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T ridership up for the year
By adamg on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 12:12pm
Latest MBTA figures show a 4% increase in ridership in its latest fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.
Increases approaching 8% on the Red, Blue and Orange Lines and commuter rail were balanced by a 5.5% decrease in Green Line ridership. But usage jumped 5.6%.
This past June, the T averaged 1.33 million rides on a weekday.
Topics:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 MBTA FY ridership figures (XLS file) | 140 KB |
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Comments
I wonder how much
the long, cold winter contributed to that.
No doubt
Joe Pesaturo at the T, who forwarded the spreadsheet, said, "Despite a very rough winter, ridership increased in the fiscal year that ended a month ago."
They need
Column for the percentage of people stuck on Red Line trains.
The green line
is horrendous. The weak link in the 'rapid' transit system.
I never lived on the Green
I never lived on the Green Line, but I remember when I was preparing to find my first apartment someone advised me to avoid the GL if it was at all possible. At the time I didn't pay much attention, and it turned out that I found apartments on the Red and Orange Lines so the point was moot.
After Government Center Closed, I Stopped Using The Green Line
It's faster to walk to connect from the Blue Line to the Red Line.
I wish they would replace the Green Line between North Station and Kenmore, with an underground version of Miami's Metromover system. Frequently running, automated trains within the densest part of the city.
The cars are much smaller than PCCs, so they'd have no trouble dealing with the tight curves in our old Boston tunnels.
If there's one thing Boston needs
to be a world class city, it's a MONORAIL.
It could go to the new olympic stadium.
Most People Have No Idea What A Monorail Really Is
Monorail - From Wikipedia
The Seattle Monorail looks like a prototype
for the automated Miami light rail.
It's a toy from the worlds fair but it works fine.
http://youtu.be/rwSUKkzzwtQ
It even gets a mention from James Brown. http://youtu.be/4ObsGX-h4Aw
Century 21
I thought.. and I don't have time to verify this much beyond Wikipedia. But looks like the initial segment of Seattle's Monorail opened as apart of the Century 21 Expo.
It probably was a precursor to Miami's Metromover, which didnt open until 1986.
Miami's Systems Are Vastly Different, Seattle Is A True Monorail
The one thing they have in common is that they are elevated mass transit systems. People mistakenly call modern elevated rail systems "Monorails", when in reality they are just modern elevated rail systems. However, if calling them "monorails" helps dispel some of the negative ideas old folks have about elevated mass transit, that's fine with me.
Miami's elevated Metrorail is a standard dual-rail system, most similar to our Red Line. By contrast, the automated Metromover system uses smaller, rubber-tired cars on an elevated guideway. As you can see from my video above, the Metromover trains are very quiet and unobtrusive.
Besides Seattle, I believe the only other true monorail in North America is at Disney World. Monorail means "single rail". The cars drape over a single, large concrete rail. It looks cleaner and more futuristic, but it's also a more complicated and expensive design. In all other systems, the cars ride on top of tracks or guideways; they're just modern versions of an old fashioned El.
( That girl with her dress is more obnoxious than any passenger I've ever seen riding the Ⓣ! )
Las Vegas has a true monorail
But otherwise, your post is spot on. Personally, I don't think a people mover type system such as Miami's would handle the capacity needs of the Green Line.
Info on Vegas monorail:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Monorail
Forget people movers
What you want is some kind of Automated Light Rail Transit system, such as Vancouver's SkyTrain. That carries 361,000 passengers a day and seems to be able to operate at headways as short as 1.8 minutes between trains (no idea if that's the theoretical limit). That's real and well established technology that handles heavy loads on a daily basis.
Technically the Green Line Central Subway handles more trains per hour than SkyTrain's Millenium/Expo trunk, but if you were to loop the "C" branch at Kenmore then it would be manageable.
Drastically Increase Capacity And Provide Speedy Express Service
An automated "Metromover-style" replacement of the central Green Line subway could not only increase capacity, but could also dramatically reduce travel times by providing express service between between specific stations.
The cars are still too large to pass one another within the existing tunnels, but the Green Line stations are large enough and long enough to have the guideway split off to a separate track for trains stopping for passengers, while allowing other trains to pass straight through without stopping.
Imagine at North Station, having a choice of boarding a train that will stop at Haymarket, Scollay, Park, Boylston, Arlington, Copley, Auditorium, and Kenmore; or else boarding a train that will go straight through to Park or Kenmore without stopping at all.
