Faced with long booking times and delays for service, a local woman hopes to see improvements to the city’s Orillia Wheelchair Limousine Service (OWLS) transit system.
As part of the OWLS service, the city operates an accessible, seven-passenger bus for residents unable to utilize city transit or taxi services; it's a service resident Cathe Epp regularly uses to get to medical appointments.
While the bus generally shows up on time to drop her off at her appointments, Epp said she has faced delays, once as long as two hours, for return trips.
“If I'm two hours late being picked up, the person that had that appointment booked for the next time slot would be late for their appointment. It just doesn't work,” Epp told OrilliaMatters.
Epp also expressed frustration with the need to book weeks in advance to access the service – which can make it difficult to line up OWLS rides with her appointments.
“You can't just phone the day of your appointment and say, ‘I have an appointment. Can I get a bus?’” she said. “You have to book at least six weeks in advance, and that's only assuming that you can get the time slot that your appointment is.”
City staff told OrilliaMatters residents can book trips up to 30 days in advance.
Troubles with booking in advance, Epp said, have sometimes resulted in her needing to show up to appointments well before they’re scheduled, as well.
As the service transports around 20 people per day through the week, and around 13 people over the weekend, Epp can face issues booking the right ride time for her appointments.
“If my appointment’s for 11, they’ll say, ‘Well, I've got something for 10.’ What am I going to do for an hour?” she said.
As a result of these issues, Epp hopes to see the city improve the OWLS service by putting another vehicle or two on the road, though she mentioned the drivers “do their best” under the current system.
She said medical trips are prioritized through OWLS ahead of trips for shopping or groceries, and suggested utilizing one bus for medical appointments and another for shopping trips, or utilizing one bus for picking residents up and another for dropping them off.
Epp also wondered whether shopping trips and medical trips could be booked for different residents in the same timeframe.
“I have been taking this bus now for a little over a year, maybe a year and a half, and I think there's only been three times that I have actually seen more than one person on the bus with me,” she said.
“There’s seating for four (plus three wheelchair spaces). If you're somebody that needs the service to go shopping, you have to wait until after five after the doctor's offices are closed, and then you might be able to get booked in to take you shopping," she explained.
Regarding issues with pick-up times, city staff told OrilliaMatters residents can pre-book a pick-up time, or call the service back if they are unsure how long their appointments will be.
“In this case, once the OWLS member has called, they will be prioritized for pick-up as soon as the vehicle is available,” said Shawn Crawford, the city's director of legislative, building, parking, and transit services. “If there are other scheduled rides during that callback, priority is given to the scheduled rides and the callback is completed as soon as possible.”
Crawford said OWLS is operated based on demand. He said the city and its contractor, TOK Transit, “do their best to schedule to maximize capacity” throughout the week, and that the service “endeavours to accommodate as many requests as possible.”
In terms of improvements to service, Crawford said a new OWLS bus is expected to arrive in early 2025, but he sasid there are no plans to adjust service or put another bus on the road at this time.
“Operation of the OWLS service remains status quo as there has been no direction to adjust the service at this time,” he said. “It should be noted that all City of Orillia full-sized buses service stops every 30 minutes and are fully accessible, have wheelchair ramps, lower to curb height and offer accessible seating, wheelchair hook up, handrails as well as audible and visual stop announcements.”
However, should any ideas be forwarded through council, they could be considered through the 2026 budget, he said.
“There are no reports prepared for 2025 budget deliberations regarding the OWLS service,” he said. “Should staff be directed to investigate other operating options for the OWLS service, options would be presented to council for the 2026 budget process or as directed.”
