News
Light Rail Ridership Increases, Still Fails to Meet Targets
Photo via West Seattle Blog.
According to Sound Transit's latest ridership report, ridership was down in the last quarter of 2010, compared to the last quarter of 2009, on all the agency's transit routes except Central Link Light rail.
And although light rail rail ridership continued to grow---increasing 38 percent, quarter over quarter, since 2009 thanks largely to the opening of the station at SeaTac Airport---ridership didn't grow as fast as Sound Transit projected, and cost per boarding was higher than the agency budgeted. In 2009, the cost per passenger boarding was $9.30; that number went down in 2010 to $6.44. On-time performance---meeting specific schedule goals---ranked lower than all of Sound Transit's other services at 86.6 percent, but "headway management"---keeping trains a certain number of minutes apart---was better than 90 percent, the report says.
Ridership on Sounder trains, Tacoma light rail, and Sound Transit Express buses fell short of expectations, with eight percent fewer people riding Sounder, five percent fewer riding express buses, and three percent more riding Tacoma Link (an increase that still fell short of Sound Transit's projections). Cost per boarding increased on both express buses (to $7.48 per ride) and Sounder rail (to $13.74 per ride).
"Several factors contributed towards lower bus and Sounder ridership. For example, ridership was adversely impacted by snow and ice November 22-25, with some bus routes cancelled and others running on a reduced schedule during this four-day period," the report says. "By contrast, the adverse weather had little impact on Central Link and Tacoma Link service"---a phenomenon I noted here .
Sound Transit
According to Sound Transit's latest ridership report, ridership was down in the last quarter of 2010, compared to the last quarter of 2009, on all the agency's transit routes except Central Link Light rail.
And although light rail rail ridership continued to grow---increasing 38 percent, quarter over quarter, since 2009 thanks largely to the opening of the station at SeaTac Airport---ridership didn't grow as fast as Sound Transit projected, and cost per boarding was higher than the agency budgeted. In 2009, the cost per passenger boarding was $9.30; that number went down in 2010 to $6.44. On-time performance---meeting specific schedule goals---ranked lower than all of Sound Transit's other services at 86.6 percent, but "headway management"---keeping trains a certain number of minutes apart---was better than 90 percent, the report says.
Ridership on Sounder trains, Tacoma light rail, and Sound Transit Express buses fell short of expectations, with eight percent fewer people riding Sounder, five percent fewer riding express buses, and three percent more riding Tacoma Link (an increase that still fell short of Sound Transit's projections). Cost per boarding increased on both express buses (to $7.48 per ride) and Sounder rail (to $13.74 per ride).
"Several factors contributed towards lower bus and Sounder ridership. For example, ridership was adversely impacted by snow and ice November 22-25, with some bus routes cancelled and others running on a reduced schedule during this four-day period," the report says. "By contrast, the adverse weather had little impact on Central Link and Tacoma Link service"---a phenomenon I noted here .
Sound Transit
