Transit ridership slumps in some cities

[charlie hebdo]

Dallas area transit is dwarfed by that in places like NY,  Chicago, Philadelphia  and Boston. 

[JPS1]

daveklepper

 Maybe a good idea might be to find out why some systems have increased ridership and why they have increased ridership. 

From 2016 through 2018 annual ridership on DART’s buses fell 10.4 percent.  Week day ridership dropped 12.7 percent.  Part of the reason may be attributable to a 2.6 percent reduction in the number of bus routes, although most of the route reductions were “on call routes”. 

 

Annual ridership on the light rail system fell 2.6 percent.  Weekday ridership decline by approximately 3 percent.  The number of riders on the Blue Line increased 11.3 percent; ridership on the Red Line dropped 3.4 percent.  Ridership on the Greenline increased by 8.8 percent while the Orange line saw no statistically significant change in its ridership between 2016 and 2018. 

 

The number of annual riders on the Trinity Railway Express declined 4.1 percent between 2016 and 2018.  Weekday ridership dropped 5.4 percent, but weekend ridership increased 8.1 percent. 

 

To understand the reasons for the changes in DART’s ridership, one would need to do a deep dive in the agency’s data.  Some back of the envelop factors probably include the relatively low cost of gasoline, fare adjustments, on-time-performance, better roadways, etc. 

 

Dallas is one of the largest car centric cities in the nation.  The overwhelming majority of people that can afford to drive do so.  With the exception of a few “suits” during the morning and evening rush hours, many if not most of the people that use public transit in Dallas don’t have a good alternative. 

[Atlantic and Hibernia]

 

"Maybe a good idea might be to find out why some systems have increased ridership and why they have increased ridership."

 

Are you suggesting that someone, ummm....you mean...like...you know....think?

 

Kevin

[/quote]

[daveklepper]

