More than 30,000 riders per day are using the Evergreen Extension, making up half of all weekday transit trips in the area, according to numbers released last Friday by TransLink.

CEO Kevin Desmond told The Tri-City News that Compass Card data shows a significant number of commuters have been travelling to destinations within Port Moody and Coquitlam since Evergreen opened Dec. 2.

“Twenty per cent of those trips start and stop within the Tri-Cities,” he said, later adding, “That gives you a sense of those activity nodes.”

He acknowledged that the spate of bad weather may have affected ridership.

While Evergreen was not disrupted by the snow that hit Metro Vancouver in December and January, some bus service was cancelled, which he said may have had an impact on SkyTrain passenger figures.

Still, Desmond said TransLink is happy Evergreen has been able to attract 30,000 riders per day in such a short time frame.

By comparison, he noted that the 97 B-Line bus service that was replaced by Evergreen had 10,000 passengers per weekday, a third of the number used by SkyTrain since it opened on Dec. 2.

And given the amount of development expected to occur along the rapid transit extension, Desmond said TransLink is confident it will achieve its goal of 70,000 riders per day by 2021.

“Ridership is going to continue to grow,” he said. “Development wants to happen along SkyTrain stations… We know that once the development comes, those people want to take transit.”

Standing in the park-and-ride lot at Coquitlam Central Station, Mayor Richard Stewart made some predictions about how Evergreen will shape the community over the next 20 years.

He said most current surface parking will be relegated to underground lots, with high-density, transit-oriented developments built on top.

The Coquitlam Central Station park-and-ride, Stewart added, is owned by TransLink and will likely be developed, along with wide open areas around Lincoln Station on the Coquitlam Centre mall property.

“This will be the first real opportunity to shape a community using transit,” he said. “In the past, a lot of our transit has been built in response to growth… This is one of the first opportunities to determine where people will live based on the transit line.”

With one million new residents expected to move into Metro Vancouver by 2040, Stewart said residents are going to have to find new ways to get around the region. Without transit options, the population growth expected in the next 23 years would add 600,000 new vehicles. He added that parking alone for that many automobiles would “require us to pave an area the size of Port Coquitlam.”

“We are going to have to shift transit modes,” he said.

In Port Moody, Mayor Mike Clay concurred with Stewart’s predictions. He said his community is expecting up to 15,000 new residents that will come as a result of Evergreen, moving into predominantly transit-oriented developments along the line.

“It could be 20 to 25 years for a full roll-out,” he said. “It is all at the pace of what the developers can build and how they can roll it out.”

NEW TRAINS

With ridership increasing on the SkyTrain system, new trains are on the way as part of the Mayors’ Council’s 10-year investment plan for public transit. TransLink said 28 cars are on order and should arrive in late 2018 and early 2019.

EVERGREEN RIDERSHIP BY STATION

In descending order from busiest station:

1. Commercial-Broadway

2. Lougheed Town Centre

3. Production Way-University

4. Brentwood

5. Gilmore

6. Coquitlam Central*

7. VCC-Clark

8. Renfrew

9. Burquitlam*

10. Lincoln*

11. Holdom

12. Rupert

13. Lafarge Lake – Douglas*

14. Moody Centre*

15. Sperling

16. Inlet Centre*

17. Lake City Way

(* Evergreen Extension stations)

SKYTRAIN DAILY RIDERSHIP BY LINE

Stats compiled for January 2017 (total: 1.3 million):

Expo Line: 250,000

Canada Line: 130,000

Millennium Line: 70,000 (includes Evergreen’s 30,000)