OC Transpo Route 95 - History

History

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton approved the construction of a new transit corridor called the Transitway. The purpose of this busway was to increase the speed of city-bound services from east and west. The first sections were built in 1983: in the southwest between Lincoln Fields and Baseline, and in the east between Lees and Hurdman. Gradually, those two sections were extended through the addition of a central Transitway in the Westboro and Mechanicsville areas, as well as in the downtown core along Albert and Slater streets, with the addition of designated bus lanes. There was also an eastern extension towards the St. Laurent and Cyrville areas, built during the late 1980s.

Route 95 became very important when the Transitway route was further developed. Priority measures were introduced on Woodroffe Avenue and on Regional Route 174 towards Orleans. The route rapidly became the city's busiest, requiring a very frequent service on weekdays and weekends. In the early 1990s, it ran from Baseline Station towards St. Laurent and then to Blair. As the suburbs grew in the 1990s and early 2000s, its coverage extended towards Barrhaven in the southwest and Orléans in the east. The Barrhaven extension was made after the construction of Fallowfield Station at the corner of Woodroffe and Fallowfield road in 2000, while the expansion to Orléans was possible subsequent to the opening of Place d'Orléans Station. Prior to the expansion of Route 95 toward the suburbs, the local service in Barrhaven served Baseline and/or Bayshore Stations, while the local Orléans service ended at Blair Station. The route will further change in future years with the continuation of major developments in those two suburbs.