MTA Ridership Increases Across Subways, Buses, LIRR and Metro-North as
> On-Time Performance Continues Upward Trajectory
>
> Subway Weekday On-Time Performance Continues to Improve, Up Nearly 20%
> Compared to September of 2018;
> Weekday Major Incidents Decreased 29%, to Lowest Number Since Record Keeping
> Began in 2015
> 
> EDITORS: This version updates to correct figures in the subheadlines and
> fourth paragraph under New York City Transit.
>
> The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced robust
> ridership increases on subways, buses, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North
> Railroad, coinciding with improvements in performance at all agencies.
> Subway average weekday ridership of 5.77 million in September was up 4.5%
> over the prior year, and local bus ridership of 2.25 million was 1.5% over
> the previous year. Long Island Rail Road ridership increased 2.0% in
> September, boosting year-to-date ridership to 2.4% increase and putting the
> railroad on pace to set another modern-day record.  Metro-North Railroad’s
> ridership increased 1.0% in September and has risen 0.6% year-to-date.
> Traffic on MTA Bridges and Tunnels of 29.4 million in August was 0.6% higher
> than the prior year.
> 
> The subway system is carrying nearly 250,000 more trips each weekday than it
> was a year earlier, while buses are carrying 34,000 more trips per average
> weekday. The MTA’s commuter railroads together have carried nearly 2 million
> more people in 2019 through Sept. 30 than during the same period a year
> prior.
> 
> “These numbers are the result of a tremendous amount of hard work and
> dedication,” said MTA Chairman Patrick J. Foye. “The MTA’s top priority is
> increasing the reliability of the system and our workforce has been focused
> on identifying and fixing track defects, fixing signals and switches, and
> overhauling train cars and buses at a faster rate than at any time in
> memory. We're also rethinking how we communicate with our customers – and as
> a result of all of these improvements it’s clear New Yorkers are taking
> notice.”
> 
> New York City Transit
> 
> Weekday subway on-time performance was 82.7% in September – the fourth month
> in a row it’s been above 80% in five years. The SAP, launched by Governor
> Andrew M. Cuomo and then-MTA Chairman Joe Lhota, has provided a surge of
> additional union personnel, outside contractors, and new tools and methods
> for the maintaining and improving the system.
> 
> Overall, subway performance continued its steady improvement in September
> 2019 across a host of categories. Major incidents have declined to the
> lowest number since this record has been kept, while on-time performance has
> continued to improve and customer-centric performance numbers are also
> pointing higher as well. The Save Safe Seconds Initiative and Train Speed
> and Safety Task Force are also working on improving running times throughout
> the system.
> 
> “Once again, I am immensely proud of my brilliant team for relentlessly
> focusing on the basics and working tirelessly to achieve performance gains
> for our customers,” said Andy Byford, New York City Transit President.
> “Together, the work of the Save Safe Seconds campaign and the assistance we
> got from the Subway Action Plan have helped us achieve performance numbers
> unseen in some time and we look forward to improving our numbers even more
> in the months ahead.”
> 
> Weekday major incidents decreased nearly 28.9% from September 2018, dropping
> from 45 to a record-low of 32 in September 2019. Weekday on-time performance
> (OTP) for September was approximately 82.7%, up from 69.4% in the same month
> last year. Seven non-shuttle lines achieved figures in excess of 80% and the
> CBTC-enabled 7 line experienced a 96% on time performance rate.
> 
> Improvements were also realized in many of NYC Transit’s customer-focused
> metrics, including Service Delivered and Customer Journey Time Performance
> improved to 84.7%, up from 80.1% a year ago. Meanwhile, customer
> commendation figures are up 12%.
> 
> A contributing factor to the reduction in delays has been the significant
> progress made in reducing track debris fires, which are down considerably
> since NYCT focused on this problem with new equipment in 2017. This has
> included clearing debris at an unprecedented rate using new platform-based
> mobile vacs, and vacuum trains that move around the system picking up trash.
> Year to date, track fires are down nearly 31% from the previous 12 months,
> from 956 to 703.
> 
> Long Island Rail Road
> 
> LIRR’s year-to-date on-time performance of 92.6% through Sept. 30 is 2.4
> percentage points higher than it was over the same time in 2018.  The LIRR
> has scheduled 1.3% more trains in 2019 through Sept. 30 than it had over
> that timeframe in 2018, yet experienced a 0.4 percentage point increase in
> trips completed, to 99.4%. Trains operating with fewer cars than their
> normal length plunged 23.6% and trains’ mechanical reliability increased
> 7.4%, with trains traveling 193,667 miles between experiencing a mechanical
> failure as of Aug. 31. Track circuit failures in 2019, have plunged to 42
> through Sept. 30, down by a third from 64 during the prior year.
> 
> “This is a testament to the hard work of the men and women of the Long
> Island Rail Road, who through the LIRR Forward program are taking on every
> challenge among those aspects of service that we can control, so that we’re
> more prepared to respond to those things we can’t control,” said LIRR
> President Phil Eng. “We remain focused on balancing state of good repair and
> an unprecedented amount of capital work to expand and modernize our railroad
> that will provide a better customer experience for this generation, and for
> generations to come.”
> 
> Metro-North Railroad
> 
> Metro-North’s year-to-date on-time performance of 94.3% through Sept. 30 is
> 3.7 percentage points higher than it was over the same time in 2018.
> Metro-North has scheduled 142 more trains in 2019 through Sept. 30 than it
> had over that timeframe in 2018, yet experienced a 0.3 percentage point
> increase in trips completed, to 99.8%. The percentage of trains operating at
> their full length this year has increased 0.7 percentage points East of
> Hudson through Sept. 30, to 99.4%, while the improvement West of Hudson was
> even more pronounced, rising 1.2 percentage points to 98.9%. Trains’
> mechanical reliability surged 63%, with trains traveling 244,074 miles
> between experiencing a mechanical failure, up from 149,683 a year prior.
> Delays related to switch and signal problems have plunged to 741 through
> Sept. 30, down by more than half from 1,800 experienced during the prior
> year.
> 
> “Metro-North’s Way Ahead program is providing a road map for the railroad’s
> future, where we concentrate on increasing train service safety and
> reliability,” said Catherine Rinaldi, President of Metro-North Railroad.
> “These statistics come roughly after our first year of fulfilling the Way
> Ahead plan, and all signs point to even more improvement going forward. I
> thank the hard work and dedication of the entire Metro-North workforce for
> bringing these results.”
> 
> MTA Bridges and Tunnels
> 
> At MTA Bridges and Tunnels, as traffic volumes increased 0.6% E-ZPass usage
> reached 94.4%, an increase of half a percentage point over the year prior.
>
>

[daveklepper]

Maybe a good idea might be to find out why some systems have increased ridership and why they have increased ridership.

[York1]

"Many regions have blamed their transit woes on the economic rebound from the 2008 global financial crash"

 

 

So, if we could just have another economic crash, we could get increased transit use!

[Overmod]

I hope that crack about politicians 'making it tougher to drive a car in California' is unintentional humor.

I find it almost pathetic that SANDAG would 'gin up a huge, basically impractical proposal for "commuter rail" lines all over their little acre, without in the least suggesting relocation of the LOSSAN corridor route through the bottlenecks we've so often noted.  

[charlie hebdo]

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/transportation/story/2019-10-20/nationwide-transit-ridership-plummeting-san-diego-buck-trend