We’ve let you know TransLink is responsible for more than just transit — we are also responsible for roads, bridges, cycling and walking paths.

TransLink manages 2,300 lane kilometres of roads through the Major Road Network (MRN) and five bridges — the Knight Street, Pattullo, Golden Ears, and Westham Island bridges as well as the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge.

There are 200,000 crossings each day on TransLink bridges and roughly 100,000 crossings a year happen by bike on the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge.

And we’re back to share another fact with you for #WhatsTheLink!

Have you ever wondered how many people take TransLink transit each day? 418,000 people do!

That’s more than 10 Vancouver Sun Runs, more than the population of Richmond and Burnaby combined, and enough to fill BC Place Stadium seven times!

We decided to talk to nine of our 418,000 riders to learn more about their transit story and to get a few snapshots of riders in the region.

Miss 604: Three Out of 418,000 Riders – Surrey Central Station

Surrey Central Station is a major transit hub in our system — connecting commuters to SkyTrain and by bus to White Rock, North Delta, Ladner, Tsawwassen, and Langley.

There we met riders Nick, Albe, and Alisha.

Nick was travelling by transit from Coquitlam to Surrey Central. He says, “It’s pretty good. It gets me to where I want to go. The bus isn’t a car, but it’s a tradeoff. I don’t have to pay for insurance or the car itself.”

Albe says she doesn’t use transit too often, but she takes the bus and SkyTrain to go downtown on the weekends, four-to-five times a month. “It’s easier to use public transit because it’s hard to find parking downtown,” she explains.

Alisha is heavy transit user. She says, “I take transit more than once every day. I take my step-daughter to school. I take it to the mall. I go everywhere on the bus.”

Vancity Buzz: Three Out of 418,000 Riders – Production Way-University Station

Esther, Emily, and Sergei shared their transit story with us at Production Way – University Station. 

This station is a major transfer point between SkyTrain and Simon Fraser University‘s Burnaby campus.

Each day, 13,300 rides are made from the station on bus route 145 to SFU. In all, the 145 takes half of all the daily trips to and from the University.

Esther lives in Surrey and parked her car at our Scott Road Park and Ride facility to catch the SkyTrain and 145 to get to SFU. “I’m okay with a long commute because I like to read and listen to podcasts. I don’t have to focus on the road. That’s why I like it,” she says.

Emily is also a student at SFU and she says she takes transit at least five days a week when school is in session. She also drives, but tries using transit whenever possible.

Sergei isn’t a student at SFU, but he relies on the 145 to get to work as a computer programmer at the bottom of Burnaby Mountain. He says, “I take transit five days a week as well as on the weekends to most places I want to go.”

Vancouver Observer: Three Out of 418,000 Riders – Braid Station 

Imagine taking transit from Victoria, B.C. to your place of work in Metro Vancouver.

That’s exactly what Amand does! We met him along with Ecil and Jason at Braid Station.

The station is a transfer point from SkyTrain to Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, and Langley. Presently, the station is also the terminus for the 555 Port Mann Express from Carvolth Exchange in Langley.

Amand comes into town on Tuesday mornings and returns home on Saturdays. It takes three buses and two SkyTrain trips, between one-and-a-half to two hours, to take Amand from Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal to his place of work.

Ecil takes both the bus and SkyTrain roughly three to four times to get to work in the health care industry. On the day we spoke with her, she was on her way to catch the SkyTrain with her two-year-old son to walk around Downtown Vancouver and enjoy the day.

Jason is also in the health care industry, working as a nurse. He says he takes either the 155 or 156 from the Brunette Avenue area to Braid to catch the 555 to Langley roughly four times a week.

Storify: #WhatsTheLink: 418,000 TransLink riders strong!

In sum, we talked to 19 different riders of our 418,000 strong to to learn more about their transit story and to get snapshots of riders in the region.

Everybody’s transit story was a little different, but all of them revolved around common themes.

Many of them depend on transit to get to school and work and we had both “transit lifers” as well as transit newbies.

We’re proud to have all 418,000 as one of our 418,000 riders strong!

Author: Allen Tung