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Route performance is based on the cost of operating the buses, rail, SeaBus or West Coast Express per passenger. A higher number of people getting on and off transit makes a route more productive. In Vancouver, for instance, the median cost per boarded passenger is $1.05, compared with $1.30 for Burnaby/New Westminster, $2.72 for South Delta and $2.48 for Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows. In the Northeast sector, which includes Coquitlam, the cost is $1.98 per passenger.

However, Desmond noted passenger numbers have jumped up all across the region — not just in Vancouver and Burnaby/New Westminster — which has resulted in overcrowding spilling over from the rush hour commutes into mid-day during the week and weekends. Overcrowding now occurs on 34 per cent of all weekday off-peak traffic, compared with 55 per cent during peak hours, the review found.

And with increased ridership across the system — a route along Surrey’s Fraser Highway, for instance, is consistently overcrowded despite two buses arriving every six minutes — Desmond said there are fewer options to take buses from one area and move them to another.

“We’re looking at options,” he said. “We’ve got to move away from cutting services to getting more capacity in the system.”

The situation has been exacerbated by higher density development around SkyTrain stations, with some stations such as Olympic Village, Marine Gateway and Templeton seeing increases of up to 28 per cent since 2011, as well as a rapid uptake in east-to-west bus trips as people travel to the SkyTrain for recreation or shopping trips within their own communities. The North Shore, for example, has seen a huge jump in trips heading east or west, when previously most travel was toward downtown Vancouver.