Photo by marciadc

Not exactly a shock, but WMATA has released its Metrorail ridership figures for the recent winter storm period, and yesterday saw the lowest number of rides in the system in recent years. Only 36,097 trips were taken on Wednesday, Feb. 10, smashing the previous record low of only 56,326, recorded on Christmas Day, 2006.

The low number of rides came about thanks to the combination of white-out blizzard conditions and the fact that the system was operating in underground stations only.

As for whether Wednesday’s ridership figure was the lowest ever for the system, spokesperson Lisa Farbstein says it’s impossible to measure.

“It wouldn’t be fair to measure ridership today vs. 10 years ago because we had fewer stations 10 years ago,” Farbstein wrote in an email. “What I know is that Christmas is always the lowest ridership day of the year. Until now.”