Such an automated system could dynamically respond to service needs. For example, when Fenway Park empties out, most passengers are headed to Park, Scollay, or North Stations. It could automatically dispatch additional designated trains to ferry passengers directly to those stations.
An additional benefit of converting the central Green Line to a high-capacity people mover, would be that the above-ground sections of the Green Line; including the new Somerville/Medford extension; would no longer be burdened by the inherent limitations of the old tunnels, and therefore could use faster, modern, less expensive, more reliable, "off-the-shelf" LRV technology.
The Peoplemover ride from
The Peoplemover ride from Disney world would be more efficient...
The lack of signal priority
The lack of signal priority (why heck the MBTA insists on not turning the equipment installed by Brookline on?!) and a modern digitally controlled signal/switch system system wide is killing the green line.
I assume the ridership is down on the green line largely from all the construction and service interruptions over the past year.
What equipment installed by Brookline?
If you look closely at the project plans for the recently completed Beacon Street reconstruction project, you'll see the special LRT signals that were installed. However, there is nothing in the actual signal timing charts that allows for a "Green Line only" phase or transit vehicle pre-emption.
What good is a 4-8% increase
What good is a 4-8% increase in the T if the traffic on the Pike and 128 each go up 10-12%... It's noticeably heavier all the time these days. (no including the seasonal summer slow down) The State needs commuter rails going north and south which isn't going to happen so they should implement more N/S bus routes.
Actual counts
Actual counts show volume on both of those roads to be flat year over year. See the MassDOT webpage if you don't believe me.
Let's be honest, it's not really possible for traffic to increase on those roads since they're already effectively at 100% capacity.
Roads are way under capacity
They're only near 100% capacity for a small fraction of the day.
yeah, but
at that time, they're not *near* 100% capacity. they're over it. I used to take all backroads from Mansfield to Westwood because what should've been a 20-minute jaunt up 128 would end up taking an hour or more with traffic if I left anytime after about 6 AM.
You've got an interesting
You've got an interesting take on "small fraction".
Calendar
When in the calendar does the MBTA cry poor?
I think something is wrong with that summary
The numbers you cite are from the "June 2013 vs June 2014" comparison only. Comparing a single month out of the year is going to produce wilder swings than an entire 12-month period.
Using the spreadsheet I compared the ridership from the 12-month period beginning with July 2012 to the 12 month period beginning with July 2013 and obtained the following:
Commuter rail: +1.28%
Bus: +2.24%
Trackless Trolley: -45.72% (remember, the 73 is running diesels for now)
Heavy Rail: +3.25%
Light Rail: -2.29%
Boat: +5.14%
Private Bus: +25.98% (presumably, contracted-out service)
The RIDE: +0.71%
Overall: +1.39%
And I think this is largely within reason for a year in which fares did not increase, but presumably, population did. Also remember that we are bouncing back from a year (2013) where there were two unusual weekdays almost totally lost (so, over two million rides) due to circumstances.
I don't know what's up on the Light Rail (Green + Mattapan). Maybe people are getting sick of the lack of signal priority, off-board payment, general slowness... or maybe it's just something else.
Boat: +5.14%
That's pretty significant seeing as the Quincy ferry was shut down.
Government Center closing
Government Center closing reduced light rail ridership. People going from the Blue Line to the Red Line either walk or use the Orange Line, people going from Blue Line to locations in the Back Bay now take the Orange Line to Back Bay Station instead of the Green Line to Copley or Arlington,people going from the Faneuil Hall area to Back Bay also now take Orange instead of Green. The Orange line is now packed (even more than it previously was) between State St. and Downtown Crossing. During the evening rush-hour at Downtown Crossing heading toward Oak Grove, it is not unusual for some people to have to let two or three trains pass before they can get on, especially if there has been even a minor delay.
light rail are the street cars
not subway. light-rail = the green line and the mattapan trolley.
When the Green Line is
When the Green Line is underground it is still counted as and considered light rail
Any numbers breakouts on the
Any numbers breakouts on the Silverline? I feel like the Silverline waterfront ridership has increased substantially over the past 2 years and feels like its already overcapacity during rushhours. The BRT current system seems like it's going to crumble as the seaport area continues to undergo massive growth in the coming years. It would be nice to see the numbers.
Check out the Blue Books
They can be found here.
The breakout is odd. It almost seems like they count the lines separately.
Any idea on how the Late
Any idea on how the Late Night service is doing?