The General Manager of Metrobus says they were surprised by the surge in ridership over the last year.

Yesterday, Metrobus announced that ridership ballooned in 2023, seeing a 35 per cent increase from 2022 levels.

As such, they’ve contacted MQO research to see if those trends will continue, or if they were an anomaly.

Judy Powell says the sharp increase caused challenges in providing the service, such as overcrowding and having to leave some customers behind. She says they made some small changes, such as with scheduling, to accommodate that, but they were left with minimal options as they already had the maximum number of buses on the road.

Powell expects that the MQO report will be in by the end of February, which will then inform the Metrobus growth plan to be released later this year.

Powell discusses what they would need to look at if ridership rates persist.

She says they would need to do some advanced planning to prepare for that—which would include securing more funding, purchasing more buses, hiring new staff, and looking at the areas of greatest need.