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Transit Ridership Increases 22 2019 2025

Transit Ridership increases 22% (2019-2025)

Transit Ridership Update: If you think you’re seeing more transit riders, you’re right!

Like many Edmontonians, my family and I are daily transit users and depend on the bus and train to help us shop, work, and take care of our needs. Even if you don’t use public transit, these statistics are worth celebrating. Every transit trip represents one fewer car ahead of you on the road, stuck in traffic, or competing with you for a parking space!

Michael Janz on transit

Total transit ridership was 15.74 million in Q1 2025, representing an 11 per cent increase from 14.21 million in Q1 2024 and a 22 per cent increase from 12.95 million in Q1 2019 (pre-pandemic levels).

  • Year-over-year ridership growth was highest in January 2025 at 23 per cent, with 5.4 million rides in 2025 compared to 4.4 million in 2024.
  • Valley Line Southeast LRT year-over-year growth of 46 per cent

  • On Demand Transit saw significant year-over-year growth 31 per cent

  • February 2025 ridership was 4.73 million, a marginal decrease of 2 per cent compared to 4.84 million in February 2024. This could be attributed to several factors, including colder weather in 2025, last year being a leap year with an extra day in February, and different dates for the Greater Edmonton Teachers' Convention. The convention, which took place on February 27-28 in 2025 compared to February 29-March 1 in 2024, typically results in lower student and teacher ridership on those dates.

  • March 2025 ridership rebounded with a 12 per cent year-over-year growth from 2024. Overall ridership was also highest in March with 5.63 million rides.

I hope that in future we’ll be able to keep making public transit faster and more frequent to help public transit serve as a first choice for more Edmontonians. Steps such as transit priority measures, increasing service on high frequency routes, and mitigating construction and route delays will help ensure all of us have a city that is smooth to move.

Do you want to nerd out on more transit data? ETS' 2024/2025 Annual Service Plan (ASP) has been published and is available on the Transit Reports webpage. One of my favorite features is the "Route Report Cards". I'm continually impressed by the transparency demonstrated by our leadership.

Thank you to all of the transit workers. Remember to thank your driver when you tap off!