The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Rico Rommheim]

The REM hit a milestone this morning with a millionth trip taken
by Matthew Renfrew



The Réseau express métropolitain (REM) confirmed this morning that a milestone was reached at around 8 a.m., when the millionth trip was taken on the new rapid transit system in Montreal.

The REM, which was inaugurated on July 28, had its first official day of service on July 31, after it had been free for passengers to try out the previous weekend.

According to the statement, over 30,000 daily trips have been taken on the REM since it was inaugurated in July.

https://cultmtl.com/2023/09/the-rem-hit-a-milestone-this-morning-with-a-millionth-trip-taken/

[cranes]

https://www.grt.ca/Modules/News/index.as...77a,69a9e0f5-98d5-4bcc-8f1e-5537cb4c997b

GRT sets new ridership record
September 14, 2023

Waterloo Region – Grand River Transit (GRT) set a new ridership record during the first week of September, recording 150,000 boardings per day. That’s like filling The Aud 19 times over. GRT’s previous high was 110,000 boardings per day, which was set earlier this spring.

A boarding is counted when someone steps on a GRT bus or ION train for a trip. Of those 150,000 boardings, 130,000 were on buses and another 20,000 were on ION light rail trains.

“More people than ever are choosing to take transit as an affordable and sustainable method of transportation,” said Coun. Colleen James, Chair of the Planning and Works Committee. “Not only has our ridership recovered post pandemic, but it’s continuing to grow, showing how much our community values and depends on the service.”

Ridership typically peaks during the first two weeks of September when students are back in school.

“We expect ridership to continue to be significantly higher than last fall,” said Doug Spooner, Director of Transit Services. “Our operators and staff are doing an incredible job of handling crowded buses, customer inquiries and fare product purchases.”

“We know that there has been crowding on some buses, as a result of more people riding transit. We continue to monitor routes and trips for overcrowding and are ensuring we continually have all of our available buses on the road.”

Earlier this month, GRT added 18,000 new hours of service in Cambridge, as well as restoring some late evening trips and adding new weekend service in new growth areas.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...aad2f7e-d55e-52e7-9b62-9fd3911b9c75.html

...“Last Tuesday, one in 10 people in our region got on a train or a bus,” he said

....During upcoming budget talks, transit officials will provide councillors with growth plans for transit, Spooner said. Input from the public will be gathered in early 2024 on what residents would like to see in increased transit growth, he said.

“This is a good problem for a transit network to have,” he said.

Doug Spooner, director of regional transit services for the region, says the region saw a marked uptick in ridership last week. It is continuing this week too.

[hipster duck]

150,000 boardings per day in a region of 500,000 people is very respectable.

DART, the public transit operator in Dallas, has fewer riders for a population base that's about 10X bigger, and a light rail system that's almost 10 times more extensive.

[J.OT13]

Beats Ottawa. Highest readership since the pandemic 101,630 last Thursday. It toped at maybe 150,000 before the pandemic (168,000 with Line 2, which is currently out of service for "upgrades" and an extension).

https://www.iheartradio.ca/ctv-news-cont...assengers-at-o-train-stations-1.20249867

https://otrain.railfans.ca/the-stations

[caltrane74]

That's insane that waterloo has 150,000 boardings per day.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

That's insane that waterloo has 150,000 boardings per day.

Makes me a bit jealous, looking on from Halifax. The city has completely recovered pre-pandemic ridership, and ridership is very respectable given our size. The top-performing day so far this year was in July, with 101,000 boardings. But Waterloo's exceptional performance shows how much further we could go with some proper RT infrastructure.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Makes me a bit jealous, looking on from Halifax. The city has completely recovered pre-pandemic ridership, and ridership is very respectable given our size. The top-performing day so far this year was in July, with 101,000 boardings. But Waterloo's exceptional performance shows how much further we could go with some proper RT infrastructure.

It is interesting to look at the two transit maps. GRT has a more polycentric model that naturally falls out of having separate towns while Halifax has complicated geography yet still has long bus routes that converge on the peninsula where most stuff is concentrated (but concentrated within an area of many square km, not around some transit hub CBD style).

I would imagine that a lot of ridership is driven by commuting university students. I would also imagine that GRT's capital expenditures including ION are on a completely different level from Halifax.

