Thank you, Chair.
Thanks for inviting TransLink to speak with the committee today to discuss a topic that impacts all of us here in metro Vancouver, which is the pressing need to invest in transit and transportation infrastructure in our rapidly growing cities.
TransLink is the regional transportation authority for metro Vancouver. We move more than 400,000 people every single day in our transit system. Like other large cities in Canada, the metro Vancouver region is facing increasing affordability challenges. Today, I want to make a case for why investing in transit now is fundamental to addressing this affordability crisis, as well as why it is fundamental to advancing the economy.
While governments at all levels are working hard to add more housing supply, it's vitally important that we also invest in the transit infrastructure that's needed to move people from their homes to major city centres, job centres and campuses. In fact, while the Province of B.C. recently introduced legislation requiring transit-oriented development around all transit stations, as of today, we have no capacity to provide additional transit service to those locations.
There is a plan to invest in the metro Vancouver region's transit infrastructure called “Access for Everyone”. It's a $21-billion plan in capital investments over the next 10 years. In particular, we are focused on kick-starting this plan with a down payment that the Government of Canada, along with its partners in the Province of B.C. and local municipal governments, can make, beginning in 2024.
We have an urgent need to get going on these investments because of the lead times it takes to get buses ordered and built, to hire and train the bus operators and the maintenance crews, and to prepare the facilities we need to be ready to put the service on the roads and on the tracks.
Today, our transit system has recovered from the pandemic and has now reached prepandemic levels of growth. Overall, ridership has reached close to 90% of prepandemic ridership. On weekends, it's over 100%. TransLink's pandemic ridership recovery has surpassed all major transit systems in Canada and the United States. SkyTrain has emerged as the fourth-busiest rapid rail system across Canada and the United States. While we're the 17th-largest metropolitan area in North America, TransLink's bus ridership is now the third-highest of all transit systems in Canada and the U.S.
Ridership growth is something we should all be celebrating, but it comes with a flip side, which is our capacity to handle all of this demand for transit. In particular, we are seeing overcrowded buses in Surrey, Langley and Delta. These are the most affordable of our suburbs, which are the homes of many newcomers to our region and many new jobs. On route 323, for example, which operates between Surrey's Newton neighbourhood and the Surrey Central SkyTrain station, we have over 15,000 taps every day to get on the bus. That's 6,000 more per day than in 2019. There is now overcrowding on nearly one out of every three buses for transit users on this particular route.
Each week, one-third of the population of our region uses transit to move around the region. To put it into perspective, there are 60% to 70% more overcrowded buses system-wide than there were at the same time last year. It's now worse on all days of the week than it was in 2019, and we expect demand for transit to keep growing, as we saw last year, with over 77,000 new residents coming into our region. Many, if not most, newcomers will use transit when they get here.
Overcrowding is bad today and it will get worse over the next several years. Without transit investments aligned with projected growth, it's expected that overcrowding in our busiest areas—Vancouver and Surrey, for example—will get five and six times worse, respectively, over the next five years. That's why we need an urgent commitment to invest now.
We must be proactive in making sure that our transit infrastructure stays on pace with the growing demand. The longer we wait, the more expensive these projects become. The longer we wait, the more our system ages without the proper maintenance and upgrades required to maintain a state of good repair. The longer we wait, the harder it is for newcomers and everyone else to move around the region to their work and school.
To move as quickly as we can, we are focusing on improving bus service. The “Access for Everyone” plan calls for 250 new buses every year over the next decade. It builds the critical support infrastructure, like bus depots, that is the linchpin for increased service and without which we cannot expand and electrify our service to meet emissions goals. The plan also invests in 65 kilometres of new bus-based rapid transit connecting communities like North Vancouver, Burnaby, Maple Ridge, Langley, Surrey and White Rock.
Federal funding support for these projects, which we announced yesterday, will be critical to get them done. We are asking federal and provincial governments to partner with us now to urgently advance the first phase of transportation priorities with the “Access for Everyone” plan.
Moreover, we need to fundamentally reimagine how we pay for transit throughout the sustainable funding model. That's why we are actively working with the Province of B.C. to develop lasting solutions to fund transit in metro Vancouver.
We also need to look at more secure and stable ways to fund transit across the country. By investing in transit and transportation today, we can create a region that is more affordable, more efficient and more sustainable.
Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to speak today.