Where Has The Ridership Gone?

TransLink- Metro Vancouver & BC Transit -Greater Victoria ridership 2025

According to statistics Canada TransLink ridership,

in 2025 was 235.12 M journeys

vs 2024 239.36 M journeys ( 3.1 % less )

Where has the ridership gone?

We have now invested, including the current $16 billion, full program, to extend the Expo and millennium lines a mere 21.7 km, is over $30 billion, ridership is decreasing at an alarming rate.

Why?

I don’t have the answer but I would guess it is the transit system itself and decades of politcal interference where trying to design a transit system to please every one, in fact has pleased no one!

User-friendliness is the keyword describing a successful public transit system, but Translink and the service it provides is far from being user-friendly.

When SkyTrain was first imposed on the GVRD, now metro Vancouver, downtown Vancouver was the main destination for many transit customers, but in 2026, there are many main transit destinations but with the bus services designed to feed the light-metro system, many of the new customer destinations are near impossible to timely access by transit and taking the car is just so much easier.

A good example was just last Saturday, where a scheduled bus failed to show and began an 2 hour ordeal to get from Vancouver to Tsawwassen. Taking the car would be just 30 minutes.

Lack of any customer care by TransLink and senior management means ridership will further decline until there is a complete change in direction by TransLink, the mayor’s council on Transit and the Premier’s Office.