Staff Report #2
January 26, 2026
To All Commissioners
Re: Voice of the Customer – 2025 Survey
Recommendation
That the report be RECEIVED for information.
Background
One of the guiding principles set out in the Commission’s Business Plan is to be customer-focused – striving every day to improve the customer experience. A fundamental step in moving toward being more customer-focused is to ensure that every decision made is viewed not only from a business perspective, but also from the customer’s perspective. The Voice of the Customer survey was introduced in 2016 for the conventional service and repeated annually. In 2018, the Voice of the Customer survey was expanded to include the specialized service. The annual Voice of the Customer survey process was placed on hold in 2019 to provide administration with the opportunity to assess the most appropriate timing for the surveys, which were set to resume in 2020. Unfortunately, the onset of the global pandemic resulted in the surveys being deferred until 2023.
One of the key benefits of the Voice of the Customer survey is that it allows an organization to not only hear about the levels of satisfaction customers have with the services they provide, it also provides insight into what the key priorities are for their services from the customer perspective. This information can be utilized to target resources and/or initiatives to the areas that are of highest priority to customers, which in turn should result in improved satisfaction levels. The survey results from 2025 provide supporting data for this assertion, from two different perspectives.
On the conventional service, customers have consistently rated on-time performance as the highest priority when considering overall satisfaction with the service. Unfortunately, the nature and extent of construction projects across the City, coupled with ongoing bus availability challenges and limited annual service hour growth, have resulted in a limited ability for Administration to make any adjustments that would improve overall system wide on-time performance. As the report details later, the levels of satisfaction with respect to on-time performance have remained consistent in the 40% range over the three year period (applying consideration to the survey margin of error of +-3.7%).
Alternatively, on the specialized service, customers have consistently rated trip availability as priority over the three year period. Significant increases in service hours over the same period (27% increase in service hours), have provided for the opportunity to add additional vehicles to the service day, resulting in greater access to trips for all customers. As a result, satisfaction levels have increased to 81% in 2025 (from 64% in 2023).
The remainder of this report provides an overview of both the Conventional and Specialized Voice of the Customer survey results, held in 2024, with 2023 results for comparison purposes where applicable. Greater analysis of the Voice of the Customer results will be incorporated into the annual Customer Service reports for each of the conventional and specialized services, which also include considerations of other feedback and KPI’s gathered throughout 2025. These reports will be included on a Commission agenda in the first quarter of 2026.
Conventional Transit 2025 Survey
A total of 693 surveys were undertaken with transit customers on board London Transit buses over the period of November 19 through November 23, covering all routes in the system which provides results that are accurate at a 95% confidence with a margin of error of +-3.7%. The surveys were conducted during all service periods throughout the day on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays and in quantities proportional to each route’s ridership by day of week and time period.
Customer Characteristics
The demographic data gathered through the surveys indicates the following with respect to London Transit customers:
- approximately 89% indicate they are dependent on public transit as their mode of transportation
- approximately 77% utilize the service at least three days per week
- approximately 55% are between the ages of 18 and 29 and an additional 18% are between the ages of 30 and 39
- to/from work, education and shopping/errands are the primary reasons for travel amongst riders
Overall Perception
This section of the survey attempts to gauge the overall level of satisfaction with the conventional service. When comparing results year over year, it is important to consider the margin of error (+-3.7%). Percentage shifts within this margin indicate that results are, for the most part consistent.
Overall Level of Satisfaction
| Statement | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Level of Satisfaction (satisfied to very satisfied) | 72% | 71% | 68% |
Level of Service Perceptions
| Statement | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Level of service in the past year has: | |||
| Gotten worse | 11% | 16% | 13% |
| Stayed the same | 71% | 63% | 64% |
| Gotten better | 19% | 21% | 24% |
Giving consideration to the margin of error, the overall level of satisfaction with the conventional service has remained consistent over the three year period. The second chart provides valuable insight into the perspectives of customers, noting there continue to be customers who believe the service has gotten worse and those who believe it has gotten better. While these numbers have remained consistent if the margin of error is applied, this chart clearly demonstrates that meeting the needs/expectations of all riders on a city-wide service is not possible. This assertion supports the Five Year Planning approach utilized by Administration, which provides for a framework that is revisited each year to ensure resources are being applied in a manner that will benefit the system as a whole. While changes are made in an effort to address the majority of riders and/or most significant problem areas, in the majority of cases, there will not be rider consensus on whether the change is viewed as an improvement.
