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Yesterday, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) reported an 8.3 percent increase in Tri-Rail’s total ridership during 2011, which marked the second-highest ridership in the system’s 22-year history.

Total ridership, including weekends and holidays, reached 3.9 million, up from 3.6 million in 2010. Weekday ridership jump 10 percent to 3.4 million compared with the previous year.

“Now that more South Floridians are returning to work, more and more commuters are turning to Tri-Rail to provide an economical, efficient way to get to their place of employment,” said SFRTA Executive Director Joseph Giulietti in a prepared statement.

Also helping to boost ridership was employers’ participation in the SFRTA employer discount program; 285 companies and 2,829 individual employees joined the program in 2011, SFRTA officials said.

Tri-Rail’s ridership hit an all-time high in 2008, when gasoline prices hovered around $4 a gallon.