Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Compass Card Statistics: Revenue Up, Ridership Up

TransLink recently posted up the presentations from its most recent open board meeting on June 23, 2016. One of the more interesting sections is on the Compass Card. In the first three months of the year, TransLink has achieved 100% conversion of paper monthly passes to Compass passes. This is no surprise as paper monthly passes are no longer available. A very impressive statistic is that only 5% of all transit revenue is from cash fares now.

Cash revenue from bus fareboxes in 2015/16. Select chart to enlarge.

One of the other interesting statistics is the increase in revenue due to the Compass Card. TransLink discontinued paper FareSaver tickets in January. In that month, fare revenue was down. As people converted to Compass Card starting in February, there was an increase in revenue. This increase started even before the faregates were closed.

Fare revenue, first five months 2016 and 2015. Select chart to enlarge.

The next chart show the large uptick in Compass Card user ridership starting slowly in February, and ramping up during the month of March. Almost 2/3rds of passenger boardings are on buses.

Passenger boarding by mode, first five months 2016. Select chart to enlarge.

I’ve always been a supporter of the Compass Card (independent of the faregates.) It’s really good to see that the system is having a positive impact on revenue. It’s way more convenient to use for the majority of people who use transit than the old paper-based system. It will be interesting to see if the increase in revenue is sustained over the year.

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