Archive for the 'Ridership' Category

Metro Monday: South Africa’s Commuter Rail

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on January 21, 2008
in Commuter Rail, Metro Monday, Ridership, South Africa and Train
. 0 Comments

Transitography 16

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on September 18, 2007
in Acela, High Speed Rail, Northeast and Ridership
. 0 Comments

Acela || 28mm Wide angle / Minolta X-570, originally uploaded by gossammer9.

Ridership on the passenger rail system is up 6% so far this year, the biggest jump since the late 1970s. On the Acela Express, trains that run at higher speeds between Washington, New York and Boston, the number of riders has surged 20% over the past 10 months. That’s enough new passengers to fill 2,000 Boeing 757 jets.

-Wall Street Journal

Report: Transit Ridership at Highest Level Since 1957

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on March 13, 2007
in APTA, Light Rail, Metrorail, Ridership, Streetcar, Subway, Transit and metrobus
. 1 Comment
APTA (American Public Transportation Association) just came out with a report citing 2006 ridership figures. Among the findings:
  • More than 10 billion trips taken on bus and rails in 2006 nationwide
  • 2.9% increase over 2005
  • Highest levels of ridership since 1957
  • Ridership nationally has increased by 28% over the last decade
This is great news and again proves that even without first-class transit systems in every city, people still are willing to ride transit. Just imagine the ridership gains if all of our major cities did have first-class transit systems.

APTA president William Millar stated in the article, “Certainly a lot of the growth last year was with the high gas prices”. This offers more support to raise our gas taxes. This may be especially necessary for the future of South Florida transit, given cutbacks in funds the region could see if the proposed property tax rollback bill is passed. Raising gas taxes will better represent the true cost of oil, encourage more people to ride transit, and generate millions of dollars to improve transit.

A Lack of Unity…

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 27, 2006
in Broward, Championship, Heat, Metrorail, Miami, Palm Beach, Parade, Ridership, Train, Transit and Tri-Rail
. 0 Comments
Last week’s heat victory parade was not only an excellent celebration through the streets of Miami, but it was also a great opportunity for thousands of people to use public transportation to get downtown. Although I personally know several people who drove downtown (shame on you!) record numbers of people used tri-rail and metrorail. Tri-rail itself hit a new peak, with over 18,000 riders on Friday, the most in its 17 year history.

Here’s a touchy subject. Now, no offense to my Broward and Palm Beach readers, but I’m glad there was only one Heat parade, in Miami and here’s why: I’m sick of the “self-imposed segregation” we currently see in the Tri-county, Greater Miami Region. It’s a constant competition against each other, even for a victory ticker-tape parade which is supposed to unify the community not isolate the two regions. If the Mavericks had won the championship, they weren’t going to hold separate parades in Dallas and Ft. Worth, even though the two cities are also only separated by 30 miles. The Greater Miami region (a.k.a. South Florida) needs to come up with its own unified identity, quickly. Heck, our three airports and four seaports are constantly battling each other for no reason; why not unify them to compete with global markets rather than local ones. I understand the importance of every community having its own personal identity, but, we need to look at the bigger picture of what will benefit our region as a whole in the long-run. In the end, a parade up in Ft. Lauderdale would have been as smart as another one down in homestead, if not equidistant…