I'm not sure what people in Halifax think of the transit there but it feels like a system people want to use but that has adapted very slowly over time and is hobbled by a lack of provincial support. The fact that you still can't buy transit passes or tickets at a lot of stations and may be asked for exact change even when taking an airport bus or ferry feels like a time warp and symptom of larger issues.

[J.OT13]

A large part of Waterloo's recovery can probably be linked to the post-secondary institutions served along the line.

Ottawa's Line 1 ridership is heavily dependent on public servants who now only work from the office two days a week for the most part. We're still far from a full recovery. The University of Ottawa is probably responsible for a good chunk of the ridership.

It feels like the City is throwing its arms in the air and giving up on transit at this point. The half dozen+ BRTs that have been planned for 15-20 years have gone up in price by a $Billion over the past few years. The Carling tramway plan seems to be on the way out of the TMP (they yet to even do the basic transit priority measures planned for years). Stage 3 is also likely to be fully canceled (instead of cut-back).

No word on the urban bus lines that have recovered, since the City's only focus is the suburbs outside the Greenbelt.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Makes me a bit jealous, looking on from Halifax. The city has completely recovered pre-pandemic ridership, and ridership is very respectable given our size. The top-performing day so far this year was in July, with 101,000 boardings. But Waterloo's exceptional performance shows how much further we could go with some proper RT infrastructure.

According to the quote cranes posted, "Of those 150,000 boardings, 130,000 were on buses and another 20,000 were on ION light rail trains." so it doesn't seem like the LRT is making that big a difference.

I would also caution about making direct comparisons between transit agencies without knowing if they use the same criteria. For instance, if one is using linked trips and the other unlinked, the numbers will look a lot different even if the actual usage isn't since unlinked double counts some trips. Or if they're both using unlinked trips and one system has a lot more transfers than the other, the totals for the one with more transfers will look a lot higher due to the double counting. Halifax tends to be a fairly low transfer system overall since there are a lot of long routes that go from outer suburbs or even satellite areas directly downtown, particularly during peak periods. The route #1 and the ferry tend to be high transfer, but those are fairly small parts of the overall system.

It makes it a bit easier when agencies are listed on the APTA ridership report since they're supposed to report comparable unlinked figures, but neither agency was included on the last report. WIth figures that are just reported by individual agencies, they tend to be meant for self comparison to see how the numbers change over time. So as long as the reporting method is consistent over time it serves that purpose whether or not the method is the same as another agency.

[J.OT13]

Oh, the 150k is the entire system, and LRT is just 20k. I feel better now.

101k in Ottawa is just the train. We're probably 200k + total per day.

[Doady]

Brampton Transit reached 150,000 boardings per weekday in 2017, Mississauga Transit in 2005.

Brampton reached 191,000 boardings per weekday in early 2023 so it is probably over 200,000 now. Mississauga is probably around 250,000.

Before the pandemic, London Transit Commission had the highest ridership capita in Ontario outside of Toronto and Ottawa. Ridership in London was similar to Quebec, Winnipeg, and Halifax, but has been slow to recover.

DART in Dallas has worse ridership than the big bus-only systems in Texas, the Capital Metro in Austin and VIA in San Antonio. It is a very extreme example. DART also implemented a major increase in bus service in 2019 which caused the ridership to skyrocket. Unfortunately the pandemic came in 2020, so probably not the right time to compare systems.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

According to the quote cranes posted, "Of those 150,000 boardings, 130,000 were on buses and another 20,000 were on ION light rail trains." so it doesn't seem like the LRT is making that big a difference.

One thing the statistic shows is that the ridership levels along some corridors in Halifax are in the range where LRT or trams could be considered (low tens of thousands of riders daily). If you look at the US there are lots of LRT and streetcar systems that are considered successful like the Portland MAX that don't have huge ridership. But in Halifax there is far less capital investment for a given level of demand.

Part of what is going on with the post-pandemic recovery is massive population growth in many Canadian cities. The K-W region probably has more like 650,000 people right now (not sure exactly where the GRT boundary is, although people living beyond the service boundary take transit too).

[rbt]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Oh, the 150k is the entire system, and LRT is just 20k. I feel better now.

