Grand River Transit sets new ridership record

It's been a busy month on the local transit system.

Grand River Transit has announced that it's set a new record for ridership during the first week of September with 150,000 boardings per day.

The previous high of 110,000 was also set in 2023 back in the spring.

A boarding is recorded when someone steps foot on a GRT bus or ION train. Of the total, 130,000 riders were on a bus and the remaining 20,000 took the train.

“More people than ever are choosing to take transit as an affordable and sustainable method of transportation,” regional councillor Colleen James, chair of the planning and works committee, said in a press release.

“Not only has our ridership recovered post pandemic but it’s continuing to grow, showing how much our community values and depends on the service.”

It's not uncommon for the first few weeks of September to be busy as students head back to school.

While ridership may slow somewhat, its a trend that Doug Spooner, director of transit services, says will likely stay relatively steady throughout the next few months.

“We expect ridership to continue to be significantly higher than last fall," Spooner said.

“We know that there has been crowding on some buses, as a result of more people riding transit. We continue to monitor routes and trips for overcrowding and are ensuring we continually have all of our available buses on the road.”

Part of the increase can be attributed to the 18,000 new hours of service in Cambridge that was added earlier in the month, as well as restoring some late evening trips and adding new weekend service in new growth areas.