While the Denton County Transportation Authority had reported substantial monthly increases in bus ridership since July, October actually saw an overall bus ridership decrease, according to information reports from Thursday’s December board meeting.
Bus ridership far surpasses rail ridership for DCTA, as it reported 2020 budget year totals of 1.36 million bus rides and 221,316 rail rides. While October’s A-train ridership showed a similar increase to previous months, about 10.4%, it still totaled just 9,018 rides — less than a fifth of the month’s bus rides, which totaled 54,725.
Bus ridership had experienced substantial increases for months, jumping from 17,056 in July to 30,109 in August, and then to 54,773 in September. October, the first month of the 2021 financial year, saw that increase dissipate entirely, resulting in an overall decrease of 48 rides.
The authority’s overall ridership has seen drastic decreases as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Thursday’s reports also included comparison data illustrating those drops. Last October, bus ridership came in at about 310,000, which this October’s total reached only about a sixth of. A-train ridership is in a similar spot, coming in at just under 45,000 last October.
Riders take the bus and train to their next destination at the Downtown Denton Transit Center. DCTA bus ridership in October plummeted after seeing substantial growth in the summer months.
Board chair Chris Watts was absent for most of Thursday’s meeting, which was conducted by vice chair Cesar Molina. While staff dedicated an agenda item to discussing the authority’s operations during the pandemic, which included those ridership figures as well as communication and outreach efforts, board members opted for staff not to present the slides for the item and did not ask any questions related to the material.
While no in-depth discussion took place on bus ridership or potential reasons for its decline, in earlier discussion, DCTA CEO Raymond Suarez said he believes future plans should be formed with current ridership figures in mind, rather than assuming they will revert back to their pre-pandemic numbers.
Raymond Suarez
“We don’t know when we’re going to get out of this downturn in ridership,” Suarez said. “We’re in uncharted waters here, so trying to decide what our service should look like should not be based, in my opinion, on what happened in the past, because I think we really need to look at how it’s going to shape up in the future.”
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December 14, 2020 at 04:00AM
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DCTA reports stalled bus ridership, continued increase in A-train ridership through October - Denton Record Chronicle
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