Jun 20, 2008 12:31 pm US/Pacific
It's A Gas! Metrolink At All-Time Ridership High
LOS ANGELES
What with gas prices approaching $100 a gallon (okay, a slight exaggeration perhaps), is it any wonder that more people are choosing the commuter rail system to get around?
Hardly.
So, it should come as no susprise, then, that Metrolink announced Friday that rail ridership has broken an all-time record this week. Meanwhile, brace yourselves for another biggie! Caltrans reported a dip in freeway traffic, too.
Metrolink recorded its highest number of riders in a single day Tuesday -- 50,232 -- a 15.6 percent increase over the volume on the Tuesday of the
same week last year, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Metro Rail ridership has also risen, shooting up 6 percent last month
over May 2007, with the downtown L.A.-to-Pasadena Gold Line setting an all-time ridership record, Metro spokesman Dave Sotero told the newspaper.
Caltrans officials, meanwhile, said Thursday that traffic on California freeways dropped 1.5 percent over last year -- the equivalent of a billion
fewer miles traveled, according to The Times.
In Los Angeles and Ventura counties combined, Caltrans' traffic sensors
found a slight decline in freeway traffic: from 91.7 million miles traveled in
March to 91.4 million in May, the most recent data available, The Times
reported.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
