Transit ridership slumps in some cities

[JPS1]

blue streak 1

 Flintlock76 I just blundered into this video which might explain why San Diego's transit ridership is going down. 

Oh for goodness sakes.  San  Diego transit ridership up 6+%.  Where in the world did you get such mis information ?

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/news/San-Diego-MTS-trolley-drives-ridership-spike--59036  

As per Page 121 of the Metropolitan Transit Authority 2018 Comprehensive Annual Report, long term ridership on the bus and trolley systems has been declining over the ten years ended FY18.  Whether the FY19 results have made a significant dent in the long-term trend is not known.

From 2009 through 2018 ridership on the buses declined every year except 2011, 2012, and 2013.  Bus ridership was 29.8 million in 2009.  In 2018 it was 22.9 million, a decrease of 23.2 percent from 2009.

 

Over the same period ridership on the trolleys, which I ride two or three times a year, declined every year except 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015.  Ridership on the trolley increased from 36.9 million in 2009 to 37 million in 2018 or 18/100s of one percent, but it declined to 37 million in 2018 or by 7.7 percent since hitting a peak of 40.1 million in 2015.   

 

It is the long-term trends that are important.  

[charlie hebdo]

Duplicate

[charlie hebdo]

APTA REPORTS U.S. RAIL RIDERSHIP UP IN SECOND QUARTER COMPARED WITH 2018

PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans took more than 2.5 billion passenger trips on public transportation in the second quarter of 2019, according to the quarterly Transit Ridership Report released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), representing 11 million trips more than during the same period last year.

These second-quarter results show an increase of nearly 0.5% across all modes compared to the second quarter of 2018, APTAA said in a news release summarizing the report. This includes a rise of 1.44% for heavy rail, 3.54% for commuter rail systems, 0.5% in bus systems in population areas exceeding 2 million people, and 1.51% in systems in communities of less than 100,000 residents, APTA said.

Among commuter rail carriers that saw notable increases, the New York MTA’s Long Island Rail Road saw an increase of 10.6%.

[JPS1]

charlie hebdo

APTA REPORTS U.S. RAIL RIDERSHIP UP IN SECOND QUARTER COMPARED WITH 2018

PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans took more than 2.5 billion passenger trips on public transportation in the second quarter of 2019, according to the quarterly Transit Ridership Report released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), representing 11 million trips more than during the same period last year.

These second-quarter results show an increase of nearly 0.5% across all modes compared to the second quarter of 2018, APTAA said in a news release summarizing the report. This includes a rise of 1.44% for heavy rail, 3.54% for commuter rail systems, 0.5% in bus systems in population areas exceeding 2 million people, and 1.51% in systems in communities of less than 100,000 residents, APTA said.

Among commuter rail carriers that saw notable increases, the New York MTA’s Long Island Rail Road saw an increase of 10.6%. 

Quarter to quarter comparisons are relatively meaningless.  It is the long term trends that are important.  

[JPS1]

The OP cited an article dealing with transit ridership in general.  Not just rail.  Transit includes buses, rail, on-call services, etc.  The title of the thread is
“Transit Ridership slumps in some cities”.

 

As noted above, transit ridership as a whole is down in many but not all cities. 

 

Overall, transit ridership in NYC declined in 2018 compared to 2017.  Whether the NYC trends continued in 2019 will not be clear until official, audited numbers are presented by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

 

According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority 2018 Annual Report, Page 1, total ridership on the MTA’s subways, buses, and railroads was 2.56 billion rides, which was down 3.7 percent from 2017 and the third annual decline in a row.

 

Subway volume was 1.68 billion rides in 2018, down 2.3 percent from 2017.  Combined ridership on the NYCT Bus and MTA Bus fell by 4.7 percent in 2018. Ridership on NYCT Bus was down 6.7 percent.  Ridership on the MTA Bus fell 6/10s of 1 percent.

 

Ridership on the Long Island Railroad hit a record high of 89.8 million rides while ridership on the Metro-North fell slightly.  LIRR ridership was up ½ of 1 percent over 2017, but well below its peak ridership of 91.8 million passengers in 1949. 

 

Total MTA volume has declined 5.8 percent since the peak year of 2015. For FY18 total ridership of 87.1 million was approximately 145,000 rides below 2017 or a reduction of approximately 2/10s of 1 percent.  

 

Even in NYC, which is heavily dependent on transit, ridership has been declining.  Whether it continues to do so remains to be seen.  

[charlie hebdo]

The comparisons were 2019 2nd quarter vs same quarter in 2018, not against previous quarter this year. 

[CMStPnP]

JPS1

ridership on the Red Line dropped 3.4 percent. 

How much was spent on capacity improvements to parallel highway 75 (Central Expressway) during that same period?     Transit ridership does not exist in a world of it's own it is just one mode of a multi-mode transportation system.

I'm OK with the relatively minor decline and look towards the longer trend of urbanization and it's impact on ridership.    DART light rail is not yet in final form it is still a system under construction and parts of DART light rail were built a decade or more before their target to save money in financing.

All you need to do is look at the Red Line video I posted in Transit Forum.   You can see urbanization has not encroached on much of the Red Line yet.