July Transit Ridership Up 1.9 Percent

Transit ridership in July 2019 was 1.9 percent greater than the same month in 2018, according to data released by the Federal Transit Administration last Friday. The increase was partly due to the fact that July had one more work day in 2019 than in 2018.

In addition, the New York City subway had partly recovered from serious delays and other problems experienced in July 2018, which led to a 5.5 percent increase in New York urban area ridership. Subtract New York and ridership in the rest of the country declined by 1.0 percent. The difference between New York and the rest of the country was underscored by modal numbers: July ridership fell for commuter rail, light rail, hybrid rail, and streetcars, but grew for heavy rail and bus.

Ridership grew in exactly half of the top 50 urban areas. However, ridership for January through July 2019 grew over the same months in 2018 in just 15 of the top 50 urban areas.

Transit systems in several urban areas certainly appear to be in a death spiral. July ridership dropped by more than 10 percent in Albuquerque, Louisville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Sacramento, among other regions. Ridership fell slightly in Seattle, grew by 3.4 percent in Houston, and by 16.7 percent in Richmond, three cities credited with revamping their bus systems to attract new riders.

However, the real success story is Dallas-Ft. Worth, where ridership grew by 19.5 percent in July and 14.1 percent for the year to date. This is almost entirely due to growth in Dallas Area Rapid Transit bus ridership, which was an unbelievable 41.6 percent in July and 31.2 percent for the year to date.
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As the above chart shows, DART bus ridership leaped by almost 50 percent in October, 2018, and has remained much higher since then than in the year before. What makes this even more remarkable is that vehicle-revenue miles of bus service fell by 7.6 percent in July, and 8.8 percent for the year to date. I don’t know if the reported increase is an error, but if I find out I’ll note it here.

Update: DART says it changed the way it counted passengers in October and that the new method is more reliable. So ridership didn’t really increase. In a few months, we’ll know whether DART bus ridership is stable or, like so many other agencies, declining.

As usual, I’ve posted an enhanced spreadsheet with annual totals in columns HM through ID, a comparison of July and year-to-date ridership in columns IE and IF, totals by major modes in rows 2153 through 2164, totals by transit agency in rows 2170 through 3170, and totals by major urban areas in rows 3180 through 3381.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

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