TTC ridership on buses is starting to bounce back but still way off pre-pandemic levels

It'll take more than a pandemic to keep Toronto away from the public transit system it relies on so much.

Reports from the most recent TTC board meeting show that ridership numbers on buses is already back at 30 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Chart on growing bus ridership over the last few weeks, presented at today’s TTC board meeting. Back at 30% of pre-pandemic ridership. pic.twitter.com/FR1QILEJxv

— Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt) June 17, 2020

The chart shows that there have been nearly 70,000 more bus boardings per day betwen May 15 and June 5.

As the city begins to reopen under the guidence of the Ontario government, more people have started cautiously resuming riding the bus.

A heat map also shows which routes are being utilized, including those most notorious for overcrowding and that largely corrolate with Toronto's map of COVID-19 neighbourhoods hot spots.

And here’s a heat map of crowded bus routes, continuing to correlate with high COVID case areas and lower-income neighbourhoods. On the Jane route, TTC says they are offering MORE service now than they were in February before pandemic, due to crowding. pic.twitter.com/mRdepMWICy

— Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt) June 17, 2020

Some of the bus routes are slated for improvement with the board also approving a motion to accelerate the buiding of designated bus lanes that's meant to help ensure the health and safety of riders.

Last month the TTC said it had cut bus and subway service by roughly 16 per cent due to a drop in ridership as people stayed home under lockdown.

The TTC saw a 85 to 90 per cent drop in overall ridership when the pandemic first hit and was losing roughly $20 million a week in revenue. It also had to temporarily layoff 1,200 employees.

Fears still linger on how the TTC will recoup the severe losses it's experienced over the past few months and the affect it will have on service. It's estimated to lose $300 million by September and could see service cut by 50 per cent without government intervention.

While a good chunk of Toronto residents say that they plan to resume using the TTC as they did during pre-pandemic times, at least 10 percent vow to never ride it again.