Vancouver now has 3rd highest bus ridership in Canada and USA

Metro Vancouver's TransLink now has the third highest bus ridership in Canada and the USA

99 B-Line at SkyTrain Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Not only does Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain network, operated by TransLink, punch well above its weight for subway ridership in Canada and the United States, but the same is also true for TransLink’s bus ridership.

As of the second quarter of 2024, based on the most recent ridership data by the American Public Transportation Association, Metro Vancouver had an average bus ridership of 787,000 boardings per weekday.

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Based on a compilation by American public transit advocate Naqiy Mcmullen, TransLink’s bus ridership now ranks third highest among the major public transit authorities in Canada and the United States.

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus system was the busiest in the second quarter of 2024, with an average of 2.53 million boardings per weekday. About 20 million people live in New York City’s metropolitan region.

The second busiest bus system over the same period was the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), which saw 1.24 million boardings per weekday on average. Over six million people live in the TTC’s service area.

Just behind TransLink was the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the fourth busiest bus system, which recorded 770,000 boardings per weekday on average. Over 4.3 million people live in Greater Montreal.

Bus ridership on King County Metro in neighbouring Seattle ranks 13th highest, with 267,000 boardings per weekday on average in a region with over four million residents.

canada usa bus ridership q2 2024 statistics

Naqiy Mcmullen

Based on regional population, Metro Vancouver punches well above its weight with bus ridership that proportionally exceeds other major regions with a far greater population and economic output; TransLink’s service area is home to approximately three million residents as of 2023, according to the Government of British Columbia’s population estimates.

TransLink also has a higher average weekday bus ridership than the Los Angeles Metro (757,000) and the Chicago Transit Authority (577,000).

The regions of Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary each have a population of over one million people, but their weekday average bus ridership lags with 301,000 boardings (12th busiest), 234,000 (14th busiest), and 212,000 (16th busiest), respectively.

Brampton, a municipality within the Greater Toronto area, also stands out with Brampton Transit’s average bus ridership of 227,000 boardings per weekday. Brampton has a population of about 700,000 residents.

TransLink’s SkyTrain network and bus system work in harmony, seamlessly connecting riders and ensuring smooth transitions between trains and buses.

Since the pandemic, SkyTrain has become one of the busiest subway systems in Canada and the United States, rivalling major systems in Washington DC, Chicago, and Boston.

According to TransLink’s latest ridership data, for the month of August 2024, 20.4 million boardings were recorded on buses, 8.9 million on SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines, 3.7 million on SkyTrain Canada Line, 520,000 on the SeaBus ferry, and 110,000 on the West Coast Express commuter rail.

Metro Vancouver’s overall public transit ridership has since recovered to over 90% of pre-pandemic volumes.

In a bulletin earlier this month, Statistics Canada estimated public transit riders across Canada’s urban public transit networks took about 124.8 million trips, representing a 5.9% uptick from August 2023.

National ridership in August 2024 was the highest for the month of August in five years, recovering 85.4% of pre-pandemic volumes. But there are still 21.4 million fewer passenger trips in August 2024 compared with August 2019.

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