In December I received MiWay's data from the Automated Passenger Counters (APCs) installed on the buses, covering 2018 and 2019. This allowed me a much deeper insight into MiWay's ridership.
I'm currently putting together some of the data and given the questions surrounding the transitway decided to put together a series of graphs showing a deeper insight into ridership. MiWay stated that transitway ridership in 2019 was 5.1 million boardings. This figure includes ridership of 3 routes - 100 Airport Express, 107 Malton Express and 109 Meadowvale Express. It is these 3 routes that will be the focus of the graphs as hey are the main routes using the transitway as well as the routes used to calculate MiWay's transitway ridership. Route 110 and GO ridership are
not included.
Given the MiWay route network design, the vast majority of those boardings benefited from the transitway infrastructure
The APCs on MiWay buses collect ridership data for each trip operated and will have data for total boardings during that trip. The APCs are calibrated for accuracy and data collected from each trip must meet narrow criteria for accuracy otherwise the dataset is discarded.
To create the weekday graphs, I used data for all trips operated on weekdays between October 28-November 6, 2019. For a few trips, it was necessary to go outside that range to get a representative data sample. The boarding counts for each trip during that range were averaged to create a 'average daily boardings' figure for each trip which is the basis of the graph. The intent was to show transitway ridership on a average weekday. Each trip on the weekday graph is colour coded based on the service period it operates in as listed on the graph.
The Saturday and Sunday graphs were created using the same method except data for weekend ridership was calculated using all Saturday and Sunday trips operated in September and October 2019.
With that said, onto the ridership graphs for the 100, 107 and 109
109 MEADOWVALE EXPRESS - 10,619 Weekday Boardings
The 109 has 8 minute service during rush hour and 12 minute service during the midday. Evening service is approximately every 15 minutes.
It is the busiest of the 3 main routes serving the transitway with very strong ridership in the peak periods with several trips consistently recording over 100 boardings.
107 MALTON EXPRESS - 8,598 Weekday Boardings
Like the 109, the 107 has 8 minute service during rush hour and 12 minute service during the midday. Evening service is approximately every 15-20 minutes.
While ridership is not as high as on the 109, there is a much more even distribution of boardings, likely due to the spread out nature of student ridership to/from Humber.
100 AIRPORT EXPRESS - 2,223 Weekday Boardings
The 100 operates every 15 minutes all day on weekdays and is the newest of the 3 routes, introduced in October 2018.
While it does not have the ridership levels of the 107 and 109, it does provide much needed additional capacity on the transitway especially during rush hour when overcrowding is a chronic issue.
109 MEADOWVALE EXPRESS - Weekend Boardings
109 Saturday Boardings - 4,005
109 Sunday Boardings - 2,942
Route 109's weekend frequency during September and October 2019 was 23 minutes all day. Effective the October 29 service changes route 109's Saturday midday frequency was improved to 15 minutes, and Sunday midday frequency was improved to 17 minutes.
107 MALTON EXPRESS - Weekend Boardings
107 Saturday Boardings - 2,407
107 Sunday Boardings - 1,836
Some additional things to point out with the data. It is once again important to emphasize when talking about the transitway as a corridor, we are referring to routes 100, 107, and 109 as this is what MiWay bases their transitway ridership figure on. It does
not include route 110 or GO Transit services. If those ridership figures were also included, the transitway ridership figure would be even higher.
- Based on the APC data compiled, the transitway as a corridor (100/107/109) had over 20,000 boardings on a average weekday (21,440 boardings). This figure would put the transitway in the top 3 of transit corridors in Mississauga behind Hurontario (19/103/502) and Dundas (1/101).
- Considered as standalone routes, the 107's and 109's weekday boarding counts would place them easily in the top 5 of weekday routes in terms of boardings.
- Using the APC data to calculate total annual ridership using the total service days and factoring in month to month variance based on MiWay's annual ridership figures, the transitway as a corridor (100/107/109) had ridership between 5.3 and 5.5 million boardings in 2019. Given the MiWay route network design, the vast majority of those boardings benefited from the transitway infrastructure.
- MiWay stated that annual transitway ridership in 2019 was 5.1 million. I have no doubt that transitway ridership is actually higher than what the city has been stating and this is borne out in the APC data as well as my own personal observations. It appears MiWay up until now used the ridership data based on manual on board counts on buses, which can be hard to obtain accurately especially on crushloaded buses.
- The transitway is a corridor where ridership can be expected to continue growing in the future. Ridership growth has been consistently high year over year - off peak and weekend ridership continues to show strong growth as well.
- Integration of the MiWay route network with the transitway has been a very slow proccess, as more routes get realigned or added to serve the transitway stations directly this will provide another opportunity for ridership increases. Better frequency on come N/S corridors connecting to the transitway will also help.
- Anyone who rides the transitway, especially during rush hours is well aware of the overcrowding even with the very high frequencies. Thankfully, MiWay has finally ordered more articulated buses for use on the transitway with 11 60' articulated buses to be placed into service this fall. This will help provide much needed additional capacity, although it would have been useful 2 years ago!
That sums up my post. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about the data I've laid out.
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