Metro Transit on track to beat rail ridership records

Metro Transit's rail ridership in the Minneapolis area is on track to set another record, agency officials said in a blog post late last week.

For the first half of this year, ridership on the Green and Blue light-rail lines and Northstar commuter-rail line is tracking above ridership during the same period in 2017. Last year, all three lines experienced record ridership.

Through June 30, the Northstar Line logged the 393,052 rides, up 5 percent year over year. That marks the largest increase in ridership among the rail lines, Metro Transit officials said.

For the same period, the Green Line provided 6,570,037 rides, while the Blue Line served 5,261,735 riders. Those figures represent a 2.6 percent and 1 percent increase over 2017, respectively.

Rail ridership for the first half of 2018 has increased as bus ridership has fallen 4.6 percent. Metro Transit's total transit ridership during the first half of 2018 dipped 2.6 percent compared to 2017's first half.

"Growing rail ridership is an indication that this region appreciates reliable, high frequency transit," said General Manager Brian Lamb.