Fewer commuters hit the Metrorail system Monday morning on the first weekday with higher fares, according to the transit agency.
Metro carried 238,590 trips from when the system opened at 5 a.m. until 10 a.m., said Metro spokesman Reggie Woodruff. That’s about 20,000 below a similar morning commute from the same period last year, he said.
Fare hikes often cause some riders to leave a system and Metro typically calculates that loss into its revenue projections. But Metro officials aren’t worried just yet that the fare hike has caused the lowered ridership.
“Ridership has been down for the most part of the last year,” Woodruff said.
Otherwise, the agency reports that the fare change went smoothly Monday morning, after 34 stations had initial problems on Sunday charging the higher rates for paper farecards, as The Washington Examiner reported in Monday’s paper.
