Kingston Transit Provided 30,000 Trips on Tragically Hip Day

Published on: 2016/08/26 - in Featured News

Kingston Transit reports they set a one-day ridership record on August 20th – Tragically Hip Day.

The service counted 29,700 trips by riders who took advantage of its free bus service on the day of The Hip concert,. However, it believes more than 30,000 rides were actually provided, as the count was performed manually and difficult to finalize accurately as crowds emptied from downtown.

“We would like to thank everyone who chose to take Kingston Transit as their way down to Springer Market Square and the Rogers K-Rock Centre,” said director of transportation services, Sheila Kidd, in a release. “It was a major factor contributing to the success of that magical evening.”

That 30,000 rides is especially impressive when considering just 8,700 rides were provided on the previous Saturday.

Kingston Transit is enjoying many compliments and comments that were posted on social media about its service – including a Youtube video of a bus-load of people singing “Bobcaygeon” on their way downtown (embedded below) – and Kidd says they hope those kudos will encourage more people to ride the bus more frequently in the future.

“Kingston Transit is offering more service, more often than ever before and we are going to 10-minute service on west end express routes (Routes 501 and 502) after Labour Day,” Kidd said, urging everyone to explore what their bus commute would look like by using the Google Transit option at KingstonTransit.ca/tripplanner.

“Bus ride to final Tragically Hip concert” (Mr. Worldwide on Youtube)


[Watch on Youtube]


 Photo: Wikimedia Commons