For January 2009, METRO ridership totals 911,883 boardings, resulting in an average weekday ridership of 30,617, average Saturday ridership of 31,331 and average Sunday and holiday ridership of 23,815.
"We are delighted with the community's response to the system and their turn out. We hope to see this success continue with more and more people integrating light rail into their transportation plans," said Councilman Tom Simplot, METRO's board chairman.
During the extensive planning for METRO, an average weekday ridership of 26,000 daily boardings was projected for its first year of operation.
METRO will continue to monitor ridership and report new totals each month. "The METRO team is hard at work to provide a high level of
service that keeps customers coming back to light rail," said METRO CEO Rick Simonetta. "We are extremely pleased with these preliminary
numbers and hope to see them continue to exceed our projections over the course of this first year."
Nick,
The light rail system in Phoenix is a treasure for the community there. I only wish it were possible to have such a system back here in Michigan! The ridership numbers are encouraging, and the more you Tweet about it, the more riders will likely find out about it. You do a great job of promoting the light rail system – keep it up!
Vance… Thanks! You rock…
It’ll beinteresting to see what the D’Backs games do for average ridership numbers – I don’t think the averages will drop so much during the summer because you should have several thousand fares every game. It was one of the big surpirses on the Hiawatha Light rail in Minneapolis, where there is ample and very cheap parking around the Metrodome.
Dan, that’s a great point. We hear from a LOT of people who are excited to take light rail to the baseball games. I know that I will probably never drive to another game. It is much easier to park at a free lot and have them take me to the game. 🙂