Friday, October 24, 2008

Fiscal Year 2008 a banner year for Dallas Area Rapid Transit ridership

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — Continuing its record-breaking pace of more than 400,000 daily passenger trips, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) finished Fiscal Year 2008 with more than 116.8 million passenger trips on its growing network of buses, trains, high occupancy (HOV) lanes, paratransit services, and vanpools.

The ridership gains of recent months are particularly significant given the steady decline in regional gasoline prices from their highest prices in mid-July. Total and average weekday ridership in bus, DART Rail, Trinity Railway Express and HOV were up over FY 2007.

Average weekday ridership for September

• DART Rail: 71,502 (up 14.4% over September 2007)
• Trinity Railway Express: 10,309 (up 11.8% over September 2007)
• DART Bus: 174,575 (up 4.3% over September 2007)
• HOV Lanes: 152,900 (up 38.75% over September 2007)

Total ridership for FY 2008

• DART Rail: 19,437,603 (up 8.6% over FY 2007)
• Trinity Railway Express: 2,746,992 (up 10.9% over FY 2007)
• DART Bus: 45,033,990 (up 1.3% over FY 2007)
• HOV Lanes: 48,094,350 (up 27.9% over FY 2007)

HOV, DART Rail and TRE set records for total ridership and TRE set an all-time record for average weekday ridership for the year. July was the best month for the TRE, setting a record in average weekday ridership of 11,234 daily riders. The DART Rail weekday average in August, 73,058 average daily riders, also was an all-time high.

DART Rail doubling

DART ridership is expected to get a substantial boost as the agency's current expansion programs double the DART Rail System to 90 miles by 2013. Altogether, the rail extensions are expected to add 60,000 weekday passenger trips, essentially doubling ridership on the DART Rail System.

The first section of the Green Line will extend from Pearl Station on the east side of Downtown Dallas to Deep Ellum Station, Baylor Medical Center Station, Fair Park Station (at the intersection of Parry and Exposition) and the MLK Station, adjacent to the J. B. Jackson, Jr. Transit Center on the southwest side of Fair Park. Daily service to Victory Station also will begin September 2009. The remaining 25 miles of the Green Line, scheduled to open in December 2010, will extend southeast to Pleasant Grove and northwest from Victory Station to the Dallas Market Center, the Southwestern Medical District, Love Field Airport and downtown Farmers Branch and Carrollton.

Green Line construction began in summer 2006 following the award of a $700 million Full Funding Grant Agreement from the Federal Transit Administration.

A new Orange Line will branch from the Green Line at Bachman Station to serve Irving and Las Colinas in 2011 and DFW International Airport by 2013, and Blue Line service will be extended from Garland to Rowlett in 2012. DART also is conducting the Downtown Dallas Transit Study, which includes a second rail line through the Dallas Central Business District with revenue service scheduled for 2014. And a Blue Line extension from Ledbetter Station to UNT-Dallas is scheduled to open in 2018.

Source: DART

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