Edmonton transit ridership growing faster than city population

Edmonton's transit system is seeing record usage, with six million trips taken in September.

From January to September of this year, ridership is up 14 per cent compared to 2023, according to the City of Edmonton.

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The city expects to facilitate 60 million trips in 2024 between bus routes and the LRT, an increase from 53 million in 2023.

The Valley Line LRT route alone is responsible for two million trips between November 2023, when it opened, and August.

As of July 2023, Edmonton's population was up 4.1 per cent, the second highest growth rate in the country for cities with more than one million residents, according to Statistics Canada.

Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Montréal and Ottawa-Gatineau all experienced their fastest growth between July 2022 and 2023 since the 2001-2002 numbers.

"We’re working to make it easier for people to choose transit, and are excited to see this positive response," Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, Edmonton Transit Service branch manager, said.

"We’re thankful for our riders and the growth we’ve been experiencing."

In 2021, the city revamped the existing bus network to the current one.

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In 2023, the city added 120,000 service hours to the transit network. It also fully implemented the Arc fare system near the end of that year.

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In September, the city saw ridership exceed six million trips taken for the first time, thanks in part to school resuming.

Since the beginning of the year, ridership has been up 12 per cent compared to pre pandemic numbers.

Edmonton has 120 regular bus routes, 50 school bus routes, three LRT lines and an on-demand transit service. Routes can be viewed and planned online.