Public transit ridership growth rate in 2024 surpasses driving: TransLink | Daily Hive

Metro Vancouver's public transit ridership growth rate in 2024 surpasses driving: TransLink

SkyTrain's Surrey Central Station. (Kenneth Chan)

Metro Vancouver experienced strong ridership growth in 2024, driven by the double-digit growth rates in the South of Fraser communities of Surrey, White Rock, North Delta, Langley Township, and Langley City.

According to TransLink’s newly released 2024 data, Metro Vancouver’s South of Fraser sub-region saw an 11.4 per cent year-over-year ridership growth, now accounting for 19 per cent for the public transit authority’s total regional ridership.

TransLink highlighted that due to this growth, the South of Fraser services “faced significant overcrowding” in 2024

This is followed by a 6.4 per cent increase in ridership within the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows sub-region, which accounts for just one per cent of overall ridership, and a 2.9 per cent increase in ridership in the Southwest sub-region (Vancouver International Airport, Richmond, Delta, and Tsawwassen), which accounts for eight per cent of the total ridership.

The Burnaby and New Westminster sub-region saw its ridership grow by 1.9 per cent, reaching 18 per cent of the region’s overall ridership.

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The combined area of Vancouver, the University Endowment Lands and the University of British Columbia saw limited ridership growth of only 0.9 per cent. But of course, it still makes up the largest pie of the region’s total ridership, accounting for 46 per cent.

The North Shore sub-region (West Vancouver, North Vancouver City, and North Vancouver District) experienced the slowest year-over-year growth of 0.2 per cent. This sub-region accounts for four per cent of TransLink’s overall ridership.

Overall, TransLink reports there were 7.7 million more trips made on public transit in 2024, representing an increase of over three per cent compared to 2023. This also outpaces the one per cent year-over-year increase in driving in 2024.

However, overall ridership continues to hover at roughly 90 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes, with 403 million annual boardings recorded in 2024 — still behind the all-time record of 451 million in 2019. The total figure for 2024 is just shy of the 2017 figure of 407 million annual boardings.

Metro Vancouver now has Canada’s second highest transit ridership per capita

According to TransLink, with these 2024 performance figures, Metro Vancouver’s public transit system now has the second highest per capita public transit ridership in Canada — surpassing the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), and just behind Greater Montreal.

Moreover, TransLink has the third highest total bus ridership across all Canadian and American public transit systems, despite having a smaller population than the service areas of most public transit authorities.

“As Metro Vancouver continues to grow, more people are turning to transit instead of driving which is a reflection of our system’s reliability,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn in a statement, emphasizing that the TransLink board and Mayors’ Council’s recent funding approval of service expansion over the next two years will help address growing demand.

“Our 2025 Investment Plan is key to keeping this momentum going and meeting the demand of a growing region,” continued Quinn.

This recent funding approval will enable the introduction of a net gain in service levels starting in September 2025 to alleviate overcrowding and improve access in under-served areas. This deviates from TransLink’s previous practices since the pandemic of largely reallocating the same available resources by lowering services on some bus routes in favour of improving others. All the while, the population of Metro Vancouver has grown by 13 per cent since 2020.

Other factors possibly contributing to ridership growth include growing living cost issues, with public transit being a far more affordable transportation mode than driving, along with continued densification near public transit services and a continued rebound to office workplaces.

In response to TransLink’s 2024 ridership data, Denis Agar — Executive Director of the non-profit advocacy group Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders — asserts the figures reveal a clear pattern: ridership tends to rise where service is improved, and decline where service is cut.

For example, states Agar, the No. 323 Newton Exchange/Surrey Central Station bus route has seen major service level upgrades since 2020, now operating with higher-capacity 60-ft articulated buses instead of its previous use of regular 40-ft buses, and with frequencies as low as every six minutes as opposed to every 15 minutes before the pandemic. Ridership on the No. 323 is up by 62 per cent compared to 2019, and it remains the 17th most overcrowded bus route in the region.

In contrast, the No. 8 Fraser Street/Waterfront Station trolley bus route has seen the deepest service level cuts in the region, with its service levels currently at 47 per cent of 2019 levels. Ridership on the No. 8 correspondingly plummeted by 53 per cent between 2019 and 2024.

“Without additional funding, TransLink responded to this growth by cutting service in areas that had seen ridership drop, and shifting that service to the overcrowded areas. But over time, it appears that these changes may have become self perpetuating,” state the analysis by Agar, who was previously a bus network planner for TransLink.

“The effects of these spirals extend beyond individual routes, because transit is a network. Your route becomes more useful when connecting routes become more frequent, and this is part of the explanation for the stampede towards transit in Surrey.”

Big ridership growth at Stadium-Chinatown and Surrey Central stations

According to TransLink data, on an average each weekday in 2024, 1.55 million boardings are recorded, including about 800,000 boardings on buses, about 350,000 on SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines, about 132,000 on SkyTrain’s Canada Line, over 16,000 on SeaBus, nearly 7,000 on the West Coast Express commuter rail, and roughly 3,000 on HandyDART.

West Coast Express saw the largest year-over-year ridership gains in 2024, growing by 20 per cent — deviating from its earlier slower post-pandemic recovery. The Expo and Millennium lines experienced a six per cent ridership increase, SeaBus went up by five per cent, Canada Line grew by four per cent, and the bus network improved by two per cent. HandyDART was the only TransLink service that saw negative ridership growth, falling by 0.3 per cent compared to 2023.

