The weekday commuters aren’t the fuel behind the huge ridership for Phoenix’s new downtown train. Instead, weekenders coming downtown are making the new train remarkably successful.
This New York Times article explains it:
The rail was projected to attract 26,000 riders per day, but the number is closer to 33,000, boosted in large part by weekend riders. Only 27 percent use the train for work, according to its operator, compared with 60 percent of other public transit users on average nationwide.
In some part thanks to the new system, downtown Phoenix appears to be one of the few bright spots in an otherwise economically pummeled city
…
In the first quarter of 2009, downtown Phoenix saw its revenues increase 13 percent, while the rest of the city saw a fall of 16 percent
What’s the lesson for other cities? Run more weekend service! The cost of running trains more frequently will be dwarfed by the business activity of all those riders going to enjoy the downtown attractions.
Valley Metro (the Phoenix operator) is running Saturday trains every 15-20 minutes from 5 in the morning until 3 at night (check out their schedule).
That’s what every transit agency that serves downtown ought to be doing: run the trains every 15 minutes all day and night Saturday and Sunday. Cities are changing. They are now destinations on the weekends. Transit agencies need to adjust.