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1/16/2020
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Metrorail posted a 4 percent increase in passenger trips last year, ending a downward ridership trend that lasted most of the past decade.
Riders took 182 million trips in 2019 compared to 175 million in 2018, a net increase of 7 million trips, WMATA officials said in a press release.
Weekday ridership increased by 3.3 percent, with an average weekday ridership of 626,000 passengers. Meanwhile, on-time performance also improved to its highest level in a decade, with 89.8 percent of riders arriving on time on weekdays last year.
Weekend ridership accounted for a quarter of overall rail ridership growth, with average Saturday ridership increasing 9.4 percent to 264,000 trips, and average Sunday ridership increasing 6.5 percent to 168,000 trips compared with 2018 levels.
The ridership growth is attributed to rail-car fleet replacements, extending Yellow and Red line service, and the addition of fare payment and refund options, WMATA officials said.
Ridership numbers were negatively affected by planned improvement projects, as well as the federal government shutdown that extended through most of January 2019. The government shutdown cut into ridership by about 100,000 trips per weekday, WMATA officials said.