MiWay’s trends showed the same thing, with 2024’s boardings in the last few months of the year declining compared to 2023. It was most evident on routes with heavy international student/workers.

Even with MiWay stated 9% growth in 2024 almost all of it was from January-August.

One other trend that is obvious is the lagging boardings on Hurontario, Dundas and the Transitway corridors. All of these have still not returned to pre-covid ridership levels and given the massive investments in higher order transit for these corridors, is a cause for concern.

More to come.

The decline in weekend boardings in 2024 compared to 2023 is a little harder to pinpoint. Immigration changes and work restrictions on students probably have a role, although the impacts of inflation and economic anxiety could be reducing leisure trips on weekends.

So what caused the level-off or slight decline in boardings?

On weekdays, one possibility is the hours of work restrictions for international students that were implemented. Like Brampton, MiWay benefitted from the international student boom during and after COVID.

2024 weekend boardings are also down compared to 2023, although still significantly above 2019 levels.

Again, why the longer-term context matters. Another example, route 5 Dixie saw weekday boardings decline in 2024 compared to 2023, but boardings are still up almost 10% compared to 2019.

While there will be more analysis in future posts, a few obvious trends worth recognizing. Overall, after the increase during 2022 and 2023, growth in boardings appears to be levelling off. This is especially evident on routes that saw significant increases in ridership during COVID.

Sunday boardings per route, with the same format as above. Orange is 2024 compared to 2023, blue is 2024 compared to 2019.

Saturday boardings per route. Again, orange is 2024 compared to 2023, blue is 2024 compared to 2019.

Also a important part of any system overview, a breakdown of boardings per route, starting with weekday service. Orange is 2024 compared to 2023, blue is 2024 compared to 2019. As mentioned above, the longer-term context is important.

Saturday and Sunday boardings saw a decline from the highs of 2023, but the longer-term context is important here as weekend boardings in 2024 (blue) still greatly exceed 2019 (grey) across both days:

With that said, a look at weekday boardings by clock hour in 2019 (pre-covid), 2023 and 2024.

2024 weekday boardings track closely with 2019 & 2023 during midday & PM peak; and significantly exceed 2019 levels in early AM and evening. AM peak is a outlier, 2023/2024 boardings lag behind 2019.

This is the 6th year I've been able to obtain MiWay's APC data (even if through FOI), and to give credit where it's deserved, MiWay has been accommodating and efficient at handling the requests.

Some things worth noting:
1) Data is for the October-December 2024 service period, not full year averages.
2) Data is from automated passenger counters on board MiWay buses
3) Data is boardings (unlinked trips) and not revenue ridership (linked trips); there is not always correlation between them.