Customer Importance Factors
A key aspect of the Voice of the Customer program is the manner in which it allows the customer to identify the most important factors from their perspective that would result in their satisfaction with the service. Respondents were asked to rate each factor on a scale in terms of importance. Respondents were asked to select the service characteristics which are most important to them and were also asked to indicate their level of satisfaction with each of the identified priorities. The following table provides the top priorities as the percentage of respondents that identified each of the characteristics as well as the level of satisfaction for each.
The table below provides comparison between the 2023, 2024 and 2025 results for both the Importance Ranking and the Level of Satisfaction with each service characteristic.
Voice of the Customer Service Priorities
| Importance Ranking | Satisfaction Level | |||||
| Service Characteristic | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| On-time Performance | 34% | 34% | 34% | 40% | 44% | 46% |
| Frequency of Service | 11% | 11% | 11% | 58% | 57% | 59% |
| Coverage | 9% | 6% | 10% | 71% | 74% | 78% |
| Travel Time | 4% | 12% | 7% | 74% | 63% | 65% |
| Service Delay Information | 5% | 4% | 7% | 39% | 49% | 59% |
In addition to the priorities listed in the table, a number of others received a lower level of importance including hours of operation, bus cleanliness, fare price, sufficient space, safety on bus, helpful drivers, safely operated bus, days of operation, safety waiting for bus, bus stop cleanliness, courteous customer service representatives and knowledgeable drivers. As indicated earlier in this report, all feedback from this survey will be provided in the Annual Customer Service report for Conventional service, which will be included on a Commission agenda in the first quarter of 2026.
As set out earlier in this report, the top four service characteristics as identified by respondents in all three years, all require additional service hours in order to address them. While conventional service hours did increase by 5% over the period, the annual allocation of 18,000 hours does not allow for the type of wholesale change that would be required to significantly shift any of these characteristics. It is also not reasonable to expect that the nature and extent of the service improvements that would be required to shift these satisfaction ratings would be undertaken in such a short period. When service improvements in the Five Year Service Plan are considered, an effort is made to balance the improvements across each of these priority areas.
After applying the margin of error factor, the only service characteristic that saw an improvement was service delay information (up 20% over 2023 levels and 10% over 2024). This improvement can be directly tied to initiatives that were put in place over the period to improve the manner in which service delay information is shared on corporate social media channels as well as improvements at the stop level with respect to the extent of information provided as well as the assurance that stop level notices remain in place until such time as the service delays.
Customer Safety and Security
This section of the survey attempts to gauge the customer’s perceptions of safety while interacting with the conventional service. The table below sets out the rate of occurrences where unwanted conversation or contact was experienced while utilizing the conventional service.
Customer Satisfaction Levels – Safety While Waiting for/Riding the Bus
| Question | 2023 Yes |
2024 Yes |
2025 Yes |
| Experienced unwanted conversation/contact while waiting for the bus? | 39% | 40% | 55% |
| Experienced unwanted conversation/contact while riding the bus? | 40% | 40% | 54% |
In light of the initiative to have LPS board buses in the core, which began in the 3rd quarter, two questions were added to the Voice of the Customer survey for 2025. The first question asked whether respondents had noticed the presence of LPS officers on board. 10% of respondents indicated they had noticed the presence of officers. When considering this response, it is important to recognize that the Voice of the Customer surveys are undertaken in a manner to ensure feedback from riders on all routes and at all times of the day and day of week. Given the program with LPS focusses on the Downtown, Midtown and Old East Village only, coupled with the limited amount of time the initiative has been running, the response seems reasonable.
The second question asked those respondents who had noticed the presence of LPS officers (10% of respondents), whether that presence made them feel safer. Responses to this question are set out in the table below.
| Question | 2025 |
| Does the presence of police officers onboard make you feel safer? | |
| Much Safer | 28% |
| Somewhat Safer | 29% |
| No Difference | 32% |
| Less Safe | 12% |
In conjunction with the above questions, another series of questions is asked in an effort to measure feelings of safety when utilizing the conventional service to feelings of safety when out in one’s community. The following table provides the 2023, 2024 and 2025 responses for those who indicated feeling “unsafe or “very unsafe”. As the table indicates, the responses have remained consistent with those from the 2023 survey when the margin of error is considered.
