Transit Ridership by Trips

Transit ridership grew steadily from 1995 to 2002, reaching 9,017 million unlinked trips (box 6-B) in 2002, an increase of 20 percent. However, between 2002 and 2003, total transit ridership declined 1.6 percent as ridership in 2003 posted 8,876 million unlinked trips. This decline follows a slowing of growth in transit ridership between 2001 and 2002 (less than 1 percent) compared with ridership growth between 2000 and 2001 (3.3 percent) [1].

Bus ridership comprised the majority of unlinked trips in 2003 (5,147 million). After having grown 15 percent between 1995 and 2002, bus ridership declined 2.3 percent between 2002 and 2003 (figure 6-3). Rail transit ridership, with 3,414 million trips in 2003, posted strong growth from 1993 to 2003 (34 percent). Heavy rail grew 30 percent; light rail, 80 percent; and commuter rail, 28 percent (figure 6-4). However, among rail services only light-rail ridership grew between 2002 and 2003 (0.4 percent), while heavy-rail and commuter-rail ridership each declined 1 percent.

Heavy-rail ridership posted 2,667 million trips; commuter-rail, 410 million trips; and light-rail, 338 million trips in 2003. Other transit services, such as ferryboats and demand response, posted a combined 315 million trips.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Summaries and Trends, annual reports, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com/, as of May 2005.