Sound Transit recently released station-by-station and time-of-day ridership numbers from earlier this year. Seattle Transit Blog finds some interesting trends.
First, more than half of all (one-way) trips begin or end between Rainier Beach and Beacon Hill, which “illustrates some of the limitations of simply bypassing that segment to go straight to the airport.” It also suggests that cutting the Graham, Boeing Access Road, and S. 144th St. stations may have been short-sighted, if most riders are indeed coming to or from the South End.
About 11 percent of all trips happen entirely within the downtown transit tunnel, which surprises me, since riding the bus downtown is free (light rail costs $1.75 per trip within downtown). Are more people loading monthly passes on their ORCA cards or continuing their trips on buses elsewhere? Sound Transit’s data doesn’t say.
Ridership is much higher during the southbound afternoon peak period (3 to 6 pm) than the northbound morning peak period (6 to 9 am), while midday northbound ridership is stronger than midday southbound ridership. That, STB says, indicates that “Link’s AM peak is too early.”
More interesting stuff: A lot more people ride north out of the airport than south into it. That could be a reflection of perceived reliability (you’re less likely to be rushing when leaving the airport than when arriving), the fact that the train stops right at the airport, making it appear more convenient; or something else.
Overall, ridership on Saturdays (total number of boardings and alightings) is only about 24 percent lower than on weekdays, suggesting that cutting trains in half on the weekends (to save around $400,000 a year) might result in cramped single-car trains. (Sunday ridership was down about 57 percent).
