September Ridership Numbers...

Image by pbo31 via Flickr

September 2008 Ridership

Total Monthly Ridership:

September 2008 September 2007 Change

Bus: 2,065,820 1,750,248 18.03%

TRAX Light Rail: 1,328,900 1,108,955 19.83%

Commuter Rail: 196,158 N/A N/A

Vanpool 135,891 139,057 -2.26%

System Total: 3,726,769 2,998,240 24.30%

Average Weekday Ridership:

Bus: 89,920 81,572 10.23%

TRAX Light Rail: 51,849 45,969 12.79%

Commuter Rail: 8,250 N/A N/A

Vanpool: 6,471 7,318 -11.57%

System Total: 159,725 134,859 18.44%

It is clear that the investment in TRAX and Front Runner is paying off. Despite there being only two TRAX lines it carries 34% of UTA's ENTIRE ridership. Add Front Runners numbers into the equation and it is at 40%. When you consider the bus system covers six counties and a couple of hundred routes, it truly shows how well TRAX and Front Runner is doing.

Once the other lines are running rail ridership in Salt Lake could exceed bus ridership.

The numbers in Salt Lake City are not unique. In fact the numbers are about the same as Tri-Met in Portland.

Once again the problem facing the bus system is our historic development patterns. Places like Herriman, Draper, most of Sandy, South Jordan, Riverton and others are just difficult to service with standard bus service.