VRE sets record ridership

From Sep. CEO Report:
Average ridership in August was over 15,200 ‐ the highest August ever. August is traditionally
the second lowest ridership month, after December, which makes this accomplishment all the
more impressive. August ridership in 2008 was 10% higher than in August 2007. We had 4
days above 16,000 riders and 12 days above 15,000 riders. On Tuesday, August 12, VRE
ridership peaked with the 2nd highest ridership day ever with 16,801 riders, only 6 riders less
than the previous record (which was since broken on September 9, 2008 when we hit 16,933
trips). Early indications show that September will be a record breaking month with two days,
so far, close to 17,000 riders.

I can tell you that ridership was high on Sep. 11. Train #304 was very crowded, with very many people standing that day. Every morning I get on in Woodbridge, their are no seats and so several people are standing. We have a several students riding the train to Alexandia.

http://www.vre.org/about/Ops_board_item ... Report.pdf

I think nearly every commuter railroad in the country has set rexord ridership. MARC's ridership for spring was 32,000, nearly 2,000 higher than the same period in the previous year. And this is when MARC began its terrible reliabilty streak. MARC has been having standing-only room on many Penn Line trains for years now. Even the ex-VRE Kawasakis probably won't fully eliminate overcrowding, especially when considering the continued growth. I remember the year VRE had its horrendous summer (in terms of OTP), VRE was actually the only commuter rail system to record a decrease in ridership compared to the previous year.

But, don't worry about not having any seats. Pretty soon the trains will be half empty, if the VRE managers carry out their proposed fare increase plans. VRE will raise fares in the coming year, not once, but twice--15% in Jan '09 and 10% in Jun '09 (26.5% overall). I've heard of such an agressive fare increase before (excluding the WMATA's), and it definitely will affect ridership, especially considering the economic times. I don't blame VRE though, it really is the VA legislature's fault for failing to provide the neccessary funding to VRE, as well as Metro and area road improvements.

See: http://vre.org/service/commuterweekly/a ... mber17.pdf