Ridership in all
categories slipped last year on the South Shore commuter line, the Northern
Indiana Commuter Transportation District said at Friday morning’s Board of
Trustees meeting Friday morning.
Total passengers
fell by 113,186 passengers or 3.1 percent in 2016, from 3,505,080 in 2015 to
3,617,266.
Average peak
readership slipped by 227 or 2.6 percent, from 8,730 in 2015 to 8,503.
Average weekday
ridership dropped by 333 or 2.8 percent, from 12,056 in 2015 to 11,723.
Average off-peak
ridership fell by 106 or 3.2 percent, from 3,326 in 2015 to 3,220.
And average weekend
dropped by 234 or 4.8 percent, from 4,871 in 2015 to 4,637.
As NICTD marketing
director John Parsons noted on Friday, the South Shore’s ridership decline
appears to be the result of a number of factors: among them, continuing low
gasoline prices as well as lower attendance at Chicago’s summer festivals.
“We’re trying to get the word out about Chicago activities,” Parsons noted.
“Metra is
struggling too,” he added. Through October, Metra saw a 4.8-percent
year-over-year decline in its own ridership.
There was one
particular bright note, Parsons said. On Nov. 4, the South Shore carried an
all-time record 29,230 passengers for the Chicago Cubs parade.
On-time Performance
On-time also took a
hit during the first half of the year--affected especially by the high-speed
crossover project--but rebounded strongly in the second half of the year.
Through June 30,
weekday peak on-time performance was 84.7 percent (91.6 percent in 2015).
From July 1 through Dec. 31, however, weekday peak on-time performance rose
to 93.9 percent.
Through June 30,
weekday off-peak on-time performance was 73.9 percent (83.7 percent in
2015); from July 1 through Dec. 31, it rose to 80.8 percent.
Through June 30,
weekend on-time performance was 75.7 percent (84.9 percent in 2015); from
July 1 through Dec. 31, it rose to 83.0 percent.
Through June 30,
total on-time performance was 77.8 percent (86.5 percent in 2015); from July
1 through Dec. 31, it rose to 85.4 percent.
A total of 13,042
trains ran last year; of those, 10,672 ran on time. Of the trains which ran
late, 50 percent were late by only six to 10 minutes.
Ticket Sales
Corresponding to
last year’s drop in ridership was a 2.9 percent drop in ticket sales.
Meanwhile, NICTD’s
move to automate ticket purchases continued to gain traction, with purchases
made from ticket agents dropping by 16.2 percent and those made from
conductors aboard trains by 13.7 percent; at the same time, purchases made
from NICTD’s mobile app rose by 61 percent and those from vending machines
by 1.6 percent.