Grand River Transit

[Spokes]

Grand River Transit service has surged, but ridership remains a challenge

Much like a dozen years ago, public transit carries mostly students, people younger than 30, and commuters with low-paying jobs, according to fares, census findings and travel surveys.

Transit advocates hope soon-to-launch streetcars will finally put older commuters with average wages onto transit, while helping transit rebound from its recent slump.

"It was starting to happen," said Mike Boos, who helps advocate for transit with the grassroots Tri-Cities Transport Action Group. But then transit ran into troubles and "we sort of tapped the brakes a bit."
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Passengers enjoy 37 per cent more service today. They have responded by riding transit 32 per cent more often, government figures show.

To achieve this, transit spending increased by 55 per cent, adjusted for inflation. The cost per resident hit $92 in 2017.
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While no other big Ontario transit system surged as strongly between 2006 and 2013, no other system saw ridership plunge as hard between 2014 and 2017.

Transit ridership dropped by 15 per cent after 2013 even as service increased by eight per cent and real spending on transit increased five per cent.

"To the credit of our council, we stayed the course. We didn't react with service reductions," said John Cicuttin, manager of transit development for Waterloo regional government.

It seems the plunge has bottomed out. Transit recovered more than a million lost passengers in 2018, the bulk of them students.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/917...challenge/