One of the most significant new services introduced by TransLink in recent years is the R6 Scott Road RapidBus, which serves Delta and Surrey, running between SkyTrain’s Scott Road Station and Newton bus exchange via 120 Street/Scott Road and 72 Avenue. It launched on January 1, 2024.

After its first full year of service, the R6 is now TransLink’s sixth busiest bus route out of 195 bus routes across Metro Vancouver. Moreover, combined with the retainment of the No. 319 bus route as a local service, the Scott Road/72 Avenue corridor between Scott Road Station and Newton bus exchange has seen a net gain of 1.5 million boardings compared to 2023.

The launch of the R6 propelled overall RapidBus ridership growth in 2024, now accounting for 15 per cent of all bus boardings across just six RapidBus routes. This does not include the 99 B-Line, which is still Metro Vancouver’s busiest bus route.

Four of the RapidBus routes were among TransLink’s top 10 most used bus routes in 2024. RapidBus routes averaged 20,600 daily boardings in 2024, which is more than five times the average daily boardings of the average local bus route.

TransLink also shared that more major events held at BC Place Stadium and Rogers Arena in 2024 resulted in a 29 per cent jump in ridership at SkyTrain’s Stadium-Chinatown Station, such as the Vancouver Canucks’ Stanley Cup playoffs, the CFL Grey Cup, and large concerts such Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.

SkyTrain ridership at Waterfront Station exceeded 10 million boardings in 2024 for the first time since 2019. This figure accounts for both the Expo Line and Canada Line services at the station.

Ridership growth was also notable at Surrey Central Station on the Expo Line, rising by 18 per cent year-over-year to 6.008 million in 2024, earning it a fifth place ranking among SkyTrain’s busiest stations — up from seventh place in 2023 and 13th place in 2019.

Top 10 busiest SkyTrain stations in 2024

Waterfront Station: 10.471 million boardings
Metrotown Station: 8.513 million boardings
Commercial-Broadway Station: 6.757 million boardings
Granville Station: 6.149 million boardings
Surrey Central Station: 6.008 million boardings
Burrard Station: 6.003 million boardings
Joyce-Collingwood Station: 5.11 million boardings
Vancouver City Centre Station: 4.971 million boardings
Stadium-Chinatown Station: 4.929 million boardings
New Westminster Station: 4.561 million boardings

Top 10 busiest bus routes in Metro Vancouver in 2024

99 B-Line: 10.624 million boardings
R4 41st Avenue RapidBus: 8.803 million boardings
No. 49 Metrotown/UBC: 8.499 million boardings
No. 25 Brentwood Station/UBC: 6.361 million boardings
No. 16 29th Avenue Station/Arbutus: 5.316 million boardings
R6 Scott Road RapidBus: 5.246 million boardings
R1 King George Boulevard RapidBus: 5.163 million boardings
No. 323 Surrey Central Station/Newton Exchange: 4.881 million boardings
No. 19 Metrotown Station/Stanley Park: 4.378 million boardings
R5 Hastings Street RapidBus: 4.347 million boardings

Top 10 most crowded bus routes in Metro Vancouver in 2024

No. 393 Surrey Central Station/Newton Exchange: 34.65% of trips with overcrowding
No. 321 Surrey Central Station/Newton Exchange: 32.99% of trips with overcrowding
No. 335 Surrey Central Station/Newton Exchange: 32.14% of trips with overcrowding
No. 345 King George Station/White Rock Centre: 28.13% of trips with overcrowding
No. 503 Fraser Highway Express: 22.68% of trips with overcrowding
No. 501 Langley Centre/Surrey Central Station: 20.62% of trips with overcrowding
99 B-Line: 20.42% of trips with overcrowding
No. 49 Metrotown Station/UBC: 18.93% of trips with overcrowding
No. 342 Newton Exchange/Langley Centre: 16.47% of trips with overcrowding
R4 41st Avenue RapidBus: 16.39% of trips with overcrowding

RapidBus and B-Line ridership in 2024

99 B-Line (Vancouver)
- 2024 annual boardings: 10.624 million
- Busiest bus route ranking: 1st out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 34,200
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 21,400
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 15,400
R4 41st Avenue RapidBus (Vancouver):
- 2024 annual boardings: 8.803 million
- Busiest bus route ranking: 2nd out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 27,900
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 18,100
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 14,100
R6 Scott Road RapidBus (Delta, Surrey):
- 2024 annual boardings: 5.246 million
- Busiest bus route ranking: 6th out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 15,700
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 12,500
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 10,700
R1 King George Boulevard RapidBus (Surrey)
- 2024 annual boardings: 5.163 million
- Busiest bus route ranking: 7th out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 15,400
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 12,000
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 10,700
R5 Hastings Street RapidBus (Vancouver, Burnaby)
- 2024 annual boardings: 4.347 million
- Busiest bus route ranking: 10th out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 13,700
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 8,900
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 7,300
R2 Marine Drive RapidBus (West Vancouver, North Vancouver City, North Vancouver District)
- 2024 annual boardings: 1.944 million
- Bus bus route ranking: 42nd out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 5,700
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 5,000
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 4,000
R3 Lougheed Highway RapidBus (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows)
- 2024 annual boardings: 1.07 million
- Busiest bus route ranking: 74th out of 195 bus routes
- 2024 weekday average boardings: 3,200
- 2024 Saturday average boardings: 2,700
- 2024 Sunday/holiday average boardings: 2,100

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