Even at 20k per day, KW (19km LRT largely in mixed traffic) has higher ridership than the Staten Island RailRoad (23km metro) and Cleveland RTA (~30km metro). Roughly on par with Tren Urbano in San Juan Puerto Rico (18km metro).

Ridership per dollar invested is doing pretty well.

[Innsertnamehere]

Especially since the Kitchener LRT was so cheap, at under a billion dollars all in.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by rbt

Even at 20k per day, KW (19km LRT largely in mixed traffic) has higher ridership than the Staten Island RailRoad (23km metro) and Cleveland RTA (~30km metro). Roughly on par with Tren Urbano in San Juan Puerto Rico (18km metro).

Ridership per dollar invested is doing pretty well.

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Especially since the Kitchener LRT was so cheap, at under a billion dollars all in.

For sure. I was shocked when I thought 150k was on the train alone. End of the day, Ion and he O-Train have very different goals in very different cities. 20k on Ion is nothing to scoff about. 101k in Ottawa is very good in a North American context, but falls way short of the City's targets.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Oh, the 150k is the entire system, and LRT is just 20k. I feel better now.

101k in Ottawa is just the train. We're probably 200k + total per day.

Ottawa is still wallowing in failure, when cities half our size are getting this close to our numbers. Mississauga and Brampton without rail yet, and Kitchener-Waterloo with only a traditional tramway. It leaves me so worried when there is so much discussion of further service cuts and ridership remaining in the 60s% level.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Ottawa is still wallowing in failure, when cities half our size are getting this close to our numbers. Mississauga and Brampton without rail yet, and Kitchener-Waterloo with only a traditional tramway. It leaves me so worried when there is so much discussion of further service cuts and ridership remaining in the 60s% level.

Brampton is 600k pop with 200k ridership. Mississauga is 720k pop with 250k ridership. Ottawa has 1.1m with a ridership of probably close to 200k ridership (was 300k pre-pandemic).

It's important to remember that these suburban GTA and Southern Ontario cities are more compact and continuous than Ottawa as a whole. Sure, Ottawa has 1.1m, but 100k live in rural areas, 350k live in outer-suburbs. Much of our employment centres (that operate part-time due to their high tech and public service nature) are de-centralized.

That said, the City, OC and our Politicians have defeatist attitudes towards transit. We've tried nothing and we're out of ideas. Lets cut transit and increase fares, which will only make things worse.

I'd like to see some innovative ways to raise more funds like convincing the Sens to include transit in their ticket prices, get more institutions on board with the u-pass, create a u-pass type for apartment and condo buildings. Switch to frequent 40 foot buses instead of large infrequent DDs. Actually build the BRT plans. You know, ask for funding... Not sure why they have so much trouble with that.

[GreaterMontréal]

In 2019, the STL(Laval) had 19,300,000 trips.

Calculation: A trip refers to a rider’s commute from point of origin to final destination, regardless of number of buses taken.

That's without counting the 3 Metro stations, as they are part of the STM network.

[Kilgore Trout]

I took my first ride on the O-Train this weekend and it was embarrassing (for Ottawa). The underground stations downtown look like they're falling apart and it has only been four years since they opened. The surface stations were pretty nice but it doesn't make up for the absurdity of having an entirely grade-separated metro system serviced by... trams. My wife, who is a graphic designer, kept pointing out how horrible all the signage is.

It's one thing for a transit system to get a bit run down after many years of use, but I think this was the first time I've been on a relatively new rapid transit system that felt so janky.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

I took my first ride on the O-Train this weekend and it was embarrassing (for Ottawa). The underground stations downtown look like they're falling apart and it has only been four years since they opened. The surface stations were pretty nice but it doesn't make up for the absurdity of having an entirely grade-separated metro system serviced by... trams. My wife, who is a graphic designer, kept pointing out how horrible all the signage is.

It's one thing for a transit system to get a bit run down after many years of use, but I think this was the first time I've been on a relatively new rapid transit system that felt so janky.

Yup. That's how we feel too. When it works, it's functional, but maintenance has been lacking significantly, some signs make no sense and yeah, the City was obsessed with "LRT" (were not big enough for a REAL subway) and refused to listen to the industry professionals saying what they needed was heavy rail.