Buffalo is busiest rail system in USA

Claims METRO. With 25,000 riders per day on a per mile basis for its short 6.1 miles! It beats Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
It would seem that Buffalos System actualy does one thing good and that is keep smog producing transit buses out of Downtown.

After many years, I was finally able to make a sidetrip to Buffalo to ride the NFTA-Metro light rail ine, during a trip to Niagara Falls. The Sunday mid-afternoon ride was clean, refreshingly cool (great air conditioning on a hot humid day), fast, but short. I guess I thought the line was somewhat longer. There were not too many passengers riding that afternoon. I rode one train from Church to University, one train from University to Erie Canal Harbor and one train from Erie Canal Harbor back to Church. I rode all of the mileage except the one block between Erie Canal Harbor and Special Events Station. My NFTA one day all zone pass for $4.00 covered the fares for the route 40 bus from Niagara Falls to Buffalo and return, as well as the light rail line. Excellent value!

So now I can say I have ridden streetcars and LRT in revenue service in Baltimore MD, Boston MA, Buffalo NY, Calgary AB, Charlotte NC, Cleveland OH, New Jersey, New Orleans LA, Philadelphia PA, Pittsburgh PA, Portland OR, San Diego CA, San Francisco CA, Seattle WA and Toronto CA, plus a few museum lines and European cities.

Haha, isn't it the joke up there that "few people ride it because it doesn't go anywhere." The last time I drove through there I did check out their "subway" though, and it is quite interesting. Like jhdeasy mentioned, I didn't exactly encounter a crowd on the train. Family friends who lived in Buffalo in the mid-80s joked that it would swiftly go away - it's interesting that it didn't.

Erie Canal Harbor? That must be a new name for what was called the Auditorium station the last time I visited in 2001.

Littleredcaboose wrote:Claims METRO. With 25,000 riders per day on a per mile basis for its short 6.1 miles! It beats Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
It would seem that Buffalos System actualy does one thing good and that is keep smog producing transit buses out of Downtown.

No that's a meaningless metric. I'll bet they can boast high ridership than the Detroit "People Mover?" What about the San Juan, Puerto Rico subway? What a joke?

It's like saying, "I'm the tallest six foot, two inch tall person in the world."

The Buffalo metro is actually a neat operation. It’s taken a lot of criticism over the years, but the tunnel under Main Street produces a much faster ride than a surface median would have and ridership has been decent every time I’ve ridden. If they could ever find a way to extend it to the University’s north campus or to Tonawanda, it would have a real opportunity for success.

The downward trend of the economy of Buffalo, accompanied by a downward trend in population is probably causing many people to question any future investment. I would have loved to see it get to the airport or to somewhere much nearer to the falls.

While I definetely do not believe that Buffalo's Light-Rail is the busiest in the United States, it can be busy. The first car is usually full. I've ridden it both as a railfan and to get around. While I think wait times are little long at Erie Canal Harbor (Auditorium) and University and Special Events is a little too far away from HSBC Arena (you can sometimes see waiting cars parked right next to the Aerospace Museum and the Sabres Store), it is clean, effecient, and actually quite fast once you get underground. It's biggest drawback, remains it's length. From the old DL&W Terminal to UB's South Campus isn't enough. There are plans to expand it to UB's North Campus and onto Getzville (Cross Point wouldn't be bad either), with lines to Hamburg, Orchard Park, the Airport (and a branch to Lancaster off that), a belt line on the East Side, North Buffalo and ultiamately Niagara Falls (even re-opening a part of the Gorge Route is discussed). I doubt much of it will ever happen. But on the bright side, Canalside has been a success so far in getting people to come back downtown, so maybe things will turn around.

IMHO, the airport would be the most logical extension, but Cross Point makes for an interesting discussion seeing the number of commuters living in the Amherst / Clarence area. BUT, as has been posted numerous times on the NY Railfan thread, the wheels in the Buf-Nia area grind slowly, if at all. Hope I live to see it. I'd much prefer a 5 minute ride to connect at Cross Point than a 25 minute drive down Main St. to reach Metro for an evening downtown.