TriMet’s WES ridership rises, while overall system ridership decreases
Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
TriMet's system provided more than 25 million rides during the spring 2013 quarter. Compared to a year ago, overall ridership declined for March, April and May.
TriMet had experienced a notable increase in ridership during April/May 2012 due to a large spike in gas prices.
This year, the average weekly ridership was down overall 4.6 percent, with MAX weekly trips down eight percent.
Much of the decrease is attributed to the elimination of the Free Rail Zone, an increase in fare enforcement efforts and the cost of fuel at roughly $.33 per gallon lower than this time last year.
WES ridership continues to grow across the board with weekday and weekly trips up 4.8 percent and quarterly trips up 4.9 percent.
MAX
• Quarterly trips were down 7.8 percent to 9,985,000
• Weekly trips were down 8.0 percent to 762,400
• Weekday trips were down 6.5 percent to 122,100
• Weekend trips were down 13.3 percent to 151,900
WES
• Quarterly trips were up 4.9 percent to 114,050
• Weekly trips were up 4.8 percent to 8,750
• Weekday were up 4.8 percent to 1,750
In other news, TriMet and GlobeSherpa are preparing for the August launch of the TriMet Tickets app, a free smartphone app for riders to conveniently and easily buy and use fares. You simply download the free app, enter your credit or debit card information into the secure system and then buy and use the fares with just a few taps of the screen. The app will provide another outlet for ticket purchase in addition to retail outlets and ticket vending machines at MAX/WES stations.
In addition to buying and using fares, the mobile app provides easy access to TriMet’s online trip planning tool, TransitTracker, maps and schedules.
