With lifted COVID-19 restrictions, bus ridership in northeastern Ontario trends up

The COVID-19 pandemic initially led to a noticeable decline in public transit ridership in northeastern Ontario. Now, some cities within the region say they've started to see those numbers bounce back.

Brendan Adair, the director of transit services for the City of Greater Sudbury said ridership was down more than 50 per cent in April 2020 when the pandemic first hit Canada.

Prior to that time, Adair said the city typically welcomed more than 300,000 riders per month. But following April 2020, it dropped to less than 150,000 riders per month. 

"Our stats mirrored basically many transit agencies across the province who were struggling with the same pieces," Adair said.

In August 2019, the city rebranded its transit services to GOVA, which changed a large number of routes. Adair said those modifications resulted in more transit users throughout the fall and into the early part of 2020.

But when the pandemic started, it meant more people started to work from home and no longer needed to take the bus to work. While others were concerned about social distancing with strangers in a confined space.

"With the onset of the pandemic, there were lots of unknowns and there were lots of suggestions to stay at home," Adair said. "Many things were closed."

Now, Adair said, the city has begun to see more people return to transit. In March, ridership was up 33 per cent compared to the same month in 2021.

Adair said fewer COVID-19 restrictions likely contributed to the increase in ridership. Although the province will continue to require masks on public transit until April 27.

He said he suspects higher gas prices might have also convinced people to replace their car keys with a bus pass.

Randy Romain, a transit user from Sudbury, said so far, he doesn't know anyone who has switched to taking the bus due to high gas prices.

"A lot of people I don't feel like are going to the bus transit, but a lot of people are choosing their rides a lot more carefully and only go out when they feel they need to," he said.

Melanie Lang, who has been using Sudbury transit services for five years, said she noticed some popular routes have been more crowded in recent months.

"Now that everything's been lifted and everything, they're overcrowding the number one buses and Barrydowne," she said.

 "And there's a few buses that really get overloaded and they need to double up on those buses." 

Reliance on students

In North Bay, Ont., transit manager Drew Poeta said while ridership dropped by 40 per cent when the pandemic started, the city is seeing numbers spring back. 

Poeta said that when Canadore College and Nipissing University moved to online learning it led to a big drop in ridership.

"We believe as we see an increase in in-person learning, we'll see a significant increase in the ridership in North Bay Transit," he said.

He said post-secondary students make up a big percentage of transit users in the city.

In Sault Ste. Marie, the city expects transit ridership to remain relatively stable for the remainder of 2022.

"Historically, we see lower ridership in the summer months, however, increases in September with back-to-school and the cooler months," city spokesperson Tessa Vecchio said, in an email to CBC News.