Transit ridership surges throughout Bay Area

[marmar]

from the Mercury-News:



When John Leyba boarded Caltrain on Tuesday morning at the Diridon Station in downtown San Jose, he found it "insanely crowded" -- standing room only most of the way to San Francisco, where he works for PG&E as a business analyst.

And when he transferred onto a Muni bus at 4th and King streets, he barely made it inside the door.

In a remarkable turnaround for transit agencies that have repeatedly slashed services, raised fares and lost state and federal funding, transit ridership is steadily rising throughout the Bay Area. Caltrain ridership was up almost 12 percent and BART almost 8 percent in weekday use in June compared with the same month a year ago. The Valley Transportation Authority saw an increase of more than 7 percent and the ACE commuter train of more than 14 percent, while SamTrans ridership was up 0.4 percent.



Of 11 agencies surveyed, only AC Transit and Santa Cruz Metro reported a decline, of 1.5 and 1.3 percent respectively, which they blame on recent reductions in service and expect will increase soon. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_18663245?nclick_check=1