HART's 50K Day

These folks are in good company on HART buses!

Remember the picture of Tropicana Field we showed you a couple of weeks ago? We used it to point out that HART's daily ridership would just about fill the stands at a Rays game.

Well, we need a new picture because we've outgrown the Trop!

On Wednesday, November 3, HART set another record. It was the first day in the agency's history that ridership was more than 50,000 for a single day.

Fifty-thousand. Five followed by four zeroes. Fifty-K. If we were still trying to fit them all in the Trop, we'd have to take the tarps off the upper-deck seats - and even then, we'd still have people waiting outside!

The 50,000-ride day follows the eighth consecutive month of more than 1 million rides on HART services, with October's bus ridership up more than 30,000 from the previous month and more than 7% over October 2009.

At yesterday's meeting, HART Board Chairman Ron Govin encouraged his fellow Board members to carry the ridership report with them to help spread the good news.

"You ought to pull that page out, put it in your back pocket and when people ask if we have transit in Hillsborough County, you can tell 'em, we have transit," he said.

Here are some random thoughts on 50,000:

50,000 trees were planted in 30 minutes by volunteers in India.

50,000 light years from the sun encompasses the Milky Way galaxy.

50,000 milk cartons were used to build a record-breaking castle in Spain.

About 50,000 was the population of Ames, IA, Biloxi, MS  and 11 other cities in the 2000 census.

Thanks to everyone who rides HART every day - all 50,000 of you!