Metrobus ridership plummeted and the number of rail passengers fell well below staff projections during the first month of the agency’s new fiscal year — and the first month of higher fares.
Metrobuses transported 11.66 million passengers in July, nearly 1.3 million fewer than during the same month last year. Metro officials had anticipated a much smaller drop, projecting about 200,000 fewer trips.
Rail ridership was also down in July, the most recent month for which Metro has released cumulative passenger data. Riders took roughly 20.2 million trips on Metro trains, compared with 20.5 million in July 2009. Metro had projected slight gains in July rail ridership.
Metro Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal blamed a difficult economic climate and high unemployment rates in the District for the ridership drops.
“I think it had more to do with the economy than anything else,” she said.
The Washington area posted the lowest unemployment rate among the nation’s large metropolitan areas in July, at 6.3 percent, although the District’s rate was a much-higher 10.3 percent. Area unemployment rates remained near those levels in August.
Ridership has rebounded somewhat July, according to preliminary rider data. Kissal said the number of people riding Metro trains in July and August combined was slightly higher than last year’s numbers – although still below Metro’s projections. She said Metrobus ridership remained low, although she did not provide statistics.
Kissal said her office during budget planning had projected conservative ridership gains of 2 percent above 2009 levels. But the economy has not bounced back as strongly as her office had anticipated, and Metro does not adjust its budget projections during the year.
“We prepare our budgets well in advance, so as we were going through this last January, we were predicting that we’d have a recovered economy,” she said.
Beginning in late June, Metro officials raised the cost of all trips for bus and rail passengers. The fare increases included a 25- to 35-cent increase for bus riders, depending on payment method, and a roughly 18 percent increase for train passengers.
Kissal said she did not believe the fare increases were to blame for the lower-than-expected ridership figures, but said her agency would release a complete analysis of the fare increase’s effect on revenue and use in December.
She said she would wait to see final ridership numbers for the first quarter of the fiscal year – July through September – before assessing whether the agency would have to take cost-cutting measures.
“At this point, there are no fire alarms going off,” Kissal said.
