July LRT shutdown takes a bite out of OC Transpo revenues

Published Sep 14, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 1 minute read

An R1 bus waits at OC Transpo’s Cyrville LRT station. July’s decline in train and bus ridership was reflected in fare revenue, which at $8.3 million. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Ridership on OC Transpo’s trains and buses remained stubbornly low in July, with 3.9 million trips taken by riders that month — 400,000 fewer than projected and nearly three million trips less than pre-pandemic times.

The decline was reflected in fare revenue, which, at $8.3 million in July, was $2.7 million less than OC Transpo had forecast in its 2023 budget.

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The fall-off illustrated how seriously OC Transpo ridership was affected by the three-week shutdown of the Confederation Line LRT because of faults found in train wheel assemblies. R1 buses were in service during the shutdown, but the numbers indicated large amounts of riders opted to drive or bike to work or, for those who were able, to work from home.

Train service was halted completely on July 17 and didn’t resume partial service until Aug. 7. Full service from Tunney’s Pasture to Blair only resumed on Aug. 14.

Bus and train ridership was up in July from the year before, however, when 3.3 million riders generated $7.1 million in fare revenue.

The news was better for Para Transpo, which had ridership of nearly 60,000 in July, more than the 54,000 forecast and the 47,000 Para Transpo users in July 2022. Para Transpo generated nearly $177,000 in fare revenue for the month, more than the $158,000 forecast.