Media Contact:
Morgan Lyons
or Robin Stringfellow

November 17, 1997

Ridership rising

DART services picking up speed

A strong finish to the year that ended in September drove the agency 44 percent beyond the 48.5 million passengers served in FY 1996. For FY 1997, ridership on DART's buses and paratransit vans totaled more than 44.5 million passengers while the light rail and commuter rail services transported nearly 8.2 million passengers to work, shopping or entertainment locations.

In addition, almost 17.2 million commuters traveled DART's three HOV lanes.

The new year is already off to a good start. In October, more than 200,000 passengers boarded DART's bus and rail services each weekday -- a 13.9 percent increase over last October. Of that number, more than 164,000 were on the bus, 35,000 took light rail and nearly 1,300 traveled on the Trinity Railway Express commuter rail line. In addition, nearly 85,000 people travel the HOV lanes each work day.

"With a full year of our complete 20-mile Light Rail Starter System, 10-mile commuter rail line and 37 miles of HOV lanes in place, we plan to accommodate more than 80 million passenger boardings in the coming year," DART President/Executive Director Roger Snoble said. "Our performance in the past several months demonstrates the changes we've made in scheduling and new services are being well received by our customers. That's the ultimate performance indicator for us."

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