Percent of Customers Feeling Safe from Crime and Harassment
| Question | 2023 Unsafe |
2024 Unsafe |
2025 Unsafe |
| On board buses | 3% | 4% | 6% |
| In the supermarket or grocery store | 2% | 3% | 3% |
| At a bus stop | 7% | 8% | 8% |
| On the sidewalk in your neighbourhood | 5% | 4% | 5% |
Valuable insight is obtained when viewing these two series of questions in tandem, noting that while approximately 55% of riders indicate they have experienced unwanted conversation/contact while utilizing the conventional service, only 6% and 8% of respondents indicated feeling unsafe while riding or waiting for a bus. These results indicate that while conversation/contact may be unwanted, it does not, in most cases translate to feeling unsafe.
Net Promoter Score
A unique aspect of the Voice of the Customer survey reveals the organization’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) by ascertaining from the respondents based on all things considered, how likely they would be to recommend riding on London Transit to a friend or neighbour. This metric is intended to assess loyalty and word of mouth favourability among actual customers. The interesting aspect of this measure is that it can be utilized to compare performance between organizations across different business sectors, noting the actual business offering is irrelevant in this measure, but rather the focus is on the level of satisfaction the customer feels they receive.
The question in the survey asks respondents to rate on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being very unlikely and 10 being very likely they would be to recommend London Transit. The NPS is arrived at by subtracting the percentage of detractors (those rating from 0-6) from the percentage of promoters (those ranking from 9-10). Also included in this measure is the group considered passives (those rating from 7-8). The chart below sets out the comparison of results for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 surveys.
Net Promoter Score – Likelihood of Recommending LTC’s Conventional Service
| Likely to Recommend LTC | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Detractors (0-6) | 26% | 26% | 33% |
| Neutrals (7-8) | 38% | 38% | 37% |
| Promoters (9-10) | 36% | 36% | 30% |
| Net Promoter Score | 11 | 11 | -4 |
| Industry Standard Net Promoter Score | 29 | 33 | 33 |
The Net Promoter score of -4% is significantly below the industry average of 33% and also the lowest NPS score since the Voice of the Customer survey process started. A more detailed breakdown of the scoring for this question in the 2025 survey is set out in the table below.
Net Promoter Score – Likelihood of Recommending LTC’s Conventional Service
| Likely to Recommend LTC | % of Respondents | NPS Category | NPS Category % |
| 0 | 1% | Detractor | |
| 1 | 1% | Detractor | |
| 2 | 1% | Detractor | |
| 3 | 1% | Detractor | |
| 4 | 3% | Detractor | |
| 5 | 11% | Detractor | |
| 6 | 15% | Detractor | 33% |
| 7 | 18% | Neutral | |
| 8 | 19% | Neutral | 37% |
| 9 | 9% | Promoter | |
| 10 | 21% | Promoter | 30% |
As indicated in the table, a significant proportion of the respondents in the Detractor category scored a 5 or 6, which indicates an opportunity to shift these respondents to the Neutral category with continued focus on service improvements to the areas identified as priorities. Also of interest, the score receiving the highest number of responses in the 2025 survey was 10.
The consistency in responses between the three years is indicative of the limited number of improvements that have been made due to budget limitations. Given the multi-year budget limits growth to 18,000 hours in each year (approximate 2% annual growth) which is lower than the population growth being experienced, it is not anticipated that this score will improve over the term of the current multi-year budget.
Specialized Transit Survey
As indicated earlier in this report, 2018 was the first year that a Voice of the Customer survey was undertaken for Specialized Transit customers. For this year’s survey wave, 380 surveys were undertaken via telephone with customers who had utilized the service within the past six months, which provides for a confidence of 95% with a margin of error of +-5.0%.
Customer Characteristics
The demographic data gathered through the surveys indicates the following with respect to LTC customers:
- 67% of respondents indicated LTC specialized service as their primary method of transportation
- the majority (82%) of Specialized riders are aged 50 or higher
- 78% of riders utilize a mobility device (wheelchair, walker, cane, scooter)
- to/from medical appointments and errands are the two primary reasons for travel amongst LTC specialized riders
- 14% of respondents had taken trips on conventional service in the past year
Overall Perception
The survey includes a general question with respect to the overall satisfaction level with the specialized service, the results of which are set out in the table below and include a comparison to the 2023 and 2024 survey results.
