[MayorOfChicago]

What year did your transit agency/provider have it's highest ridership numbers, and what was the ridership?

Chicago Transit Agency rail/bus ridership peaked in 1979 at 721,000,000 rides. By 1995 it had dropped to 418,000,000, but by 2005 was back up around 492,500,000. That's an increase of around 200,000 more rides per day.

Trains hit their low point around 1992 with 118,232,000 rides. It is now up to 195,200,000, the highest in over 20 years. This is an average increase from 398,000 weekday rides in 1992 to 658,000 today.

[miketoronto]

The Toronto Transit Commission hit its highest ridership numbers in 1989, when the TTC carried 460 million riders. During this time 45% of Metropolitan Toronto residents also used the TTC to get to work. Since the majority of the service area is suburban, that is a feat no other transit system in North America was able to achieve during the car obsession age.

The positive ridership growth followed many years of major service increases on the system due to the TTC providing quality and expanded service to suburban areas and the Metropolitan Toronto plan to put more commuters onto transit.

However starting in the 1990's, a recession, suburban job growth away from the TTC subway lines, and massive service cuts which took 200 buses off the street, caused ridership to go down.

TTC ridership dipped down to approx 390 million rides a year I believe, in 1996 following the massive service cuts.

Since then ridership has been bouncing back as the TTC has been able to start increasing service again.

This year TTC ridership will be approx 454 million rides according to TTC projections.
Ridership growh is putting such a strain on service, and 100 buses are being put into service in Sept.


All of the suburban bus systems in the outter Toronto suburbs and GO TRANSIT commuter services are at their highest ridership levels this year. Some of the highlights of the suburban systems area

-Brampton Transit Tops 10 Million Riders, Leads Canada in Transit Growth
BRAMPTON – Brampton Transit has broken all previous records; welcoming its 10 millionth rider in December 2006 and leading growth in transit use across Canada with a 12.4 per cent increase over 2005.
Brampton Transit ridership growth is about four times the national average, according to statistics from the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA).

-GO TRANSIT commuter service carries over 45 million riders in 2006.

-Mississauga Transit is getting close to the 30 million mark for yearly ridership with over 158,000 passengers using the system each day.

[The Chemist]

Peak ridership on Calgary Transit was last year, with ridership of over 90 million (an increase of 10% from 2005). Daily ridership on the C-Train is now over 250,000 per day.

[Minato Ku]

The ridership of all RATP system was 2,813.2 millions journey in 2005
It break the record of 2004 : 2,777.9 million rides :D

It is more interesent for the subway only.

1,335.7 millions journey for the subway only in 2004 (RER is not include)
It break the number of 1949.

But the highest ridership in Paris metro was just after the WWII in 1946 with
1,598.3 million journey. There was no bus and a little numbers of cars in this period :)

The WWII increased the ridership of the subway.

For exemples

Metro ridership in 1940 : 650 million (there was bus and car in this period)
and in 1941 : 1,035 million

[waterloowarrior]

OC Transpo (Ottawa side of the metro) ridership was 91.8 million in 2006.

[J. Will]

Remember the American numbers are usually boardings, while the Canadian numbers are linked trips. Toronto's 460 million per year is probably nearly 900 million boardings.

[big W]

It Edmonton 2006 was the highest at 77 million. With the numbers expected to increase 10 - 15% for 2007.

J Will you are right in that the numbers for all Canadian Cities are trips rather than boardings.

[seaskyfan]

2006. 103.2 million boardings for King County Metro. This doesn't include trips on the other transit agencies that serve Seattle (Sound Transit, Pierce Transit, Community Transit (Snohomish Co), and the Washington State Ferries).

[Minato Ku]

New ridership record for RATP. (Paris transportation system It exclude some RER lines, all suburban lines and private bus system) :yes:

2,865 million journey in 2006
2,813 millon journey in 2005

[Shotter]

Boardings were 98.526 million for Perth, Australia in 2006. This is up from 94.985 million in 2005.

[atlanta_transit]

Atlanta peaked during the 1996 Olympics - over 1 million boardings per day. Now the system is doing 465,000 a day, down from 550,000 in 2000 (before fare hikes and service cuts).

[JFK]

The New York City Subway's peak ridership year was 1947 when 2.051 billion riders used the system. In 2006 1.499 billion riders used the system and ridership has been growing strongly in recent years. The recent low point for ridership was 1991 when 995 million riders were carried on the subway.

[LordMandeep]

after the early 90's ridership fell hard it appeared everywhere in North America.

Then it rose again in 2000...

