Windsor transit sees sharp ridership decline as fares rise, cold weather blamed

Transit Windsor bus

Another drop in ridership at Transit Windsor for the first three months of the year.

The city’s transit service is reporting a 26 per cent drop in rides between January and March 2026 compared to the same period last year.

New figures show Transit Windsor recorded just under 1.7 million rides within the first three months, down more than 600,000 trips from the first quarter of 2025. The largest decline came from student riders, which dropped by nearly 570,000 trips, or 47 per cent.

According to the Transit Windsor board. the extreme cold weather may have contributed to those lower numbers.

Officials will be closely monitoring the Q2 figures from April to June as fares increased 20 cents to $3.95 at the end of March, to see how that affects ridership.

Transit Windsor Board Chair and Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie says officials are trying to determine whether the decline is temporary or part of a larger trend.

“So it is concerning. One of the things that administration is highlighting that they think that, you know, we did have some pretty chilly weather in Q1 of 2026, and that’s leading to the decline. So it’s going to be really, really important for us to pay attention to Q2 ridership numbers to see if it is weather related or if there’s some other structural issues that we would need to address.”

He says there’s concern that increased fares could affect ridership numbers.

“If we’re seeing declining ridership and the fares are increasing, it’s really important for us to have a really good handle on why that’s happening. I think there’s still transit demand out there in our community. In fact, I think there’s growing transit demand in our community if the service was more affordable but also getting help to get people to the places that they want to go.”

Earlier this month, the province announced $4.4-million in gas tax funding for Transit Windsor.

He says municipalities still need more long-term provincial support, and promises were made in 2019 to double the amount given.

“That’s a promise broken by the Province of Ontario and Doug Ford. You can certainly count on me to continue to advocate that municipalities be made whole based on that promise, but I can assure you, we could put $4.3-million to tremendous use and it would really help to offset some of the revenue challenges that we’re seeing.”

McKenzie says discussions around fares, service levels, and future funding are expected to continue as the city prepares for another challenging transit budget cycle.

The transit service ended last year facing an operating deficit of nearly $8-million.

Despite the decline in ridership, Transit Windsor improved its on-time performance to nearly 79 per cent in the first quarter, up from just over 76 per cent in 2025.