As expected, MetroRail’s ridership numbers dropped off significantly once the first, free week ended (March 22-26). From the overflowing, standing-room-only crowds (more than 14,000 the first week), daily ridership for the second week (March 29-April 2) fell to:

Monday 917
Tuesday 959
Wednesday 953
Thursday 987
Friday 1,681

Capital Metro estimates the end-of-the-week spike was due to people having the day off on Good Friday, giving people another chance to joyride, which was the cause of the first week’s high numbers. Though early, these results suggest MetroRail has some work to do in cultivating ridership – ridership appears to be less than half the 2,000-per-day the agency has predicted. Capital Metro says now that the opening hoopla is over, it will no longer be reporting weekly ridership figures and will switch to the monthly reporting that it does for other modes in its transit system.

This article appears in April 16 • 2010.

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