The Region of Waterloo says more than 73,000 passengers took a trip on the ION trains during its opening weekend.

Service officially started Friday at noon.

Over the first eight hours of operation more than 21,000 people stepped on board.

The region says 29,500 passengers boarded the trains on Saturday and more than 22,000 travelled on Sunday.

The hours of operation on both those days was 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Regular ION service began on Monday.

The first trains will depart at 4:36 a.m. and the last will pull into stations at 1:45 a.m.