After the COVID-19 pandemic, ridership on Toronto’s buses, streetcars and subways struggled to bounce back.
But it quickly returned in nearby cities.
Brampton, Mississauga, and parts of Waterloo Region were among the suburbs that swiftly recovered from COVID-19, breaking records for passenger numbers and dealing with overcrowding.
Then, the federal government imposed a limit on the number of international students allowed to study in Ontario. This decision seems to be directly related to the sudden drop in ridership in those areas, which are now seeing millions fewer rides.
“In 2024, federal policy changes reduced immigration inflows and began to affect ridership,” the City of Brampton stated in a message to . “Demand slowed late in the year and declines continued into Spring and Summer 2025, resulting in a revenue shortfall.”
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For instance, Mississauga experienced a 24 per cent drop in student ridership last year along with a total rider decrease of 10 per cent.
“A 10 per cent drop in ridership does seem significant,” acknowledged Maureen Cosyn Heath, Mississauga’s Miway transit director. “Certainly, the policy change is an impact on that.”
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Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories. In Waterloo, Grand River Transit recorded four million fewer rides in 2025 compared to the previous year. “Decreases in ridership were mainly due to reductions in the local student population,” explained a recent report from the agency. The cap on international students was introduced by the federal government in January 2024 and then tightened further. It has been blamed by Ontario’s government for financial issues at provincial colleges as even overseas students who can obtain visas are starting to stay away. Cosyn Heath said that this policy will have long-term effects on Mississauga’s transit planning, potentially leading them to cut or reduce routes serving campuses or student housing. “We’re aware that the changes on international students are going to have a permanent impact on us in the longer term,” she said. “So we revise our ridership projections, and then we pivot and shift to figuring out what new markets exist that we need to serve better.” Story continues below Brampton also mentioned it would be “aligning service delivery with demand and long-term sustainability.” Despite this immediate decline in transit ridership around Toronto, one transit expert believes it’s just a temporary setback rather than something more serious. More on Canada More videos “Brampton was the transit success story of North America long before the international boom,” Jonathan English, principal at Infrastory Insights told . “They experienced a 250 per cent ridership bump before international students arrived. Is it a significant drop? For sure. And will that have financial consequences? Definitely. But I think we need to keep it in perspective.” The transit agency in Mississauga is taking time off to evaluate these impacts but not cutting back services. After increasing their operational hours for riders previously, Mi Way will pause those increases for 2026 while they figure out how best to respond to a 10 per cent dip in passengers. “You’re not going to see service cuts unilaterally across the system as a result of one pocket of our ridership,” Cosyn Heath stated. English believes this is indeed the right approach; he encourages cities like Mississauga ensure services improve enough so they can attract new riders who may not rely as heavily on public transport as students do.“It’s hard to change routes before ridership data comes in. Now that data has arrived there’s an opportunity for systems response – they need to respond,” he noted.
Story continues below“Are some routes going to permanently or for foreseeable future have less ridership? Absolutely… but overall cities continue growing; people still travel for work or leisure or school. So our main goal should be ensuring we maintain basic quality service levels.”
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