Bus ridership in Prince William county soared 30 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, but a transit agency official says he does not believe the trend will continue.
“We’re not seeing a drop-off in ridership,” said Al Harf, executive director of the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission. “We’re not plateauing. [The increase] is straining our capacity even beyond what we thought it would be.”
From July 1 to Sept. 30, the bus system served more than 560,000 customers, an average of 8,955 commuters per day. The figure marks a 30 percent increase from the same period last year.
The agency has added 10 bus trips and is planning others to accommodate the growing crowds.
The price of crude oil dipped below $80 at the end of last week – nearly a 50 percent drop from mid-July – and, in response, gas prices have fallen below $3 per gallon in some parts of Northern Virginia.
Harf noted, however, that the first quarter of fiscal 2009 saw higher rates of ridership growth than in the spring, when crude oil and gas prices were soaring.
He did not, however, expect the trend to continue.
“I don’t anticipate that we’re going to see an upward trend in ridership along that magnitude,” he said.
High fuel prices have created a “larger national trend of people curbing the number of vehicle miles that they’re driving,” he said.
As major auto manufacturers increase production of more fuel-efficient cars, he says he think the trend will reverse.
Ridership on the local bus service increased 9 percent during the first quarter of fiscal 2009 compared with the same period last year. From July 1 through September, the local bus services carried more than 270,000 passengers, or an average of just over 4,000 per day.
PRTC’s commuter bus services saw an average daily ridership of more than 8,000 passengers in April through June — the first time such a high mark had been sustained for consecutive months. Overall, PRTC made more than 2.8 million passenger trips in fiscal 2008 — a 6.2 percent increase over the 2.7 million passenger trips made in fiscal 2007.
In June, the agency averaged 8,616 daily trips on its commuter line and 4,066 on its local line.
