D.C. Street car on opening day. Photo by StreetsofWashington
In its first 10 days, people have taken nearly 30,000 trips on the D.C. streetcar, DDOT announced today on Twitter. More than 8,000 of those rides occurred on opening day, when folks swarmed H Street in disbelief celebration.
Over the next week and a half, ridership numbers have ranged between 1,736 to 2,928 on weekdays, and 3,332 on the second Saturday of operation; the streetcar doesn’t run on Sundays. The system, which is free to ride for the first six months, has been tracking passengers with automatic counters on the vehicles and periodic manual counts by employees.
Reporting our Ridership: We’ve already welcomed nearly 30,000 of you aboard! pic.twitter.com/4PUJ1ESbcY
— DC Streetcar (@DCStreetcar) March 10, 2016
Last month, DDOT Director Leif Dormsjo told Kojo Nnamdi that his ridership goal was 1,500 – 2,000 trips per day. “So we’re pleased. We’ll continue to grow as service improves,” a streetcar spokesman told DCist.
And some riders seem to be pretty pleased, as well, that they aren’t on the X2.
1st trip on @DCStreetcar connecting to red @ Union. Same travel time as X2 downtown. +I had a seat the whole way! pic.twitter.com/AwecwBDciG
— Liza Lorenz (@Liza_Lorenz) March 10, 2016
