Despite declining gas prices, October 2014 marked the
highest month for bus ridership in HART history!
The numbers are in, and for the first time HART provided 1,438,947 passenger trips in one month, which is roughly a 5.8 percent increase over October 2013.
"Our weekday ridership continues to grow, we're a
different HART today, and the community has taken notice," said HART Chief
Executive Officer Katharine Eagan. "While this is encouraging news, we
have to continue the work to improve HART efficiencies, while simultaneously
planning for its future growth."
Fast facts:
- October 2014 ridership marked 79,183 more trips than the same month last year.
- October 2014 topped the previous monthly record set October 2013 as the highest month for bus ridership in HART history.
- MetroRapid set an all-time monthly high with 57,513.
- October 2014 is the first time HART monthly bus ridership has marked more than 1.4 million trips.
- Only one weekday was under 50, 000, so 22 weekdays were over 50,000 daily trips.
- October 2014 streetcar ridership totaled 23,893 or an increase of 8.2 compared to the same month last year.
The increase continues to be visible in our daily ridership
after a record breaking 60,711 trips on October 6 - the most in HART history.
For the month of October, bicycle boardings in Hillsborough County saw a 7.4 percent increase over September's numbers. HART logged 21,430 boardings compared to 19,961 last month. In fact, the HART bikes on buses program saw a 4 percent increase in FY2014 or 233,475 boardings compared to 224,466 in FY2013.
In addition, Almost 192,000 trips from University of South Florida students, faculty and staff have been taken on HART services since July. In October the use of the HART U-Pass service for USF students, faculty and staff increased 9.5 percent or 4,737 trips compared to last year. The U-Pass program is a partnership with the university that allows students to ride any HART local bus for free with a valid student ID; faculty and staff ride for 25¢.
Meanwhile more than 2.7 billion trips were taken on U.S. public transportation in the second quarter of 2014, according to a report released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
For all-things HART, including OneBusAway, Real-time Arrival Information via Text Message, trip planning, schedules, maps and fares, just visit www.goHART.org.
