Ridership on HSR buses bounces back to pre-COVID levels, Hamilton transit director says

Ridership on the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) has bounced back, a new report from city staff says, and is on pace to be near pre-COVID levels by the end of the year. 

The report was delivered by Maureen Cosyn Heath, city transit director, at a public works committee meeting on Monday. In February, councillors asked staff to report back with ridership numbers on HSR between 2019 and 2023.

For the first time, ridership levels in February were slightly higher than before the pandemic, coming in at 102.1 per cent of 2019 levels, the report says.

Staff expect ridership to be 11 per cent higher than in 2023 and 10.6 per cent above what the city predicted for 2024. The city expects to see more than 21.2 million bus rides this year, which is almost the nearly 21.7 million rides that were taken in 2019.  

"These are great numbers," Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann said at the meeting. "It is really encouraging to see that upwards trend... Glad to see people are getting back on the bus."

The staff report says "the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on ridership in the transit industry lasted longer than originally anticipated."

By the end of 2023, the average ridership rates across the country were at only 80 per cent of 2019 levels, the report says.

The report says ridership hit an all-time low in 2021 "when restrictions were in place for most of the year, education continued online, and work from home practices were in force." 

Transit remains a critical service for people in Hamilton, the report says.

While staff will continue to track ridership numbers, the report says they'll also develop "broader metrics that focus on economic impacts, access and accessibility to opportunities, including employment, education and recreation, environmental impact by forgone greenhouse gas emissions compared to single occupant vehicles, and equity and access."

New transit routes announced last year

Last year, the city unveiled an expanded transit plan, promising a faster, more frequent and reliable bus service. 

The updated routes would be designed to complement the 14-kilometre light rail transit (LRT) line that will eventually connect McMaster University and Eastgate Mall, Cosyn Heath said in an April, 2023, public works committee meeting. 

The plan would include several new rapid routes connecting riders as far away as Dundas, Trinity, Mount Hope, Elfrida and Winona to the LRT downtown. More than 300,000 residents live within 800 metres of the proposed rapid network, according to the staff report. The city said a final version of the plan was expected in 2024 and it would be rolled out over a number of years.

More recently, in December, the city announced a new program for bus users who are blind or use a mobility device to continue to ride for free for part of 2024, as the city transitions to a new fare program that will eventually require them to pay. 

The city had initially prepared to end what's known as the "voluntary pay program" on Jan. 1, which applied to Canadian National Institute for the Blind cardholders and people who used walkers and wheelchairs.

The voluntary pay program, along with affordable transit passes, will be replaced with a "fare assist" Presto program to provide low-income families with a 30 per cent discount.