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Photo courtesy Richmond Sentinel

Metro Vancouver Transit Ridership During FIFA

Published 3:35 PDT, Fri July 17, 2026

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BY ISABELLA RODRIGUES

Now that the FIFA World Cup is finished, those of you who ride buses or trains noticed some of the big differences during the festivities. Here’s a brief look at all that was new for the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Footballs everywhere!
All throughout the city, you definitely noticed the decorations and footballs that the city, retailers, and restaurants put up to celebrate FIFA. Like with the 2010 Olympics, a lot of money went into improving the image and transit service for the city. To do so, TransLink spent $21 million on increasing service and giving a refreshed look for buses, trains and the SeaBus, including decorations, signs, maps, and more.

Christine Sinclair, Olympic Gold Medalist
(on transit speakers)
If you rode any of Metro Vancouver's major train lines, you've probably heard the voice of football gold medalist Christine Sinclair over the train speakers. As a special part of the FIFA World Cup, she was on the air to point passengers in the right direction of both the FIFA Fan Festival and at the Stadium-China- town station. While useful for tourists and newcomers some found this to be intrusive to their daily commutes.

New bus routes
During FIFA, you probably noticed a new pair of buses. For the month-long championship, TransLink introduced us to two new busses — those being the number 11 and the number 1. For the city, during such a busy time, it was important to add these two new routes so tourists, fans, and locals were able to get to the festivities and events with ease.

The number 11 bus was an accordion bus that ran from 29th Avenue train station, passing Renfrew Station, and finally going to the FIFA Fan Festival located near the PNE.

As for the number 1 bus, it was a circular route around downtown Vancouver that passed a number of train stations and main streets. The two that it directly interacted with were the Burrard and Yaletown stations, but many others were within walking distance.

Re-directed bus routes
While there were the two new routes, many changes actually came from the buses that were re-directed. Most of these were caused by the city transforming five blocks of Granville Street into a car-free zone. In addition, on tournament days many more streets were closed or re-routed causing buses to make detours.

Packed trains
During FIFA, one thing that was obvious to all — more than the new buses — were the full trains. Along all three train lines (Canada Line, Expo Line, and Millennium Line), transit ridership surged in a way that is only comparable to three major events before — those being Expo 1986, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the Taylor Swift Eras Tour.

On that matter, TransLink said that Metro Vancouver's transit system reached a six- year high on Wednesday, June 24th, with nearly 1.4 million boardings recorded as fans, commuters, students, and visitors moved across the region during the Canada–Switzerland game day.

Closing
With the FIFA World Cup now behind us, it's clear that Metro Vancouver's transit system rose to the occasion. The big ques- tion now is what happens next. TransLink poured $21 million into extra service, new routes, and a polished look for the World Cup — but will any of it last? While many of the changes were intended to be tempo- rary, will the momentum brought by FIFA remain a part of Metro Vancouver, only time will tell.