Just going back to a discussion about ridership that was had quite a while ago, the daily ridership on route 73 from Feb-April last year is reported to be over 10,000 so is it safe to assume it’s at least 20,000?
Not quite addressing your question, but, I had been wanting to run some numbers in regards to the 73 and the so far reported ridership on the VLSE and I happened to have those 73 ridership figures open.
I recall that Valley Line ridership was reported to be around 138,000 in November and 135,000 in December. That's kind of brutal. Extrapolating the 73's ridership figures for March 2023 (full month, no holidays). Weekday ridership was 244,904. Saturday 13,532, and Sunday 10,068 for a total ridership of 268,504 for a month.
Not a fair comparison due to Christmas for December, but the 73's ridership seems dramatically higher than the VLSE for November. On the one hand people were still getting used to it, on the other hand there was certainly extra ridership from those wanting to try the line.
Very curious what we will see moving into January and now February since the 73 isn't an option for VLSE ridership. Additionally, curious if some ridership might have shifted to the 500x. Personally, I think we will end up seeing VLSE ridership similar to the 73 for the time being. Despite the availability of ample park and ride at Davies, this option isn't being utilized. Park and Ride in general ETS-wide isn't being utilized like it was pre-Covid. Park and Ride users are typically discretionary users. They certainly haven't returned to transit. You'll note the City, when talking about ridership recovery, only ever mentions bus ridership. They're pretty quiet about LRT ridership recovery.