Calgary Transit: Ridership Drop Sparks Urgent Review

CALGARY — Calgary Transit just spent serious cash to count heads more accurately, and the numbers tell a story nobody wanted to hear: ridership dropped in 2025, even as fares climbed to $4.00 and the agency pulled in $123 million in ticket revenue.

The culprit? New tech that actually works. Calgary Transit rolled out Automated Passenger Counting (APC) systems across 70 percent of its CTrain fleet, ditching the old manual headcounts and occasional surveys that made ridership numbers look like guesswork. The machines recorded 93.1 million trips in 2025. When the agency went back and recalculated 2024 using the same method, they got 93.7 million trips—meaning ridership actually slipped, not surged.

Laura Hoskins, Leader of Performance and Analytics, says the daily data dump matters for "operational adjustments and future planning and investment." Translation: they now know exactly when trains are packed and when they're rolling empty, which beats flying blind.

The Money Squeeze

Fare revenue jumped $10 million—a nine percent spike—thanks to price hikes, better sales volume, and cracking down on fare dodgers. That $4.00 single adult fare that kicked in January 2026? Part of a budget that pushed Calgary Transit's net operating costs to $417 million and capital spending to $306 million, including an extra $6 million for base service and a $9 million one-time pilot for CTrain security.

The Calgary Student Alliance isn't thrilled. They've warned that fare increases could hammer the affordability of the UPass, turning transit into a luxury some students can't afford.

When Everything Breaks at Once

Calgary Transit blames the 2025 dip on a perfect storm: extreme cold in February 2025 that froze commuters in place, chronic workforce shortages through the fall, and an October 2025 teacher strike that kept families off the trains. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 583 has been banging the drum about operator shortages and safety issues—problems that don't vanish when you install fancy counting machines.

What's Next

Calgary Transit plans to slap APC tech on the rest of the CTrain fleet as older cars get scrapped. They're also eyeing integration with the MyFare app and tap-and-go payment systems to track not just how many people ride, but where they're going and when they bail. All part of the city's 30-year RouteAhead Strategy, approved by City Council on July 4, 2023, which maps out investment for the Primary Transit Network.

The data's now rolling in daily. Whether City Hall uses it to fix the service—or just justify the next fare hike—remains the real question.