While Portland LRT ridership drops, Canada Line soars beyond all expectations
- Reality Check
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- July 28, 2012
While new ridership data from TriMet in Portland shows that their light rail ridership dropped this year, new ridership data from TransLink shows that our system ridership is heading for a new record, driven by the Canada Line—which is soaring beyond all expectations.
Although TriMet also says that its system reached “record ridership”, this has not been a result of ridership increases on LRT. Ridership on LRT actually decreased for the year, while ridership on buses and the WES commuter rail saw increases.
As a result, the MAX LRT continues to be outperformed by SkyTrain’s Canada Line. The new count of weekday boarding rides puts the entire 84 km MAX LRT system even further behind the 19 km SkyTrain Canada Line in weekday boarding counts.
System | Length | Opening Year(s) | Avg. weekday boardings (2011) | Avg. weekday boardings (2012) |
SkyTrain – Canada Line only | 19km | 2009 | 136,259[1] | |
Portland MAX LRT | 84km | 1986, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2009 | 132,500[2] | 131,800[2] |
Footnotes
Pictured in header: Portland MAX light rail interior
Reality Check
Reality Check is the online blog run by the founder of SkyTrain for Surrey, a BC-based community organization that has advocated for the expansion of the Vancouer SkyTrain system, including our successful advocacy for the under-construction Surrey Langley SkyTrain extension.
Media Contact: Daryl Dela Cruz – Founder, SkyTrain for Surrey ・ Phone: +1 604 329 3529, [email protected]
