Quote:
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ridership on FrontRunner commuter trains was up by 66 percent for a total of 30,016 boardings
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Quote:
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Ridership on the TRAX light rail was up by 32 percent, for a total of 79,825 boardings.
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Thirty Thousand boardings on FrontRunner?
To put this in its proper context, Los Angeles, the second-biggest city in the USA, has a commuter rail system of 7 separate lines that cover over 500 miles of track, and their average daily ridership is
39,000.
Guys, for 1 day, we were only a few thousand rides away from overtaking freakin' LA.
... Also, that number of 30,000 seems very familiar. Let me repost some numbers from the UTA Network study (
PDF LINK), where they have some projected ridership numbers for future UTA Projects
Page 53
2040 No-Build scenario, all new growth = sprawl:
FrontRunner Daily Ridership: 17,000 (about what we get today)
TRAX Blue Line: 27,000
2040 No-Build scenario, new growth is added density:
FrontRunner: 24,000
TRAX Blue Line: 44,000
2040 with Improvements Made (double-track+electrify FrontRunner, extend the Blue Line to Lehi), all new growth = sprawl:
FrontRunner: 27,000
TRAX Blue Line: 40,000
2040 with Improvements Made (double-track+electrify FrontRunner, extend the Blue Line to Lehi), all new growth is added density:
FrontRunner: 37,000
TRAX Blue Line: 58,000
So if the end goal is to increase ridership, we can either build out our transit networks for millions (if not billions) of $$$, or we can just eliminate fares and get that ridership boost now. Imagine how that will change the development patterns, if suddenly transit popularity were to essentially double!
Also, while the biggest boost was to FrontRunner and the bus network got essentially nothing, it is worth noting that big prominent and well-defined transit routes - rail transit or BRT - are usually the 'gateway' for most new transit riders. Once they get familiar and comfortable with trains and well-defined BRT routes, they will be a little more willing to branch out and use the bus network as well, which does take some acquired skills to use well.