America’s public transit systems carried 69.3 percent fewer riders in June 2020 than in June 2019, according to data released by the Federal Transit Administration last Friday. Rail ridership was down 83 percent while bus ridership was down only 56 percent.
That’s an improvement from May, when total ridership was down 81 percent from the previous May. But it’s still a disastrous drop that is leading transit agencies to demand another $32 billion in federal subsidies on top of the $25 billion it received in March, which is on top of the $13 billion it received for 2020 before the pandemic. If Congress provides the $32 billion, the transit industry will have received more money in 2020 from the federal government alone than all of its funding from all sources, including fares, in 2018.
We’ll have June driving data in a few days, but in the meantime June’s gasoline consumption was only 14 percent below June of 2019, suggesting that driving has nearly recovered to its pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, this doesn’t discourage anti-auto groups who are using the pandemic to justify closing streets and lanes to auto traffic.
Transit systems have been hardest hit in regions where a high proportion of people can work at home. The Washington DC region, for example, saw an 82 percent decline in ridership in June. Ridership in the San Francisco Bay Area fell by 80 percent while Boston, Chicago, and New York all saw about a 75 percent decline. Portland, San Jose, and Seattle lost about 60 to 70 percent of their riders, while declines in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, and Phoenix were in the 50 to 60 percent range. Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Miami, and San Antonio saw less than a 50 percent drop.
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Rows 2190 through 2211 show total ridership and ridership by mode, including four different kinds of buses and several different kinds of rail. Rows 2220 through 3219 show totals by transit agency. Rows 3220 through 3420 show totals for the nation’s 200 largest urban areas.
All of these enhancements have been made to the UPT (unlinked passenger trips or ridership) worksheet as well as the VRM (vehicle-revenue miles) worksheet. The latter shows that many transit agencies have dramatically reduced the service they offer, though usually by not as much as ridership has declined.
Note: This post previously indicated that total transit ridership was down by 70.3 percent in June; the real number is 69.3 percent. I’ve made the correction above.
