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It's overall a fairly good sign in regards to ridership recovery which has gone up overall though has done so unevenly.
Top line numbers:
Total US ridership stats for those reporting in Q3: 1,817,498 which is a 12.6% improvement from the year before.
Total Canadian ridership stats for those reporting in Q3: 545,084 which is 20.10% improvement from the year before
Heavy Rail ridership was 655,241
Light Rail ridership was 89,920
Commuter Rail ridership was 81,152
Trolleybus ridership was 15,561
Bus Total ridership was 899,692
Demand Response was 50,484
Other* was 36,121
Per usual, bus ridership is the largest component of US transit ridership. Heavy Rail is roughly in the same league, though keep in mind there are very few heavy rail systems and the bulk of ridership will come from the NYC metropolitan area. Heavy Rail when it does exist generally plays a massive role in mass transit for that metropolitan area, but very few US metropolitan areas have such. Obviously, NYC metropolitan area dominates the stats in general, but it does so most heavily in heavy rail and commuter rail with heavy rail being so dominant that its ridership numbers alone are higher than the combined modes for other metropolitan areas.
For reference, here is the Q3 2019 (last Q3 before the pandemic) report:
Q3 2019 had a total US ridership of 2,511,387 so there's still a long ways to go with that recovery. A very, verh small handful of metropolitan areas have passed their 2019 numbers and all of those have been with fairly small metropolitan areas. Some small metropolitan areas stopped reporting as they no longer really have transit systems to speak of at this point. Among large metropolitan areas, the seemingly bright spots are a mixed bag because sometimes things like a light rail expansion that brings ridership for light rail above 2019 levels in the case of Seattle came with a concurrent much larger drop in bus ridership.
Overall though, it's heartening that the stats are still improving year after year with very few places still reporting getting a lower overall ridership number than in Q3 2022. One thing that is somewhat remarkable though is how much more rapidly Canada seems to be bouncing back.
Baltimore is still in a world of hurt. They didn't report their 3rd Q heavy rail stats for some reason, but their 2nd quarter numbers were dismal. But looking at the other modes, and comparing them to the 3rd Q of 2019, commuter rail is down about 61 percent. Light rail is only down about 22 percent, though it's only about half of what it was as recent as about 10 years ago. Buses are down about 48 percent. I don't see any way that these losses can be sustained without massive cuts in service, probably sooner rather than later.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Here in the Seattle area we are at about 58% of pre-Covid ridership. From our eastside area it's worse, I don't have any data but the buses I pass on the freeway to Seattle are mostly empty, and many trips get cancelled every day. With so many still working remote or hybrid people like me can drive in on their 2 office days a week and it's not a lot of cost even at $4 gas, and we don't have to deal with the crime and drugs on the busses when they get to Seattle.
Baltimore is still in a world of hurt. They didn't report their 3rd Q heavy rail stats for some reason, but their 2nd quarter numbers were dismal. But looking at the other modes, and comparing them to the 3rd Q of 2019, commuter rail is down about 61 percent. Light rail is only down about 22 percent, though it's only about half of what it was as recent as about 10 years ago. Buses are down about 48 percent. I don't see any way that these losses can be sustained without massive cuts in service, probably sooner rather than later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
Here in the Seattle area we are at about 58% of pre-Covid ridership. From our eastside area it's worse, I don't have any data but the buses I pass on the freeway to Seattle are mostly empty, and many trips get cancelled every day. With so many still working remote or hybrid people like me can drive in on their 2 office days a week and it's not a lot of cost even at $4 gas, and we don't have to deal with the crime and drugs on the busses when they get to Seattle.
Yea, Baltimore and Seattle remain among the hardest hit areas though I think these two juxtaposed have some overlapping but also some very different factors at play. I suspect Seattle's ridership loss to be a much more temporary thing than Baltimore's because Seattle still has at play some fairly large municipal, regional, and intercity improvements currently underway that will rather shortly one after another roll out as other pandemic-related effects ebb / are adjusted to.
The issue with cuts would likely kick off a spiral of even less usage and then even more cuts. Seattle can probably weather the slump for longer, but it's more doubtful that Baltimore and Maryland have the appetite to do so.
Seattle ridership was actually more like 63% of 2019 Q3 including KC Metro, Sound Transit, Pierce (Tacoma), and Snohomish (Everett). The 58% figure appears to be just King County Metro. Sound Transit was only down by a quarter, partially because some service was added. I'm not counting ferries.
The biggest reason it's been down has been because it's is heavily office-oriented, and its offices have shifted to WFH more than in most cities.
Seattle ridership was actually more like 63% of 2019 Q3 including KC Metro, Sound Transit, Pierce (Tacoma), and Snohomish (Everett). The 58% figure appears to be just King County Metro. Sound Transit was only down by a quarter, partially because some service was added. I'm not counting ferries.
The biggest reason it's been down has been because it's is heavily office-oriented, and its offices have shifted to WFH more than in most cities.
Yea, a probably greater proportion than usual of Seattle area jobs are conducive to work from home. There's also fairly good weather for biking and walking year round, so some people probably turned to that during the pandemic and didn't shift back.
I think with the slate of infrastructure projects being completed within the area, improvements in intercity rail travel, continued regional population increase, and some downtown office real estate price correction, the Seattle area's ridership figure slump isn't going to be longstanding especially since the quarterly change from Q2 and YTD change for Seattle transit are both better than the national average.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays25
The Census ACS shows the Seattle area's WFH prevalence this pretty clearly. Their website isn't working today (no surprise) so I can't pull numbers.
Before Covid I drove to the Issaquah Transit Center, took the bus to downtown Seattle and walked a mile to the office. We are mostly hybrid 2 days in the office but a majority in certain departments like Accounting, IT and HR have remained 100% remote.
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