So this continues the trend in which the FTA has massively underestimated ridership recently on new lines. Cases in point.
Minneapolis - 24,000 Projected 2020 26,000 Q108
Houston - 39,000 Projected 2020 40,000 Q108
Denver - 38,100 Projected 2020 36,000 10.07
In other ridership news, Gold Line ridership in LA is up 31.8%. From bottleneck blog:
Seems to me that it's easier to ride and more convenient than other busways that only increased by 4% in a corridor that has greater population. Also, we got a comment from a reliable anti-rail buddy Tom Rubin in the last Orange Line post. He's most recently been trying to work in Milwaukee for the Reason Foundation but was shutdown by Len Brandrup of Kenosha Transit. I thought his joke at the end of his comment on the last Orange Line post was quite funny. What do you all think?"OK, now I'll say something nice about BRT in this alignment -- it wasn't nearly as dumb as LRT would have been."
2 comments:
The drop in bus ridership may have more than a little to do with MTA's decision to cut bus service and jack up fares to fund expensive rail projects that came with the expiration of the consent decree that MTA had been under which had prevented such a move for more than a decade and had resulted in large increases in bus ridership (larger, in fact than the total ridership of LA's multi-billion dollar rail system).
The projected ridership for the initial 20 mile line in AZ is 26k. Given the size of the line as compared to many other starter lines and considering the economic conditions, I believe this number to be very easy to obtain.
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