DC Metro Ridership Takes Huge Plunge in 2016; WMATA Off By 31 Million Rides

WASHINGTON, DC — Metro officials forecast a slight rise in ridership in fiscal 2016, but the year-end review just released shows they were dead wrong: ridership actually plunged by more than 20 million rides compared to 2015, meaning officials were off their estimates by a whopping 8.9 percent. And that is bad news for the embattled agency's revenues.

Total transit ridership in fiscal 2016 across all modes was 321 million trips, a full 31 million below what Metro officials had predicted.

"Ridership and revenue for both bus and rail were substantially below budget in all months except for July 2015, the first month of the fiscal year," the report states. "The significant ridership drop-off began in August 2015, stayed relatively stable through March 2016 (exacerbated in January 2016 as a result of the blizzard) and then the drop-off worsened in the fourth quarter."

As a result, total fiscal 2016 operating revenue stands at $871 million, or $67 million below budget.

The fourth quarter was particularly brutal, as Metro saw a decline of more than 11 percent and 6.3 million trips compared to the same quarter last year.

"Ridership was down across all time periods, days of the week, and nearly all individual stations, although losses were especially severe in off-peak periods (weekends, mid-day and evenings)," the report states. "Specific performance highlights from each month are provided below."

Image via WMATA