TransLink shattered ridership record in October

TransLink logged nearly 40 million public transit boardings last month in metro Vancouver, British Columbia, smashing the October record it set several years ago and establishing a new monthly high.

Officially, there were 39.6 million boardings recorded by TransLink’s SkyTrain, West Coast Express commuter-rail, bus, SeaBus and HandyDART systems, up 9.3 percent compared with October 2017’s total.

“While ridership has been growing every month, we have never surpassed the stand-alone record of 39.2 million boardings in February 2010, when Vancouver welcomed the world for the Winter Olympics — until now,” TransLink officials said in a press release.

West Coast Express boardings soared 12.6 percent year over year to 240,000, the highest monthly total since October 2014, they said. SkyTrain’s Expo/Millennium Line boardings climbed 7.7 percent to 10.04 million — surpassing 10 million for the first time — while SkyTrain’s Canada Line boardings rose 7 percent to 4.26 million.

Ridership growth continues to be driven by high gas prices, high employment and increases to the agency’s transit services, TransLink officials said.

The region’s transit ridership has hit record levels over the past two years. In 2017, ridership exceeded 407 million boardings, a 5.7 percent year-over-year increase and the largest growth of any major Canadian or U.S. city, TransLink officials said.