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Music City Star officials will celebrate the passenger-rail service’s fifth year in operation on Sept. 18 with record ridership.

More than 250,000 riders used the service during the past fiscal year, which ended June 30, a new high-water mark, Music City Star officials said in a prepared statement.

Since the first complete fiscal year of service ended in June 2008, ridership has increased 50 percent, they said.

Average daily ridership also is on the rise. In July, the Star averaged 1,225 riders daily, a 45 percent increase compared with July 2010 ridership. In 2011, the Star has set single-month records for ridership three times, officials said.

The service’s fifth anniversary “validates the importance of the service to the citizens in serves in middle Tennessee and demonstrates how important public transit investments are to the future of the region,” said Jo Ann Graves, Music City Star’s chairwoman.