Almost all individual routes saw year-over-year increases from 2024 to 2025
C-TRAN’s total ridership surpassed 5 million in 2025, trending upward for the fourth year in a row. The preliminary total of 5,280,313 trips was a 6.3 percent increase over 2024.
The total ridership includes all fixed-route bus service, C-VAN paratransit service, The Current, Vanpool and special event service. Almost all individual routes saw year-over-year increases from 2024 to 2025.
“We know how important public transit is in our community, and the continued growth we’ve seen is a reflection of that,” said Leann Caver, C-TRAN’s Chief Executive Officer. “We also know that travel patterns look different as our region grows and evolves. As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, we’ll continue to evolve to meet the needs of our riders and the communities we serve.”
C-TRAN’s total ridership exceeded 5 million in 2025 for the first time since 2019, bolstered by new and returning riders in Clark County. Some Local routes have surpassed pre-pandemic ridership levels.
Other notable trends in 2025:
- The Vine on Fourth Plain remains C-TRAN’s busiest route, with a ridership of 1.1 million last year.
- The Vine on Mill Plain, the second-busiest, saw a ridership of 780,331 in its second full year of service.
- The Current, C-TRAN’s on-demand service, served more than 50,000 trips across all service zones in 2025, nearly a 50 percent increase from the previous year. Demand continues to grow rapidly, also reflected in the expansion of The Current to Battle Ground in September.
- Route 48 (Ridgefield/La Center) continues to be one of C-TRAN’s fastest-growing routes, with a 28 percent increase in ridership in 2025.
- Route 12, which launched in mid-September 2025 on Vancouver’s 112th Avenue corridor, tallied a ridership of more than 10,000 in each of its first three full months in operation.
As ridership grows, C-TRAN continuously looks for ways to make service improvements and meet demand while providing new opportunities and connections in the region. In 2026, C-TRAN will finalize its long-range plan known as C-TRAN 2045. That plan represents a collective vision for what public transportation in Clark County could look like in the next two decades, based largely on community feedback from the past two years.
C-TRAN is the regional public transportation provider for Clark County. It offers Local bus service within its Clark County service area, plus Regional and Express bus service to Portland. C-TRAN also provides on-demand service with The Current, operating in Battle Ground, Camas/Washougal, Ridgefield/La Center, WSU Vancouver/Salmon Creek, Rose Village, and the Port of Vancouver. For more information on C-TRAN please visit C-TRAN’s website at www.c-tran.com, or call Customer Service at (360) 695-0123.
Also read:
- C-TRAN ridership grows for fourth consecutive year
C-TRAN ridership topped 5 million trips in 2025, marking the fourth straight year of growth. - Opinion: ‘If they want light rail, they should be the ones who pay for it’
Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance argues that supporters of light rail tied to the I-5 Bridge replacement should bear the local cost of operating and maintaining the system through a narrowly drawn sub-district. - Opinion: IBR falsely blaming inflation
Joe Cortright argues that inflation explains only a small portion of the IBR project’s cost increases and that rising consultant and staff expenses are the primary drivers. - Letter: The Interstate Bridge Replacement Program’s $141 million bribe can be better spent on sandwich steel-concrete tubes
Bob Ortblad argues that an immersed tunnel using sandwich steel-concrete tubes would be a more cost-effective alternative to the current Interstate Bridge Replacement Program design. - A sub-district vote could be a way to go to pay O&M costs associated with light rail
Clark County Council members heard details on how a voter-approved C-TRAN sub-district could be created to fund long-term operations and maintenance costs for light rail tied to a new Interstate Bridge.
5 million sounds like a lot. But that’s the number of rides in CTRAN vehicles. What would be interesting is how many seats were available during those rides. I’m guess in the 5 million riders represent less than 5% of the available seats. So the highly tax subsidized transit system is carrying virtually empty buses on most routes. Prove me wrong. Perhaps CTRAN should review capacity usage and reduce some routes or use CVANs rather than those big empty buses.
Thank you for rides since 1986 or so.