Posted by William Mitchell, Acting MBTA General Manager
Ridership data for the first month of 2010 is now available, and I'm pleased to report that the MBTA is off to good start this year. On a typical weekday in January, the MBTA's multi-modal system averaged 1.21 million daily passenger trips - an increase of almost two percent (1.9%) over January 2009.
The biggest jump was in bus ridership, which averaged 362,200 passenger trips per weekday in January. While the increase of 1.9% may appear to be a modest one, it's important to note that it marks the T's largest spike in ridership in fifteen months. October 2008 was the last time the MBTA experienced an increase higher than 1.9%.
In fact, January was only the second time in fourteen months that ridership did not drop (when compared to the same month a year earlier). As an integral part of the Commonwealth's economic engine, MassDOT and the MBTA are committed to maintaining a transit system that makes public transportation an attractive alternative for commuters and others. This objective was reinforced last week when the MassDOT Board of Directors approved a Fiscal Year 2011 MBTA Budget that avoids service cuts and fare increases. Please visit our website to learn more about the MBTA.
The American Public Transportation Association says Americans took more than 10 billion trips on public transportation in 2009- the fourth year in a row that so many travelers and commuters are seeing the value and convenience in using public transportation. Read the latest.
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