit services to Sherbrooke, the only major city in the Eastern Townships (Estrie) region of Quebec, Canada. After the amalgamation of what are now neighbouring boroughs into a regiona ...

and

. They all have since been retired. The STO introduced its first fleet of

low-floor bus A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with a partial low floor may also be referred to as a low- ...

es from

NovaBus Nova Bus (stylized as NOVABUS) is a Canadian bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group. The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was est ...

in 2002, and it has only such buses since then. The following year, the STO announced plans to build a bus-only roadway called the

. The project was initially expected to be completed by 2009, but it was finally opened in 2013. In 2005, the STO announced a strategic plan for 2002-2015 in which it projected a ridership of 96 million by 2019 up from 2.4 million in 1992. Ridership from 1995 to 2006 had grown about 50%. In addition to the Rapibus, the STO planned to increase the number of

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

facilities across the city as well as introduce bike racks, expand or add garages, and expand the fleet.About the STO – STO's 2005–2015 Strategic Plan
/ref> In 2012, it introduced its fleet of Novabus LFS

articulated buses An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usua ...

and the following year, it unveiled their new visual identity – ''L'avenir en commun'' (in English: ''the future together'') as well as a new logo. In 2013, STO launched a new bus rapid transit (BRT) system called

, which includes a dedicated 12-kilometre corridor that runs from Labrosse Boulevard to Alexandre-Taché Boulevard. In 2015, the STO buys 10 Classics from

Calgary Transit Calgary Transit is the public transit agency which is owned and operated by the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 2019, an estimated 106.5 million passengers boarded approximately 1,155 Calgary Transit vehicles. It operates light metro (LRT), u ...

, the last buses to be purchased second-hand from another company. In February 2020, the last Classic bus (#9225 an ex-Calgary Transit unit) retired, marking an end to the iconic bus model of the STO which span for more than four decades. Starting June 2021, STO buses were re-routed from Wellington and Rideau Street in Ottawa to Albert and Slater Streets.

Operations

According to its 2014 annual report, STO employed a total of 780 employees, of which 479 were drivers. It also has a total of 345 buses, 70 routes and 284 shelters. Its ridership in 2014 was approx. 19.8 million, a slight decrease from previous years. Similar to other cities, it also paratransit service (about 60 vehicles of various sizes) as well as Park-n-Ride service (23 locations as of 2014).

Fleet

Since 2002, Novabus LFS's have been purchased annually to replace older vehicles and to expand the fleet over time. All generations have been purchased except the first generation as

(its sister company) have found its first generation Novabus LFS's to be unreliable.

Accessibility

The STO planned to convert half of its total bus fleet into

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

, LFS model

by 2012,. Unfortunately, the more recent models had a decreased seating capacity (room for 87 rather than 40). Another issue that was discovered with this model were the unreliable telescopic ramps that prevented wheelchair access to the bus. As of 1988, the fleet had wheelchair accessible buses. These were of the 1995 first-generation LFS's, which have the more reusable flick-out rooms. Aside from these planes, wheelchair users rely on the

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

service.

Technology

A number of significant technology improvements and studies have been made over the past few decades by the STO. In 1998, The company introduced a

smart-card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...

fare system, making it the first company not only in the Americas but the entire

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...

to have a smart-card system. Paper card bus passes were gradually phased out until its official end in 2004 when smart cards became the exclusive bus pass.About the STO -Kudos
/ref> In 2006–07, fishbowl buses had their rollsigns replaced with LED signs. In 2002 and again in 2007, the STO tested new hybrid buses for feasibility. During the summer of 2008, the STO has started a test trial of a prototype New Flyer articulated bus on several of its routes. The bus has 58 seats and a total capacity of 115 passengers. In 2014, STO added wi-fi to several of its lines, including all buses and stations associated with rapibus. In 2015, STO announced plans to introduce the bus planning App called Plani-Bus

Future Growth

After the opening of OC Transpo's Line 1 Confederation. The Slater and Albert Streets became vacant of OC Transpo buses as the Transitway has been replaced by the LRT, allowing the STO to move buses off Wellington and Rideau Streets onto Albert and Slater on a future date. STO is deciding on future transit needs will be mixed rapid transit (

and light rail) or light rail only. The plan is unclear how STO rail line will connect with OCTranspo's light

O-Train The O-Train is a light metro transit system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by OC Transpo. The O-Train system has two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line (Line 1) and the diesel-operated Trillium Line (Line 2). Since May 20 ...

rail line.

References

External links

Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) Home Page

STO network map

{{DEFAULTSORT:Societe de transport de l'Outaouais

Transport in Gatineau Bus transport in Ottawa

Transport in Outaouais Canadian companies established in 1971 1971 establishments in Quebec