Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Increase Number of Commuters Using the MBTA

This news story is similar to the one that appeared yesterday on Boston.com that Train Rider wrote about.

Today's The Boston Globe, an article about the increase in ridership on MBTA trains and buses in April 2008.

Compared to April 2007, 5.5% more passengers used the T in April 2008. There was also a 6.1% increase in ridership in the first four months of this year.

In April, the T counted 1,337,000 trips on weekdays, which includes the commuter rail, subway, trolley, commuter boat, bus systems, and services for disabled riders. The three subway lines (Blue, Orange and Red) averaged more than 500,000 passengers per weekday trips - the third time this year that this metric has been hit.

This is somewhat priceless:
Grabauskas said the T will have "a difficult time during peak periods" accommodating all the new passengers because of limits on the number of buses, subway cars, and trolley cars owned by the financially struggling system. He said he hopes many of those who shift to transit will use the T for midday and weekend trips.

Shouldn't the T and state be working together to retire less used lines and ensure that popular lines are in service?

New jumbo boards for commuter rail and Amtrak train arrival/departure information were revealed at North Station, South Station and Back Bay Station. The new boards cost $4 million.

1 comment:

AJ said...

Well so far that 4 Million seems to have been put to good use! I LOVE the new LED boards on the platform that only display the time. Or a painfully slow message stating "This message is only a test." GREAT! I really hope that the new signs will be updated more often than the existing ones at the commuter rails stops.

The one improvement I've noticed is the commuter rail finally has an automated message. If you told me last year that we would have one, I would have been disappointed. Having ridden the T out of Back Bay, the automations were indecypherable. I don't know if it was the poor quality of the automated voice, or the poor sound system at Back Bay. However, the new commuter rail one is quite pleasant and easy to understand. Much more so that the screeching people who used to do it.