Some Canada Line passengers arriving three years early for their trips

August 06, 2010

Milestone ridership levels close to being achieved
 
The new Canada SkyTrain Line will mark its first anniversary of service on August 17th by celebrating a successful Winter Olympics and better than expected ridership.
 
Figures released by TransLink today show average weekday ridership exceeded 104,000 for three months in a row.  In May, an average 104,682 people rode the Canada Line every Monday through Friday.  In June, it hit 106,320 per day and July’s total was 107,198.  Daily averages (for all seven days a week) were 94,223, 97,969 and 99,210 for the same three months. 
 
Original ridership projections forecast that the line would reach an average 100,000 passengers every day, including weekends, by 2013.  According to TransLink’s CEO Ian Jarvis, should this strong ridership trend continue we will easily beat the targets set when the line was approved the annual breakeven point will be reached earlier than 2025 as originally projected. The business case for the Canada line assumed that the additional system revenues it generated plus the savings from bus runs that it replaced would cover the operating and TransLink capital contribution over the 30 year agreement. .
 
Jarvis said the Canada Line’s early success can be credited to the route it serves, the effective way it has been integrated into the rest of the transit system and its strong performance during the Winter Olympics. 
 
“Given the major destinations the Canada Line connects, we knew from the start that there would be a strong customer base,” Jarvis said.  “Building on that, TransLink re-designed the bus system to take full advantage of the line’s high people-moving capacity, particularly from south of the Fraser.
 
“It was controversial when we stopped running buses all the way to downtown Vancouver from Richmond, Delta, White Rock and South Surrey.  But the bus runs to Brighouse and Bridgeport stations are shorter, the province built bus-only lanes to speed up service on Highway 99 and the Canada Line trip to downtown is much faster, so now we’re moving more people more quickly and reliably,” Jarvis added.
 
“The Olympics came at just the right time in terms of building ridership on the Canada Line and the rest of the transit system.
 With all of the traffic restrictions downtown, people needed travel options and TransLink was ready with them; the Canada Line, 48 new cars on the Expo and Millennium Line, our new SeaBus and ramped up bus services. We heard from many people who tried transit for the first time, loved the Canada Line and vowed to keep using it after the Games.  It looks like they have,’ he said.
 
“InTransit BC and their operating company, PROTRANS BC, are to be congratulated on a very successful first year of operation. They have kept the new line performing extremely well and Canada Line deserved every bit of the acclaim it has received so far, particularly during the Olympics when it was clearly a hit with visitors and residents alike and performed without a hitch,” Jarvis added.
 
“The tremendous success of the Canada Line certainly validates the province’s unprecedented commitment to transit expansion in Metro Vancouver,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Shirley Bond. “Through partnerships with TransLink and the Federal Government, we’re expanding transit options with new SkyTrain cars, an expanded bus fleet,  new SeaBus and over $400 million committed toward the Evergreen Line.”
 
During the 17-day period of the Olympic Games (Feb. 12 through 28), Canada Line handled a total of 3.88 million passengers.  Including the busy shoulder periods a few days pre and post Games, the total climbs to 5.37 million.  The busiest day, Feb 19, set the daily ridership record of 287,379 passengers.
 
Canada Line has proven that it has the potential to serve about 300,000 riders per day by increasing the number of trains and, in the longer term, expanding trains from two to three cars.  TransLink has budgeted to add about 12 per cent more capacity to the line this time next year by bringing the number of trains in service to 16 during the peak daytime period.  Currently, 14 train sets are operating on an average weekday. 
 
There have also been ripple-effect benefits from the Canada Line for bus passengers. In addition to more frequent bus connections to the Brighouse and Bridgeport stations, some of the big articulated coaches from the #98 B-Line are bolstering service on the #43, #44 and #49 routes while the Coast Mountain Bus Company has used others to retire older units in the fleet.
 
British Columbia’s biggest ever capital project, the $2.1 billion Canada Line’s funding partners included the federal and provincial governments, the Vancouver International Airport Authority, InTransit BC, TransLink and City of Vancouver. InTransit BC, which won the 35-year contract to build and operate the line, provided $720 million of the total capital funding for the project and will be repaid over the term of the agreement.
 
By its first birthday on August 17th the Canada Line will have recorded 36 million passenger boardings.