Metro’s weekday ridership, three months after its fare increase, is still up slightly from last year, but far below the surprising 6 percent jump the agency saw in January and February.
Average weekday ridership rose 1.3 percent in March over the same month last year.
In 2007, before the fare increase, ridership rose about 3 percent.
“February, I believe, was an anomaly because we had fairly good weather and it was a leap year, so we had an extra day,” Metro Budget Director Rick Harcum recently told Metro’s board of directors. “The preliminary numbers for March are not as favorable.”
Metro officials have been carefully monitoring ridership since January to see whether the largest fare increase in Metro history would push riders back into their cars.
The new fees, which are 30 cents to 60 cents higher for rush-hour rail customers, are expected to raise $107 million for fiscal 2009, which starts in July.
In response to a board member’s question about whether the fare increase was affecting who uses the system, Harcum said, “We haven’t seen that pattern change yet.”
He said staff requested an additional month to collect data before making an official analysis of the increase’s impact.
The fare increase went into effect a month after gas prices in the region began topping $3 per gallon — a circumstance that may be helping Metro retain its riders, AAA spokesman John Townsend said earlier this year.
A poll by the auto club found that mid-Atlantic commuters in their 20s and 30s are particularly more likely to take mass transit when gas prices are high.
