For years now, the MTA has seen ridership numbers skyrocket, and as the NYC Transit performance indicators show, subway ridership is again up this year. The MTA, as Matthew Sweeney reports today, however believes ridership numbers could level off in 2009. Citing higher unemployment rates and a lessening of the impact of high gas prices, Jeremy Soffin, MTA spokesman, expects to same the same number of bus and subway riders next year as this. That total? A lofty 2.35 billion. Projections, however, have a funny way of being wrong.
MTA: Ridership may plateau in 2009
previous post
8 comments
What were the MTA’s predictions in 1993, 1998, and 2003 for the next five years?
“a lessening of the impact of high gas prices”
Really?
Poor word choice on my part. It’s more likely that there won’t be another spike in ridership due to high gas prices because everyone has given up their cars. Those numbers should remain stagnant next year.
Were they also factoring in decreased ridership due to fare hikes?
Negligible. And it will continue to be negligible until the MTA issues a drastic bump in fares. Considering how high gas prices are and how much other modes of transportation costs, a relatively small fare hike won’t change the travel patterns of, I’d guess, at least 99 percent of their riders.
How about reduced ridership due to service cuts?
That’s 2.35 billion, I believe, not million.
What about charging higher base fares for those who are casual users? To be honest, I’d pay more for subway service because I find it to be extremely valuable, and it helped me rid myself of $600 a month in car note, insurance, gas and maintenance.