A day after the MBTA outlined a new plan to raise fares by roughly 23 percent, ridership numbers for the month of February rolled in, setting a new benchmark for the transit agency.
According to MBTA officials, average weekday ridership last month increased by 8.1-percent over February 2011, with a system-wide weekday average of 1.3 million passenger trips, making it the busiest February in the history of the T.
Not only did February beat out previous years’ ridership numbers, it also marked the thirteenth consecutive month of ridership growth—the longest uninterrupted period of growth for the MBTA, ever.
But with the news of a possible fare spike coming down the tracks in July, T officials said this week they expect to see ridership dip by at least 5-percent—or 20 million annual trips—because of the increased prices to ride transit.
February by the numbers*:
Average weekday bus ridership jumped by 15.2%
Green Line increased by 12%
Red, Orange, and Blue Lines rose by 4.6%
Ferry grew by 12.7%
*over last year’s numbers
