How many people are riding the Orange Line to the airport?
A couple of women squeezed on my southbound DART train this morning pulling rollaway suitcases behind them. As the rest of us were headed to work, these two were on their way to board a plane at DFW’s Terminal A. I’d say they looked happier than the others on the train.
The thought occurred: With the airport service now more than two months old, time for a ridership update.
I emailed DART’s Morgan Lyons this morning, and here’s what he said back:
“It’s a little over 1,000 a day last I heard. The projection was 1,200 after a year, so we’re happy with the way it has developed.”
Point of clarification: DART counts passengers as they get ON the train. These two DFW-bound passengers were counted when they boarded at Lovers Lane, and that’s it.
If they take a taxi or get a ride back home, their use of DART to reach the airport will not be reflected in DART’s passenger count. I suppose it might balance out, but it might not, depending on people’s routines.
And this further from Morgan:
“We’re seeing lots of employees, which is good. We’re also seeing a lot of what you reported, people a good distance from the airport riding the train with luggage.”
The early guess from DART chief Gary Thomas and others was that most passengers on the Orange Line to the airport would be workers. With 60,000 on-site workers, the airport is a huge employment center unto itself — about half the workforce of downtown.