TransLink reports record year
Trends suggest last year’s records could soon be broken
Transit service in Metro Vancouver had record-high ridership in 2016, and that trend is expected to continue this year according to TransLink’s annual service-performance review and the latest ridership figures.
Overall ridership growth in 2016 was the largest since 2010, with annual system-wide boardings increasing by 4.5 per cent to a record 384.8 million. Ridership increased on all TransLink services except the SeaBus and West Coast Express, which declined 2.8 per cent and three per cent, respectively.
This growth was likely due to a strong economy, an increase in transit service hours and the official launch of the Compass card and full closure of fare gates.
Geoff Cross, vice-president of planning and policy, called the results “terrific” for TransLink.
“For one thing, it’s very unusual to have this level of growth two years in a row. It shows that the investments that we’ve been making this year were much needed and it validates all of the work that we’ve been doing with the mayors’ (10year) vision,” he said.
Bus boardings increased 4.6 per cent across the region, with south of the Fraser seeing the largest ridership increase (10 per cent or 3.7 million) of any sub-region.
The largest single ridership increase on any route was on the 96 B-Line with 570,000 more boardings last year. The 319 Scott Road Station/Newton Exchange route saw an additional 400,000 boardings.
“That’s a really good sign for us about the strong economy and land-use patterns in Surrey and it being able to shape demand there,” Cross said.
“It’s obviously a good precursor to rapid transit.”
Bus ridership overall was generally up throughout the day, but saw highest growth in the evenings between 6 and 9 p.m. (six per cent) and on Saturdays (seven per cent).
The 99 B-Line bus between UBC and Commercial-Broadway station was the busiest bus route in Metro Vancouver and the most overcrowded. The bus has more than 17 million annual boardings and is overcrowded 33 per cent of the time.
Canada Line boardings grew by 5.5 per cent, while Expo and Millennium lines grew by 4.1 per cent. All three train lines saw steady growth, peaking in September and levelling off in the last quarter.
Growth along the Canada Line is partly attributed to increased economic activity along the line, including new development near stations, more airport passengers and record-high tourism in 2016.
The Evergreen extension to the Millennium Line, opened in December, helped boost numbers for the Expo and Millennium lines. It sees about 30,000 boardings each weekday.
According to TransLink data, Waterfront is the busiest station in the network, with more than 36,000 average weekday entries, followed by Commercial-Broadway with more than 24,000 and Burrard with 21,000.
SeaBus boardings were down by 2.8 per cent in 2016 compared with the year before. Peak summer ridership was down — the SeaBus generally has its highest boardings in July — due to rainy weather, which contributed to the overall decline.
The drop in the West Coast Express ridership — pre-Evergreen extension — is difficult for planners to explain, but it could be attributed to the switch from paper tickets to Compass cards, a change in the way ridership was tracked or the decision to make all buses one zone, which could have encouraged some cost-conscious riders to switch to the bus.
The 2015 service review helped TransLink decide which bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus improvements to make as part of the first phase of a 10-year vision for transportation in the region. This latest review is expected to help with decisionmaking for Phase 2.
“The transit service performance review helps us identify opportunities to reduce overcrowding, improve performance and reliability and meet the needs of our customers as the region continues to grow,” TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond said.
This year is shaping up to be another record-breaker for ridership. In the first six months of 2017, ridership across the system grew by 5.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.
In total, there were more than 200 million boardings between January and June, the first time the transit service has hit that many boardings in a six-month period. Boardings could reach a new record high of 400 million this year.
“This increase in ridership is great news, and builds on the growth we saw in 2016,” Desmond said. “It is great to see people taking advantage of new service we started putting on the road in January.”