130,000 boardings recorded on TransLink's FIFA World Cup Fan Festival bus route | Daily Hive

130,000 boardings recorded on TransLink's FIFA World Cup Fan Festival express bus route

TransLink's No. 11 FIFA Fan Festival Express bus at SkyTrain's Renfrew Station. (Kenneth Chan)

The temporary express bus route TransLink created for Vancouver’s FIFA Fan Festival carried about 130,000 passengers over the 28 select days it operated — on the same days the fan festival was open during the 39-day FIFA World Cup period.

The No. 11 FIFA Fan Festival Express provided a high-frequency and high-capacity link between two SkyTrain stations and the fan festival held at the PNE fairgrounds in Hastings Park. This was not a free service; fare payment was required.

Running between the Expo Line’s 29th Avenue Station and the PNE’s gate next to the Pacific Coliseum, it made just one stop along its entire six-km-long route — a stop at the Millennium Line’s Renfrew Station. Unlike a conventional bus route, it bypassed all other local bus stops, allowing buses to complete the end-to-end journey in about 15 minutes.

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The service mainly used 60-ft-long articulated buses operating every five minutes, beginning two hours before the fan festival gates opened each day and continuing until two hours after closing. At times, however, the buses appeared to arrive even more frequently. Although the scheduled interval was officially five minutes, Daily Hive Urbanized observed buses arriving as often as every minute during its extensive use of the service throughout the tournament.

TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain told Daily Hive Urbanized that a total of nine buses were used at a time to deliver service on the No. 11.

To make more 60-ft-long articulated buses available for the No. 11, TransLink temporarily reduced the use of these higher-capacity vehicles on two bus routes serving Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby Mountain campus, including the No. 145 SFU Exchange/Production Way-University route.

The No. 11 had a capacity of about 1,260 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd). In contrast, the 99 B-Line — the busiest and highest capacity bus route in Metro Vancouver — has a peak period capacity of approximately 1,800 pphpd.

translink 11 fifa world cup fan festival express bus

TransLink’s No. 11 FIFA Fan Festival Express bus at SkyTrain’s Renfrew Station. (Kenneth Chan)

The busiest day came on Wednesday, June 24, when the No. 11 recorded 8,600 boardings. That coincided with the live match broadcast of Canada’s final group stage match against Switzerland at BC Place Stadium, as well as the high-interest matches later in the day for Brazil vs. Scotland and Czech Republic vs. Mexico. This was also the fan festival’s second-highest day for attendance, with 40,550 people recorded.

The No. 11’s next highest ridership day was Saturday, June 27, when 8,000 boardings were recorded for the live match screenings of England vs. Panama, Colombia vs. Portugal, and Argentina vs. Jordan. On this day, the fan festival saw 36,507 spectators.

This was followed by 7,900 boardings on Thursday, June 18, when the fan festival recorded its highest attendance of 40,943 for Canada vs. Qatar (held at BC Place Stadium), Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Switzerland, and Mexico vs. South Korea.

The next highest No. 11 boardings were: 7,700 on Saturday, July 4; 6,900 on Saturday, June 13 (BC Place Stadium’s first match between Australia and Turkey, with 31,481 attendees recorded at the fan festival); also 6,900 on Friday, July 19; and 6,600 on Sunday, June 28.

The express bus route’s ridership was by far the lowest on Sunday, July 12, and Friday, July 17, when just 800 and 1,000 boardings, respectively, were recorded. On both of these days, out of the entire 28-day operating period, the fan festival had its shortest operating period — open only in the evening, with the highly limited programming of ticketed concerts at the new amphitheatre. As no FIFA World Cup matches were being played in any host city, there were no live match screenings on either day.

On every day that matches were broadcast at the fan festival, ridership on the No. 11 reached into the thousands. The lowest total was 2,300 boardings on Friday, July 10, when the fan festival drew 5,360 attendees for its sole match screening of Belgium vs. Spain.

translink pacific coliseum 11 fifa fan fest express bus

Empty TransLink No. 11 FIFA Fan Festival buses waiting near Hastings Parks to bring people home after FIFA Fan Festival’s first day, June 11, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Wayfinding signage and queuing area for TransLink’s No. 11 FIFA Fan Festival Express bus at the Pacific Coliseum bus loop. (Kenneth Chan)

Over its 28 days of operation, the No. 11 recorded an average of 4,600 boardings per day. This is comparable to the 2025 ridership of the No. 23 English Bay/Main Street-Science World Station bus route, which saw an average of 4,700 boardings per weekday, 4,000 per Saturday, and 3,300 per Sunday/holiday. The No. 23 is TransLink’s 47th busiest bus route out of a total of over 200 bus routes across Metro Vancouver.

Attendance at the fan festival — and corresponding ridership on the No. 11 — fluctuated significantly throughout the tournament, reflecting the varying levels of interest in each matchup and the resulting ebbs and flows of fans travelling to the PNE fairgrounds. The festival’s operating hours also varied considerably on the 26 days it was open for match screenings. It was open for up to 12 hours on some days during the group stage, but operated for shorter periods once the knockout rounds began and fewer matches were played each day.

As well, Vancouver experienced highly favourable weather throughout the vast majority of the tournament, helping to support both fan festival attendance and ridership.

In total, the fan festival recorded a total of 556,528 attendees over its entire 28-day operating period.

Of course, fan festival attendees also arrived at the PNE fairgrounds in other transportation modes and other public transit services, such as the R5 Hastings Street RapidBus directly to/from Downtown Vancouver.

The potential for improved public transit to Hastings Park?

Looking ahead, these ridership figures offer an interesting glimpse into what a highly optimized bus public transit service to the PNE fairgrounds can achieve in the absence of a direct SkyTrain connection to Hastings Park.

Although the No. 11 was a temporary service created specifically for the FIFA World Cup, its performance demonstrated what could be possible as the PNE restrengthens its historical role over the coming years and decades as one of Metro Vancouver’s principal entertainment and event destinations — particularly following the opening of the new 10,000-capacity Freedom Mobile Arch amphitheatre. Further major reinvestments are also planned for Hastings Park over the long term.

For a brief period, the No. 11 became one of TransLink’s most reliable, frequent, comfortable, and highest-capacity bus routes. It also offered a high level of customer service and a very strong sense of safety, with FIFA volunteers, Transit Security personnel, and Transit Police officers stationed at all three stops.

However, that level of service on the No. 11 was made possible only through substantial subsidies. The City of Vancouver provided TransLink with $22 million to operate a broad range of enhanced public transit services during the FIFA World Cup period, including the No. 11.

It should also be noted that the No. 11 was a vastly upgraded version of TransLink’s annual PNE Fair special bus route, the No. 16 PNE Special. That temporary bus route for two weeks each summer similarly operates along Renfrew Street between 29th Avenue Station and the Pacific Coliseum entrance. But in addition to stopping at Renfrew Station, it serves local bus stops along the route and runs far less frequently, every 15 minutes.

During the 2024 PNE Fair, the No. 16 PNE Special recorded more than 37,000 boardings, averaging about 2,500 per day over the 15-day fair period. The 2024 PNE Fair itself drew approximately 638,000 attendees.

The No. 16 PNE Special is expected to return for this year’s PNE Fair, from Aug. 22 to Sept. 7, 2026.

FIFA World Cup volunteers; SkyTrain’s Renfrew Station with FIFA World Cup and FIFA Fan Festival branding. (Kenneth Chan)

skytrain 29th avenue station fifa world cup 3

Bus stop at SkyTrain’s Renfrew Station for the No. 11 FIFA Fan Festival Express bus route. (Kenneth Chan)

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