Impact of Olympics on Canada Line Ridership

Research Student: Jared Duivestein

This project investigates the long-term effects of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games on ridership on the Canada Line, the newest line in Greater Vancouver’s SkyTrain system. Patronage of the line more than doubled during the Games, largely as a result of a modal shift necessitated by Games-related road closures. What remains unclear is whether any of these new riders were retained over the long term. This is further complicated by the fact that the line opened only six months prior to the start of the Games, and was already seeing substantial ridership growth as a result of the ramp-up effect.

All stations on the line contain Automatic Passenger Counters; this data has been obtained from August 17th 2009 (opening day) until February 27th 2011 (one year after the Olympic Games finished). A robust regression analysis was performed on these ridership counts to determine if any ridership trends could be specifically attributed to the Olympics.

The analysis suggests that the Games resulted in a permanent increase of approximately 4,600 riders to the line and these appear to be riders who would not have otherwise switched to using the system, as opposed to simply an acceleration of the ramp-up period. There are however, a number of limitations in the data and analysis methodology which require addressing before any definitive conclusions regarding long-term ridership increases can be reached.