In their April 2016 Service Performance Report, Sound Transit noted that total boardings on Link light rail had risen in the past year from 923,815 in April 2015 to 1,657,616 in April 2016 thanks in large part to the opening of the UW and Capitol Hill stations.
With the release of the May 2016 performance numbers, that ridership has only continued to grow.
Link ridership increased by 805K or 82.9%, compared to last year, and average weekday, Saturday, and Sunday boardings were up 82.4%, 80.2%, and 73.4%, respectively. Ridership gains were a result of the opening of the University Link extension in Q1 2016 and the implementation of 6-minute peak frequencies in Q4 2015.
As Seattle Transit Blog notes, Link now has 12 percent more monthly boardings (1.8m) than all of the ST Express routes combined (1.6m).
Overall, Sound Transit ridership is up 909K from May 2015, a 31.3 percent growth due in part to an extra weekday. Every aspect of their service has seen upticks except for Tacoma Link (down 5.3 percent). Sound Transit set new records for system-wide monthly ridership and system-wide average daily boardings for the second-consecutive month.
Just imagine the kind of numbers they could put up if and when the ST3 plan is completed.
- May 2016 Service Performance Report [ST]
- Sound Transit May Ridership: Link Up 82%, Sounder Up 17% [STB]
- Sound Transit Link light rail boardings are up 79 percent [CS]
- Sound Transit's $54 billion ST3 plan approved, heads to November ballot [CS]