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

[Retrograde]

1. And they were all on my train last week.

Now if they could just restore some of the service cuts they made earlier in the year....

(Caltrain's been packed this summer, even outside of commute hours, and there are definitely a lot of new riders)

[Mz Pip]

2. I've started using BARTmore

I don't go into downtown San Francisco more than a couple of times a month but as expensive as BART is, when I add up the bridge toll, gas and public parking, taking BART is cheaper. It didn't used to be but it is now. I still drive when I want to visit Golden Gate Park or the Palace of Legion of Honor Museum because paying for parking isn't an issue and geting to those places using public transportation takes a very long time.

Same for just a trip into downtown Berkeley. Parking is 1.75 an hour and a huge hassle. BART is so much easier.

[udbcrzy2]

3. I would love public transportation

We do not have it in my rural area of St. Louis. I think up in the Lou they even suspended some routes due to the expense. I think this is the key to fighting the soaring gas prices.