Calgary Transit: New CTrain Counting Tech Maps 93.1 Million Rides

CALGARY, AB — Calgary Transit is reading the room—or rather, the train car. The agency has rolled out Automated Passenger Counting (APC) technology across roughly 70 percent of its CTrain fleet, trading manual surveys and statistical guesswork for door-by-door sensor data that captures every boarding in real time.

The result? A sharper picture of how Calgarians move. In 2025, the system logged 93.1 million trips, a figure derived from the new counting methodology rather than the sampling-based estimates that transit agencies across North America have traditionally relied on.

From Clipboards to Sensors

Calgary Transit has used APC technology on buses since 2023. The CTrain rollout brings the same automated sensors—mounted at each door—to the rail network, capturing ridership data system-wide, every day.

'To have this daily feedback on the number of customers using public transit, across the entire system, is important for adjusting our operations and future planning,' says Laura Hoskins, Leader of Performance and Analytics at Calgary Transit. 'It's a big value-add piece not just for us at Calgary Transit, but for being strategic on where we and Council invest dollars to improve service and expand the network.'

The technology doesn't just count heads. It tracks patterns—when ridership spikes during Stampede, when it dips during extreme cold snaps. That granularity lets transit planners schedule trains and buses to match demand rather than educated guesses.

What the Numbers Show

The 2025 ridership total of 93.1 million trips represents a slight dip from the restated 2024 figure of 93.7 million, which was recalculated using the new APC methodology to allow apples-to-apples comparison.

Calgary Transit attributes the decline to three specific disruptions: the February 2025 extreme cold event, workforce shortages in the fall that required select route cuts, and the October 2025 teacher strike. Strip those out, the agency says, and underlying ridership demand continues to show stable growth.

Meanwhile, fare revenues for 2025 hit $123 million—up $10 million, or nine percent, from 2024. That increase reflects higher fare compliance, including new platform validators and enforcement blitzes, as well as increased fare sales. It does not reflect fare price increases, which Calgary City Council approved in late 2025 but which only took effect in January 2026.

What Comes Next

As Calgary Transit phases out older train cars, APC coverage will expand beyond the current 70 percent. The agency also plans to layer in data from tap-and-go payment systems, creating a more detailed view of customer travel patterns and service gaps.

The shift from manual counts to automated sensors marks a operational pivot for Calgary Transit—one that trades periodic snapshots for continuous monitoring. The payoff, transit officials say, is a system that can adjust in near-real time to how Calgarians actually ride.