World Cup drives transit to six-year ridership peak

Metro Vancouver's transit system hit a six-year ridership peak on Wednesday, June 24, driven by the FIFA World Cup match between Canada and Switzerland and the wave of fans descending on the city for celebrations and festivities.

TransLink recorded 1.38 million total boardings that day—the highest daily ridership since March 2020, just before the pandemic onset. The figure also surpassed the previous six-year record of 1.36 million boardings set on Thursday, June 18, when Canada faced Qatar at BC Place Stadium.

SeaBus ridership led the surge, jumping 81 percent above a typical day to 29,000 boardings, fueled by fans traveling to Downtown Vancouver and to Canada Soccer House's live match broadcasts at The Shipyards on the Lonsdale waterfront. SkyTrain ridership across the Canada, Expo, and Millennium lines increased 30 percent to 582,000 boardings, while bus ridership rose 6.6 percent to 762,000 boardings.

The 1.38 million boardings translated into 860,000 daily trips—complete journeys from origin to destination including transfers. By comparison, the 2010 Winter Olympics recorded about 1.27 million trips on its busiest day, which remains the all-time daily ridership record for Metro Vancouver. The highest ridership day since the Olympics was September 27, 2019, during the Global Climate Strike in Downtown Vancouver, when 987,000 trips were recorded.