Co-op is a significant factor in load balancing, but not all students are at UW, and not all UW students are in co-op. Laurier and high schools are both significant factors (I don't think Laurier has co-op to such a significant extent -- I am a UW alumnus and am pretty aware of co-op dynamics, but I'm not very informed about what goes on at Laurier, especially nowadays). When I first rode the system Block Line station didn't make sense to me except as a transfer station/relief station for Fairway, until I spent some time around there when St. Mary's students were getting out of school and I saw the army of passengers in school uniforms marching across the bridge over the rail yard to get to the train station. One of the good aspects of GRT, in my opinion, is that it's not driven by student ridership to the same extent as (e.g.) Guelph Transit, so year-round ridership is a little bit more stable, and, I assume, easier to plan around.
