The number of boardings on all TransLink services in October: 39.65 million. The busiest month in TransLink history, including February 2010 during the Olympics.
Up 9.3 percent over October 2017. Quite astonishing, given that almost every transit system in the U.S. has seen a decline in ridership. For instance, NYC:
More numbers:
- 24.45 million = Total bus ridership, an all-time record
- 10.04 million Expo/Millennium line – Surpassed 10 million boardings for the first time
- 4.26 million Canada Line ridership – Up seven per cent from October 2017
- 530,000 SeaBus ridership – Up 9.3 per cent from October 2017
- 240,000 West Coast Express ridership – Biggest month since October 2014
- 140,000 HandyDart ridership – Up 9.1 per cent from October 2017
- 407 million – Total ridership in 2017
Provide it and they will ride.
Does anyone know when the Expo line can no longer take on more riders?
This is critical as McCallum is about to dump more commuters into the system
with the extension of Skytrain to Langley.
The last I heard the SyTrain system can only run at 70% capacity due to a shortage of cars. Obviously that will be alleviated somewhat as new trainsets are ordered. With 100 m station platforms 8-car trainsets would be possible, but the two sets of doors at either end will be very close to the end of the platforms. The current capacity of a Mark III 4-car train is listed at 532 passengers. Theoretically, an 8-car train will be able to top out at over 1,000 passengers. With increased frequencies, the per-day ridership potential would be phenomenal.
That’s a long-winded way to say that the capacity of the Expo Line could be increased dramatically with platform modifications (80 m to 100 m) and new trains. We’re a ways off reaching that level.
Someone needs to light a fire under the premier’s and prime minister’s respective feet. Both purport to be very concerned about climate change, but even with successive record ridership years in Metro Vancouver, we lag in per capita funding compared to other cities. This affects urbanism / land use, which is the lost big sister to transit.
In an October Globe Canadian architect icon Jack Diamond wrote an op-ed in the Globe entitled ‘When Toronto Worked’ in repose to Doug Ford’s hubristic anti-democratic move to decrease the value of votes and neighbourhood voices by halving the number of councillors:
In the first decade of the 21st Century, London invested $1,112, Berlin $831, New York $703, and Toronto $337 per capita per annum on public transit.
I’m sure the Metro hovers fairly close to TO’s funding, but don’t have the actual number. Yet, as we saw with some independent analysis by a couple of bloggers during the 2015 transit plebiscite (Daryl Dela Cruz comes to mind), the slag against TransLink and the arrogance of then premier Christy Clark and a couple of her minsters toward the Metro and TransLink in particular were unjustified. As it turns out, TransLink is one of the best run public transport agencies on the continent and regularly gives excellent value for the investment buck.
Long-term predictable, stable and generous funding for transit by senior governments is decades overdue. Transit is the most efficient and least costly form of mobility next to walking shoes and bikes. Inadequate funding and planning will always lead to more road space devoted to cars.
And if it’s a gorgeous October weather wise , people will leave their houses!:)
I wonder how much the numbers will be impacted if/when Uber/Lyft are allowed to operate here?
Probably not a coincidence that the one place ridership is increasing is the one place there is no Uber/Lyft.