TransLink ridership begins to recover

June 12, 2020
Ridership has increased by 85 percent since early April.

Ridership on Metro Vancouver’s transit system is showing early signs of recovery according to new figures.

Systemwide boardings last week were 85 percent higher than the second week of April, which had the lowest ridership levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m very pleased to see our customers gradually returning to the transit system,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond. “We’ve worked hard to ensure our customers have confidence in transit by developing the Safe Operating Action Plan, which keeps our services as safe and reliable as possible.”

TransLink’s Safe Operating Action Plan increases cleaning and sanitizing of transit vehicles and hubs, increases service levels, creates space between customers where possible and recommends that all customers wear a mask if they can do so.

While ridership has been gradually increasing, systemwide ridership is still low compared to pre-COVID levels. Systemwide boardings are currently at around 33 percent of the levels they were at last year.