Overall Satisfaction with Specialized Service
| Statement | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Level of Satisfaction (satisfied to very satisfied) | 91% | 94% | 96% |
Level of Service Perceptions
| Statement | 2024 | 2025 |
| Level of service in the past year has: | ||
| Gotten worse | 8% | 4% |
| Stayed the same | 82% | 81% |
| Gotten better | 10% | 15% |
When comparing year over year results, the margin of error needs to be considered (+-5.0%), as such, the results in 2025 have remained consistent with the two previous years. This feedback is further broken down in the following series of questions which look more specifically at each aspect of the service.
Customer Importance Factors
A key aspect of the Voice of the Customer program is the manner in which it allows the customer to identify the most important factors from their perspective that would result in their satisfaction with the service. Respondents were asked to rate each factor on a scale in terms of importance.
The following lists the top factors, in order of importance from the respondent’s perspective as well as the satisfaction rating for each. Importance rankings and satisfaction levels are provided for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Customer Satisfaction Levels with Key Importance Factors
| Importance Ranking | Satisfaction Level | |||||
| Factor | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| On-time Performance | 12% | 27% | 27% | 91% | 84% | 85% |
| Travel Time | 5% | 20% | 17% | 89% | 79% | 87% |
| Trip Availability | 19% | 15% | 15% | 64% | 78% | 81% |
| Coverage | 13% | 5% | 11% | 91% | 91% | 88% |
| Driver Safety | 1% | 5% | 8% | 86% | 97% | 97% |
| Helpful Drivers | 6% | 5% | 5% | 94% | 97% | 98% |
| Ease of Booking | 8% | 8% | 4% | 57% | 66% | 88% |
In addition to the service factors listed in the table above, other factors with lower priority rankings includes safety on the vehicle, courteous booking agents, safety boarding the vehicle, vehicle cleanliness, and vehicle comfort.
Applying the margin of error factor of +-5%, there are only two importance factors that saw a significant shift in satisfaction levels over the three year period. The trip availability factor satisfaction level went from 65% in 2023 to 81% in 2025. As indicated earlier in this report, this can be directly attributed to the 27% increase in service levels over the same period. The other factor that saw a discernable increase in satisfaction was the ease of booking, which went from 57% in 2023 to 88% in 2025. This increase is directly attributable to the implementation of the new scheduling software which provides the ability for on-line booking requests as well as a customer portal which allows customers to manage their trips without the need to call a booking agent.
Given the implementation of the new scheduling software was completed in early 2025, a series of questions was added to the 2025 survey regarding use of and satisfaction with the new software including the customer portal and trip notification features. Respondents indicated the following:
- 82% of respondents indicated they continue to book their trips via telephone
- 6% of respondents indicated they had signed up for the Customer Portal
- Of those who hadn’t signed up:
- 71% indicated they prefer to use the telephone, and
- 14% indicated they had no access to internet or computer/smartphone
- Of those who had signed up
- 91% indicated satisfaction with the portal noting the features they liked the best included online booking, ability to manage their trips and trip notifications
- Of those who hadn’t signed up:
Net Promoter Score
Survey respondents were asked to rate how likely they would be to recommend LTC’s Specialized Service on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being very unlikely and 10 being very likely. The NPS is arrived at by subtracting the percentage of detractors (those rating from 0-6) from the percentage of promoters (those ranking from 9-10). Also included in this measure is the group considered passives (those rating from 7-8). The chart below sets out the comparison of results from the 2023 and 2024 surveys.
Net Promoter Score – Likelihood of Recommending LTC’s Specialized Service
| Likely to Recommend LTC | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Detractors (0-6) | 17% | 7% | 7% |
| Neutrals (7-8) | 41% | 34% | 32% |
| Promotors (9-10) | 42% | 59% | 61% |
| Net Promoter Score | 25 | 52 | 54 |
| Industry Average Net Promoter Score | 50 | 57 | 65 |
The Net Promoter Score for the specialized service remained consistent with 2024 numbers, holding on to the significant gains made from 2023. In this case, a slight shift of respondents from the neutral category to the promoter category resulted in a two-point improvement.
Recommended by:
Katie Burns, Director of Planning
Shawn Wilson, Director of Operations – Specialized
David Butler, Director of Operations – Conventional
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager