Transit Service in Metro Vancouver

With a service area larger than the Toronto Transit Commission or the Société de transport de Montréal, TransLink deliveries world-class service to residents of Metro Vancouver.¹ Regions throughout the world look to Metro Vancouver for guidance on how transit services should be delivered. Speaking to the ease of use and breadth of services that TransLink provides, New York Transportation Commission Janette Sadik-Khan once said, while riding our transit system, “I feel like Charlie at the Chocolate Factory. I’ve got a golden ticket!”²

Our region’s investment in transit service over the past decade is paying off; of the major transit agencies in North America per capita, only Toronto and New York carry more people on transit than TransLink.³

Region	Population	Annual Ridership (thousands)	Annual Ridership (per capita)
New York City	19,831,858	3,893,854	196
Greater Toronto	5,583,064	1,003,230	180
Metro Vancouver	2,313,328	363,163	157
Calgary	1,120,225	157,325	140
Montreal	3,824,221	433,710	113
Boston	4,640,802	399,594	86
Washington, DC	5,860,342	456,915	78
San Francisco Bay	6,349,948	476,219	75
Chicago	9,522,434	658,203	69
Philadelphia	6,018,800	336,981	56
Los Angeles	13,052,921	620,903	48
Seattle/Puget Sound Region	3,807,148	175,215	46

When compared to regions of similar size, TransLink ridership surpasses even Portland, Oregon which is a transit leader in the US.

Region	Population	Annual Ridership (thousands)	Annual Ridership (per capita)
Metro Vancouver	2,313,328	363,163	157
Portland	2,289,800	113,728	50
Denver	2,645,209	86,660	33
Pittsburgh	2,360,733	65,464	28
Cleveland	2,063,535	48,153	23
San Antonio	2,234,003	47,147	21
Orlando	2,223,674	29,364	13
Sacramento	2,196,482	27,281	12
Charlotte	2,296,569	26,412	12
Kansas City	2,038,724	16,507	8
Cincinnati	2,128,603	16,357	8

Because of the investment in transit service in Metro Vancouver, frequent transit service is available in all parts of the region. People who live in Langley can use transit to get from the Carvolth Park and Ride to Downtown Vancouver in about an hour. Because of the Canada Line, a one-way trip from Vancouver to Richmond only takes 25 minutes. The Evergreen Line, which will be complete in 2016, will allow people to travel from Coquitlam Town Centre to Lougheed Town Centre in under 15 minutes. From one end of the region to the other, individuals have multiple transportation options.

Other regions are also seeing the benefit of improved transit. For example, voter-approved funding is allowing Sound Transit in the Seattle region to spend $17.8 billion on improving transit over 15 years.⁴ In Los Angles, voter-approved sales tax will allow $14 billion to be invested in improving service this decade⁵ with $26.3 billion to be invested in total to improve transit over the next 30 years.⁶

While Metro Vancouver has shown the world how to deliver transit service, there is currently no funding to improve transit service in the region. Worse still, according to the independent TransLink Commissioner, transit service will slip to 2005 levels over the next decade even while our region’s population continues to grow.⁷ In fact without new funding, transit service will deteriorate in our region and we will lose our status as a provider of world-class public transportation.

Resources

¹South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority. 2009. How big is TransLink’s service area? September 17. Accessed December 27, 2013. http://buzzer.translink.ca/2009/09/how-big-is-translinks-service-area/.

²Janette Sadik-Khan, "Learn from New York" (speech, Vancouver, BC, October 19, 2009)

³American Public Transportation Association. 2012. Public Transportation Ridership Report – Fourth Quarter 2012. March 1. Accessed December 27, 2013. http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2012-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf. Canadian Urban Transit Association. 2012. CUTA 2012 Transit Fact Book.

⁴Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority. 2008. Sound Transit 2. July 10. Accessed December 27, 2013. http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/st2/transitexapansion/ST2_Plan_web.pdf.

⁵Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2012. 30/10 Initiative. April. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://www.scribd.com/doc/89890814/30-10-Intiative-Project-Acceleration-Methodologies.

⁶Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2008. Proposed One-Half Cent Sales Tax for Transportation - Outline of Expenditure Categories. August 13. Accessed December 27, 2013. http://media.metro.net/measure_R/documents/expenditure_plan.pdf.

⁷TransLink Commission. 2013. Report of the Regional Transportation Commissioner On TransLink's 2014 Transportation and Financial Base Plan and Outlook. November 29. Accessed December 27, 2013. http://www.translinkcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Base-Plan-Report-final-.pdf.