advertisement

---

Last month, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon's (TriMet) ridership rose slightly compared with February 2007. But the latest figure includes riders from a brand-new service.

In February, the agency recorded 7.8 million trips on its light-rail, bus and new commuter-rail service. Weekly trips rose 1 percent to 1.9 million, weekday trips increased 0.5 percent to 320,250 and weekend trips rose 3.2 percent to 340,300.

Weekly ridership on the MAX light-rail line dropped 2 percent to 634,000, while weekday trips dipped 2.5 percent to 101,400 and weekend trips remained flat at 127,400.

TriMet's new WES commuter-rail service, which began operations on Feb. 2, carried 6,250 weekly passengers. Weekday trips averaged 1,250. An acronym for Westside Express Service, WES is a 14.7-mile, five-station suburb-to-suburb line between Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.