by AIRLINKFREIGHTSOC Transpo ridership continues to climb, but still falls short of expectations
Ridership on OC Transpo’s buses and trains jumped by 1.8 million trips in November compared to the same month in 2021, but is still below what the service had planned for in its budget, general manager Renée Amilcar reported in a memo to city council this week.
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A total of about 5.6 million trips were taken on OC Transpo in November, up from 3.8 million the year before.
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But that’s just 60 per cent of the number of trips pre-pandemic November 2019 when ridership was 9.3 million.
OC Transpo had hoped that ridership would be nearing normal levels by now, forecasting ridership of 9.1 million in its 2022-23 budget, according to Amilcar’s memo.
There was no change in the number of rides between November and the month before.
Fare revenue for the month was $13.3 million, short of the $18.1 million OC Transpo was expecting, but almost 50 per cent more than a year ago. The November fare revenue included $1.75 million in deferred revenue from the U-Pass program, due to a reconciliation of costs from the 2021-22 school year, the memo said.
Para Transpo ridership climbed to 59,400, just shy of the 62,400 rides forecast in the budget and up 16,000 from November 2021.
September was OC Transpo’s busiest month so far this year, with 5.9 million rides, buoyed by students return to school.
OC Transpo expects a deficit of $85 million in 2022. Earlier this month, the province said it would contribute an extra $63.3 million to help with the shortfall.
