TransLink ridership rebound: 2021's busiest bus routes and SkyTrain stations

99 B-Line bus (left) and SkyTrain Canada Line (right). (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

TransLink’s annual ridership report, called the Transit Service Performance Review, for 2021 shows Metro Vancouver’s public transit system has a stronger ridership recovery than most major systems across Canada and the United States.

At the end of 2021, TransLink’s ridership recovery rate reached 59% of pre-pandemic volumes — exceeding public transit systems in cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Washington DC, Chicago, and San Francisco. As of May 2022, ridership recovery has further grown to 70%.

“It’s gratifying to see the commitment to transit by the people of Metro Vancouver over the last two difficult years,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn in a statement. “Transit has long been at the centre of our communities and will continue to be imperative to Metro Vancouver life, economic growth, and tourism.”

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TransLink ended 2021 with a total of 224 million boardings, which is the level of annual ridership the system saw in the late 1990s. However, ridership has greatly rebounded since last year: May 2022’s ridership volume is roughly equivalent to the level of ridership experienced between 2015 and 2017, and ridership is expected to further recover to 80% to 90% of pre-pandemic volumes by the end of 2022.

But ridership recovery in 2021 was not equal across all transit modes, with buses leading recovery with a rate of 62% of pre-pandemic volumes. This was followed by HandyDART at 50%, SkyTrain Expo and Millennium lines at 57%, SkyTrain Canada Line at 54%, SeaBus also at 54%, and the West Coast Express at 26%.

Systemwide ridership recovery was greater on weekends than weekdays, and the southeast sub-region — Surrey, Langley, White Rock, and North Delta — led TransLink’s ridership recovery, reaching 75%.

The Vancouver/UBC sub-region accounts for 47% of the region’s total ridership, but this represents a decrease of 6% compared to pre-pandemic 2019. With factors such as work-from-home being practiced for many office-based companies in downtown Vancouver and Central Broadway, this sub-region’s ridership recovery of 54% in 2021 was the lowest of all sub-regions.

translink ridership area statistics 2021

Ridership recovery based on Metro Vancouver’s sub-regions, Fall 2021. (TransLink)

translink ridership sub region statistics 2021

Ridership recovery based on Metro Vancouver’s sub-regions, Fall 2021. (TransLink)

The 99 B-Line continues to be Metro Vancouver’s busiest bus route, although with an average of 29,000 weekday boardings in Fall 2021 — even with the return of students and faculty to the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus — its ridership is still well below the 2019 pre-pandemic average of 57,000 on weekdays.

In total, seven bus routes that serve Vancouver/UBC were amongst the region’s top 10 busiest routes in Fall 2021.

Bus routes with the highest ridership across Metro Vancouver, Fall 2021. (TransLink)

Last year was also the first full year of operations for Metro Vancouver’s first five RapidBus-branded express routes, following the launch of the services in early 2020.

Ridership statistics in Fall 2021 show the R4 41st Avenue RapidBus — between UBC and Joyce-Collingwood Station — is the busiest RapidBus route and the region’s third busiest bus route, with an average of 22,000 weekday boardings.

The R2 Marine Drive RapidBus on the North Shore from Park Royal to Phibbs Exchange saw just 4,000 average weekday boardings, while the R3 Lougheed Highway RapidBus from Coquitlam Central Station to Maple Ridge saw an average of 2,000 weekday boardings.

translink ridership rapidbus statistics 2021

RapidBus ridership, Fall 2021. (TransLink)

As for SkyTrain, the top 10 busiest stations in Fall 2021 were mostly the same compilation as the busiest stations in 2019.

Waterfront, Metrotown, Commercial-Broadway, Burrard, and Granville stations remain the busiest stations. But Vancouver City Centre Station dropped from sixth busiest in 2019 to eighth in Fall 2021, while Joyce-Collingwood Station — likely aided by the R4 RapidBus — climbed up from ninth in 2019 to sixth in Fall 2021.

Stadium-Chinatown and Main Street-Science World stations disappeared from the top 10 in Fall 2021, which pushed Surrey Central and King George stations into the top 10 — ninth busiest and 10th busiest, respectively.

Waterfront Station saw an average boarding volume of 18,000 per weekday in Fall 2021, which is down from 41,600 in 2019.

Metrotown and Commercial-Broadway station’s Fall 2021 weekday average of 15,000 boardings each are also well below their 2019 weekday average of 26,000 and 25,000, respectively.

With fewer office workers and tourists, Burrard and Granville stations saw their Fall 2021 weekday average boardings hover at 12,000 and 11,000, respectively — down from 25,000 and 20,300, respectively, in 2019.

Vancouver City Centre Station’s average Fall 2021 weekday boardings hovered at 9,000, which is about 50% of what the station saw in 2019.

translink ridership skytrain statistics 2021

SkyTrain stations with the highest ridership, Fall 2021. (TransLink)

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