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Transit Ridership Statistics & Tracking
- Thread starter WislaHD
- Start date
rbt
Senior Member
Ahh. Thank-you for pointing that out. I've looked at the last few GO reports and hadn't noticed.
Leo_Chan
Senior Member
Are there any ridership statistics for GO Bus routes? Do you need to send of Freedom of Information request to obtain it?
Towered
Senior Member
So the questions I have are: where is the Niagara GO Station located, and what is the frequency of the trains?
If the station isn't located near downtown or Clifton Hill, then one needs to be built. As far as frequency goes, they need to run trains to capture the tourist demographic. You can't tell me there isn't a significant demand of people wanting to make a trip to Niagara from the GTA, including international visitors, who would rather take a reasonably frequent, affordable, and hassle-free train ride to the falls instead of the stress of battling the traffic on the QEW. This is what the market focus should be.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
It's not directly at Clifton Hill but it isn't really possible to get that close. It's about a 20 minute walk away, which is pretty reasonable, especially since it's along a fairly nice trail.
Frequency and schedule is sh*t. Basically unusable. 2.5 hour travel time leaving once a day in the evening rush hour. That's the main reason the service isn't used currently.
Metrolinx has a plan to upgrade speeds and service levels, but it's going to take a few years to implement. The current service is an "interim" measure that the PC's implemented, Metrolinx wasn't originalyl planning on implementing an interim service.
Summer weekends service has already resumed like always however.
nfitz
Superstar
As the new fare structure only took effect on April 20, it's probably too early to see much of that. GO commented with this data release that ""the results from the March 9, 2019, system-wide launch of Kids GO Free will be seen going forward, as will the new lower base fare for short distance trips".
muller877
Senior Member
It is an interesting notion. There still is a ROW (other than a few buildings near the station) that goes from the VIA station all the way to the Casino. With all the at-grade crossings a GO Train would not be feasible. A shorter train (DMU?) could travel on a re-built track. But then you have to change trains along the route which detracts from the service.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
The TTC's system is more confusing to picture, they do count boardings and alightings for individual station counts, but full line counts take the sum of all station counts and divide that by 2 (instead of counting all the boardings). Actual ridership may be higher due to fare evasion.
GO's system makes me want to rip my hair out, and the biggest issue is Union Station. The numbers they are reporting are likely the number of riders that are using only the outbound stations. UPX's numbers are fairly accurate, but every other line can be effectively doubled to get your true daily ridership. (it's going to be a bit less because many people don't commute into Union Station. Until we get an idea of what Metrolinx's methodology for this mess is, our best guess is to say that the true daily ridership of each line is as follows:
Kitchener — 26.2 K PPD
Barrie — 18.2 K PPD
Richmond Hill — 12.4 K PPD (this one really surprises me, and this one is more accurate than the rest because almost everyone on this line goes to Union Station)
Stouffville — 19.2 K PPD (Another one that surprises me, this is more than the barrie line while this line is having lots of construction)
Milton — 32.4 K PPD (Another line where the majority of people are going to Union, even with 1.1K fewer riders due to Kipling Station (Worst case scenario), this line's ridership is still huge).
LSW — 59.8 K PPD (lower ridership a result of people riding through? Given the new fares, this one really has me stumped)
LSE — 43.4 K PPD (See LSW comments)
Also, some more statistics from ION:
Press Release: http://bit.ly/2XxwzLu
Friday: 21,500
Saturday: 29,500
Sunday: 22,000
Also, detailed GRT statistics thanks to Cory Albrecht
Grand River Transit Numbers
System Month,2016 Riders,2017 Riders,2017 % y/y,2018 Riders,2018 % y/y,2019 Riders,2019 % y/y,2019 Boardings,2020 Boardings,2020 % y/y,2021 Boardings,2021 % y/y,2021 vs 2019 %,2022 Boardings,2022 % y/y,2022 vs 2019 %,2023 Boardings,2023 % y/y,2023 vs 2019 % Jan,1,854,752,1,820,262,-1.86%,1,942,2...
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Honestly those ION numbers are pretty low considering it's opening day and a lot of that isn't "regular" ridership.. Interested to see what the daily numbers are after ridership settles down in a few weeks. I'd imagine it will spike in September when the students return as well.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
I would strongly disagree, opening day riderships were measured between noon and 8 for Friday, and 10 to the early evening the other two days. Given that the train missed the vast majority of peak users on Friday and that Keolis was limiting the number of people that could be on a train to around 100, full ridership wasn't nearly reached.
I take the train to work every day. When I get on at Conestoga Mall at 8:30 AM, the trains see about 10 people each, filling to about 50 at UW. Weirdly enough they get more full (to the point of crush load capacities) as the day goes on. I have a strong feeling that at least 30% of the users now are not riding its for commuting purposes, however, I would estimate that at least half of the people on the trains after 10am (up to about 70% of the passengers) are actually using the train for legitimate transportation. A good portion of students use the service to get between the Universities, and it is a much more pleasant ride (free WIFI!)
It's really hard to give actual ridership numbers for the line as is (with it still being free), but given that trains are running at crush load capacity between 10am to 8pm, (with a sizable number of people getting off in Downtown, Uptown Waterloo, and the Universities), I'd estimate that a train sees 200 passengers over its journey from end to end, meaning that around 20-25K passengers use the system per day currently. For a city like Waterloo, this is really good. However, it gets me really worried for Eglinton. iON was built to have lots of room for growing ridership, trains were never supposed to be as full as they are now. Eglinton is only supposed to open 150K PPD and 1-2 car trains. Hopefully line management is excellent and they can ensure that turn backs are quick and efficient.
nfitz
Superstar
It would peak then, but about 2/3 of the undergrad students at UW are co-op, so it has a much higher summer attendance than most universities - they are currently in the middle of the spring trimester - exams won't begin until sometime in August. My guess it would peak in late November or in January, when cycling is less of an option.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
It's actually not then, according to the statistics I shared, peak season is October to November (surprisingly), likely because of midterms (so students are out more often).
nfitz
Superstar
Not surprising at all, September to December enrollment is higher. Weather deteriorates, and exams begin in September. TTC peak is historically in October or November, when the Raptors don't win the cup.
robmausser
Senior Member
Im curious to see what the ridership is when its not FREE!
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
I'd estimate 13-18K PPD, Seniors and families seem to account for about 30% of the current ridership, the vast majority seem to be students and commuters.