Ridership Plunges at Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station

RESTON, VA — New ridership numbers are in for Metro, and they show a shocking decline across the board, including right here in Reston.

Ridership at the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station in the second quarter of fiscal 2017 -- which covered October, November and December -- was 976,548, a 13.4 percent plunge from the total over that same period the year before, which was 1,128,147, as reported by WTOP.

That is by far the largest decline among the five exclusively Silver Line stations in Virginia, with Tysons Corner's 7 percent decline in second.

Still, Reston's dip doesn't come close to the staggering drops on the Orange line. Vienna saw its ridership drop by 41.2 percent, or from 1,446,883 riders to 850,920 just a year later.

There is likely no one reason for the decline, but a large part is most likely due to SafeTrack, which has punished lines in Northern Virginia in particular over the last year with "Surges" resulting in extensive single-tracking and even entire line-segment shutdowns. All the while, Metro has urged riders to stop using the system and find another way to get to work, and it appears that riders are taking that advice to heart.

That's causing a big problem for Metro, however, as rising costs are being met with plummeting revenues thanks to declining ridership numbers, thrusting the agency into a crisis.

Image via Wikimedia user Antony-22