Article content

Transit ridership for the first quarter of 2017 is up five per cent over the same period last year, according to the most recent statistics from TransLink.

The transit authority saw an average of 1.26 million weekday boardings during the first quarter, compared to 1.19 million last year. The number of average weekday journeys has also increased, from 720,000 in the first quarter of last year to 760,000 this year.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Metro Vancouver transit ridership up five per cent in first quarter Back to video

A boarding is whenever a passenger enters a fare paid zone. Transfers are counted as additional boardings. A journey is a complete transit trip, regardless of the number of transfers.

The average number of weekday boardings grew on all modes of transit except for West Coast Express, which saw a 5.8-per-cent drop. Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines were up 14 per cent, Canada Line was up seven per cent, bus boardings were up 4.6 per cent and SeaBus was up 3.6 per cent.

TransLink provided a number of key factors that had an impact on ridership growth. One major factor is an increase in transit service hours, including the addition of the Evergreen Line and an increase in bus service hours.