Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2008
METRO TRANSIT ANNUAL RIDERSHIP IS HIGHEST SINCE 1982
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – (Feb. 8) – Metro Transit closed 2007 with 77 million rides, the highest annual ridership total since 1982.
That means that every minute of every day last year, 146 people hopped on a Metro Transit bus or train.
The 2007 ridership tally was 3.4 million rides, or 4.7 percent, higher than 2006.
“Ridership growth in 2007 is not a one-year phenomenon. It continues a positive trend,” said General Manager Brian Lamb. “Ridership is up 10.4 percent over the past two years.”
The agency recorded increases in all major service categories in 2007: express rides up 4.8 percent; urban local rides, up 4.6 percent; and rail rides, up 1.5 percent.
Metro Transit saw a l2.2 percent increase in rides taken with a Metropass, a transit pass that employers provide, often picking up all or part of the cost for their employees. “Business leaders understand the importance of transit in battling congestion, and they see the benefits when employees have a relaxed, reliable commute,” Lamb said. There were 7.2 million Metropass rides last year.
U-Pass rides by students at the University of Minnesota also were up 9.1 percent to 4.3 million.
Lamb reported that riders have responded favorably to the agency’s new Go-To Card fare payment system with 26 percent of all rides in December taken by holders of these smartcards.
Lamb also cited reliability improvements that made transit service more attractive to new customers. On-time performance for buses was 89 percent, up 1 percent over 2006. Trains ran on schedule 97 percent of the time.
Metro Transit also received positive feedback from customers on its Go Greener Initiative that included the purchase late last year of 19 hybrid electric buses – with 150 more on the way – and the use of 10 percent soy biodiesel, increasing to 20 percent in March.
“Clearly external conditions contributed, such as higher gas prices, growing freeway congestion and – in the last five months of the year – the loss of the I-35W bridge,” Lamb said. “Nonetheless, while ridership surged upward when gas prices increased, those new customers stayed with us when prices dropped. They appreciated the reliability and received a positive commuting experience.”
Metro Transit is a service of the Metropolitan Council.
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(Editors: For information call Bob Gibbons, director of customer services, 612-349-7509 or via e-mail at robert.gibbons@metc.state.mn.us)