[Minato Ku]

The lowest peak in 90's for Paris metro was in 1995
1,029 million passengers
after the attacks in the subway (three attacks in the subway in 1995 :( )

[SFUVancouver]

The highest numbers were from 2005 (2006 full stats aren't available yet)

Passenger Trips: 159,716,758 (+24% since 2000)
Systems Boardings: 275,725,214 (+20% since 2000)

A new Skytrain line, the Millennium Line opened in 2001 and this substantially extended the reach of the region's rapid tranist system. Tight budgets have limited expansion of the bus fleet until recently and construction of a third automated rapid transit line, the Canada Line, well underway and is due to open in 2009. A Light Rail Line, the Evergreen Line, will open in 2011 or 2012. Between 400 and 500 new buses are being purchased over the next several years, including a complete replacement of the electric trolley fleet with new low floor electric trolleys.

[MayorOfChicago]

after the early 90's ridership fell hard it appeared everywhere in North America.

Then it rose again in 2000...

I've noticed that as well. I only studied Chicago, but it took a huge dive during the 90's.

[MayorOfChicago]

Remember the American numbers are usually boardings, while the Canadian numbers are linked trips. Toronto's 460 million per year is probably nearly 900 million boardings.

How does that work? What's a "linked trip"?

Everyone I know at work just takes the L to work and back or a bus to work and back. I assume that's just two boarding a day. Wouldn't that be two "linked trips" as well? Do they count going to work AND back as just one trip per day?

It looks like from your number every boarding in America would only be half a trip in Canada.

What if you only take the train to work and then walk home - how would they count that - and how do they know so much information? I would think they could only count putting your card or whatever in the machine to gain access.

[miketoronto]

This is how it works.

A linked trip only counts your one way trip as "ONE" trip, even if you transfer onto a bus or another subway train, etc.

Example to go to work, I board the bus, then a subway, and then transfer onto another subway line. That whole trip is counted as "one" ride.

In the USA, many transit systems would count that as "THREE" rides, because they count unlinked trips.

Alot of transit systems do this to make their ridership look higher then it is, because their ridership is so low.

So in a linked trip you can transfer 5 million times if you want on a one way trip, but its only counted once.

Cleveland in one of the most famous for counting unlinked trips to boost ridership numbers. Cleveland RTA says they carry over 90 million riders a year. That is unlinked trips. Linked trips its more close to like 40 or 50 million a year. I think in their annual report this time they actually changed to linked trips finally.

[MayorOfChicago]

Oh, ok, was just confused by the numbers.

I guess they're probably just exaggerated, or lease that's rough you guys transfer so much.

Chicago is set up with all train lines converging on downtown (and only one station is set up where you'd put your card in the machine twice to transfer, the rest you just walk from train to train freely). All train lines would basically just give you one boarding and one linked trip. There are many people who transfer from bus to train, but certainly not all of them....I know maybe a dozen people i'm friends with who take public transit to work, and none of them transfer at all...takes too long.

[Xelebes]

I find it very rare that I take three buses to get to my destination. However, I might take a double-transfer if I feel impatient enough to go to the nearby bus hub instead of going towards my destination.

[SFUVancouver]

In Vancouver a transit trip can often include a transfer due to the way the network is set up. Rapid transit and many high-volume bus routes radiate out from downtown Vancouver throughout the region, while much of the bus system is designed for local service along the region's grid-based main streets. Local buses tie into the rapid transit network and transfers to Skytrain (automated metro) end up not being very onerous at all because the frequency of service is so high. The bus drops you off at a Skytrain station, you take the escalator to the platform and catch a train. During rush hour the Skytrain runs with as little as a minute headway and one never has to wait more than a minute or two to catch the right train. In off-peak hours they run with a four to five minute headway, still not much at all. The Downtown of Vancouver is so compact and walkable that one can walk to most places within five to ten minutes from a Skytrain station, tops.

Another factor that makes the transfer go smoothly is that most stations are only one storey above grade and there are no turnstiles to slow you down -Skytrain operates on the honour system. Very few people cheat (fare evasion rate is about 1.5%), mostly because it is wrong, also because they already have a ticket if they're transferring from a bus and the cost of getting caught is quite high.

There are Transit police officers who at random check tickets on the trains and set up dragnets at the top of escalators where you cannot see them from the ticket concourse. If you're caught without a ticket they hand out steep fines of $173CAD, or about $150USD. They are also police so they run the person's name when ticketing and catch a lot of criminals with outstanding warrants that way, more than 500 last year when the Transit police first went into service. It is usually lowlifes and criminals who cheat the system, and both want to avoid the police, it just makes sense for them to spend the $2.25 and avoid getting caught for something bigger.

[SnyderBock]

Tulsa does about 200,000 a month (at most). So that's about 2.4 million a year for 2006. I couldn't find official info on this, so it's an estimate. Tulsa (a metro with ~980,000 people) has seen ridership rising since 2004 and is now taking action to initiate commuter rail service between downtown Tulsa and downtown Broke Arrow (Largest suburb along densest corridor) - possibly within 5 years. Also being l=planed is expansion of bus service and addition of Bus/HOV lanes for running express buses.