Customers south of the Fraser River as well as in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows have led Metro Vancouver’s strong ridership recovery. Across the system, ridership grew 48 per cent over 2021 volumes with recovery continuing to be strongest in Metro Vancouver’s eastern suburbs.

This is according to new data from our annual Transit Service Performance Review.

What is it: The Transit Service Performance Review is our annual report card on ridership.

Why it matters: The review provides a general overview of how customers used the transit network in 2022, how many people use transit, and how we adapted transit service in response to these patterns. It helps us predict and identify new or longer-term patterns. Through this, we can proactively plan to support regional goals and objectives, including those outlined in Transport 2050, our regional transportation strategy.

By the numbers: The Transit Service Performance Review details TransLink’s ridership trends across Metro Vancouver in 2022, with a deep dive into patterns during the fall. Ridership grew 48 per cent over 2021 volumes.

• According to Compass data, 2.8 million different people used transit in Metro Vancouver at least once during fall 2022.
• With 194 million trips taken on transit last year, TransLink had the fifth highest ridership of any Canadian or American metropolitan area despite having the 24th largest population.
• TransLink’s overall ridership reached 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels near the end of 2022.
  • This made TransLink the first major transit agency in Canada and the US to reach that milestone.
  • TransLink’s ridership recovery continues to lead all major transit agencies in Canada and the US with available recovery data.
  • Ridership has continued to grow in 2023, reaching 87 per cent of 2019 levels in March.

What we’re saying: “Our surging ridership growth is a testament to how integral public transit is to residents of this region. We will continue to invest in our system so residents have a world class, reliable, and an affordable public transit network they can depend on every single day.” —Kevin Quinn, TransLink CEO

Zooming in: Customers south of the Fraser River, as well as in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows have led Metro Vancouver’s strong ridership recovery.

• Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows recovered to 98 per cent of 2019 volumes in late 2022. This growth was mostly driven by the addition of the R3 Lougheed Highway RapidBus service in 2020.
• TransLink’s Southeast sub-region, which consists of Delta, Surrey, White Rock, the Township of Langley, and the City of Langley, grew to 93 per cent. Since then, the Southeast sub-region has surpassed pre-pandemic volumes and grew to 110 per cent of 2019 levels in March.

But also: We’re diving into 2022 HandyDART service through the annual HandyDART Service Performance Review. Some key findings include:

• 965,000 HandyDART trips were delivered in 2022, up 39 per cent from 2021
• HandyDART’s strong recovery was led by customers continuing to use the service to access critical health services like dialysis (17 per cent of trips) or other medical appointments (also 17 per cent of trips).
• HandyDART on-time performance continued to be strong, with 92 per cent of all trips arriving on-time
• HandyDART brought in 6,500 new customers in 2022, 22 per cent more new customers than 2021.

Dig deeper: Check out our interactive tools at translink.ca/tspr. Find out which were the top-10 busiest bus routes and SkyTrain stations.