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News from King County Department of Transportation Metro Transit hit ridership record in 2006 The early numbers are in - and it looks like King County Metro Transit set a new record for ridership in 2006 with a preliminary estimate of 103.2 million passenger boardings. This is based just on the number of trips taken on Metro bus routes, and does not include more than an additional 3.2 million trips taken by passengers traveling in vanpools and via transportation services for people with disabilities. “Overall, we saw about a 4.3 percent real increase in bus ridership last year compared to 2005,” said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond. “The combination of more jobs and higher gas prices are likely the two biggest reasons we saw for more people riding the bus, but improved transit connections were also a factor.” During 2006, Metro staff focused on restructuring service in specific areas to make it more convenient for passengers and more productive to operate. Metro saw good results after revamped service went into affect in South King County in September. There were approximately 1,200 more boardings a day on routes 150, 152, and 915 after they were restructured and Route 180 debuted. Desmond said that the impacts of an area-wide route restructuring can take several years to play out. In 2004, Metro re-did service throughout the Ambaum-Delridge corridor in southwest Seattle. Ridership jumped right after the changes, and has continued to gain every year. “Even if you see some initial loss of passengers because some of the changes are less convenient or reduce service for some riders, eventually overall ridership grows because people who were driving find the revised service to be more convenient,” said Desmond. Metro also saw increases in vanpool participation by 10 percent in 2006, while ridership on Access paratransit service for people with disabilities was up by 2.5 percent. The previous high-ridership mark for Metro was set in 2000, during another period of strong job growth in King County. Passenger boardings declined slightly after that, but have been going upward for approximately the last 18-20 months. It appears that ridership in 2006 will beat the 2000 record by more than a million boardings. The Metro system is also poised to grow since King County voters approved a sales tax increase for transit improvements last November. The Metro system is projected to grow an average of 80,000 annual service hours per year for the next 10 years. The first of the additional service begins this February. “This is the perfect time to begin rolling out the improvements funded by the Transit Now initiative,” said King County Executive Ron Sims. “Thanks to voter support, we are in a much better position to meet this growing demand for public transportation.”
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