Ridership down in August 2009
Lower gas prices? The recession? Unemployment? More biking (personally, I’ve been biking a lot this summer to work)? In any case, TriMet ridership was down 4.4% overall in August 2009 compared to August 2008.
A breakdown:
- Bus weekly trips down 11.4% (whoa nilly)
- MAX weekly trips up 9.2%
- WES weekly trips were at 5,900 (yikes)
So continues the extremely poor ridership of the WES…
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Yep, I can confirm that ridership was definitely down for August on WES. A lot of people took vacations or otherwise took time off of work in the month and weren’t commuting in…
September should be a completely different story though. Last week the train was busier than I’d seen it in a while (probably March’ish) and this week appears to be keeping up.
I’m curious if the Green Line will bring any additional riders out to WES. Historically when Trimet opens a new line, all the other lines see a significant boost in ridership. I’m not expecting to see more riders on WES given the distance away from the Green Line but you never know! 
Tri-Met will count the thousands of rides given to teenagers at taxpayer expense as part of the September total.
Rode the WES for the first time a few weeks ago.
What a great train! Comfortable seats, room to walk around and pleasant scenery. Got my email on my iPod via the wireless connection and even managed to recharge my flagging battery.
I’m a MAX commuter not a WES commuter but I may never drive to Fry’s again as long as WES is available.
Not surprised that the ridership is down. We have 12+ % unemployment in this area - a lot of those people are NOT riding buses any more.
I found it interesting when I first saw these numbers that MAX actually has increased ridership. I think at least some of that is due to the MAX being safer; the presence of police, security and TriMet personnel on the system is up many fold. I have them on my train all the time, and welcome them. I could write a long article about how some people run from the train and the platforms as soon as they see police and inspectors. It is funny to see, and give me a good laugh every time.
How about reduction in service?