Can’t TransLink Count? Evidently Not.

Interesting stuff this, but really, TransLink just can’t seem to stay on the page, with ridership figures, or any other figuresAi??they release.Ai??The claim of 310,000 passengers a day is really 310,000 boardings a dayAi??and there is no mechanism to count actual passengers or customersAi??on the SkyTrain light metro system. The Canada Line has infrared sensors that count boardings, but that is all and transit customers boarding multiple times per day (the $1 a day U-pass) are recounted andAi??no one really knows how many people actually use the SkyTrain light metro system.

Still, TransLink has been claiming 381,000 passengers a day on the two SkyTrain Lines andAi??the Canada Line which isn’t really SlyTrain at all,Ai??on Wikipedia and other on-line transit sites, yet today they claim today 310,000 people use SkyTrain.

Like most of TransLink figures, they seem to be pulled from a hat.

Happy Birthday SkyTrain!
Vancouver CKNW AM980
Janet Brown
8/17/2011

 

Skytrain is celebrating its silver anniversary with a few notable politicians from the past on hand. Former Minister of Transit, Grace Mccarthy, whose government, under then-Premier Bill Bennett, who was responsible for launching skytrain 25 years ago, rode in to the skytrain operation centre at burnaby on one of the newer cars.

“……Well, we need the skytrain and it was an instant success….It truly was…I know that we expected the second generation of cars would come along and maybe in ten or 15 years we wouldn’t have to expand…well we passed that mark long ago”

Skytrain carries 310, 000 passengers a day.