Americans Take More Than 10 Billion Trips on Public Transportation for the First Time in Almost Fifty Years
Ft Worth Transportation Authority Receives Separate Nat’l Award for Ridership Growth
(B-roll footage of transit systems across U.S. and national announcement with sound bites available for media via satellite at 2:00-2:15 PM CT at GA 26C, Tr.9, DL 3880V)
FORT WORTH (March 12, 2007) -- If you thought you were seeing more riders during your daily public transit trip, it’s not your imagination. The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) announced today Americans took 10.1 billion trips on public transportation nationwide in 2006 – the most in 49 years. Over the last decade, public transportation’s growth rate outpaced the growth rate of the population and the growth rate of vehicle miles traveled on our nation’s highways.
In Fort Worth, The T’s ridership increased 13 percent from FY 2005 to 2006, an even greater percent increase than the national average. The increase includes T buses, vans and the Trinity Railway Express boardings in Tarrant County. Also today, The T received a national award from the Federal Transit Administration for enhancing ridership for the period from 2004 to 2005 during which ridership gains rose 11 percent. The T was one of three public transportation providers in the nation to receive this award in the population category of 200,000 to one million.
“Reaching this national milestone is a result of the service we provide in helping people get to destinations important to them,” said Dick Ruddell, president and chief executive of The T. “In addition, many riders realize the benefits of saving money from rising fuel costs and avoiding congestion. They also like knowing that their transportation choice is contributing to help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and global warming.”
National public transit use is up 30 percent since 1995. That is more than double the growth rate of the population (12 percent) and higher than the growth rate for the vehicle miles traveled on our roads (24 percent) during that same period. In 2006, public transit ridership grew 2.9 percent over 2005. To put the 10.1 billion public transportation trips in perspective, transit trips outnumber domestic airline trips by 15 to one.
“Public transportation is a proven way to meet our national, regional and local transportation goals,” said Ruddell. “As Congress and our state and local elected officials look to find ways to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, we call on them to increase investment and include incentives to encourage further increases in transit ridership.”
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) provides quality public transportation to meet the mobility needs of more than 8 million Tarrant County passengers annually on buses, vanpools and the Trinity Railway Express (TRE). A regional transportation authority of Texas, The T is governed by a nine-member board of directors appointed by the Fort Worth City Council and Tarrant County Commissioners Court.
B-roll footage of transit systems across the country and the announcement with sound bites are available for media via satellite:
Mon 3/12
3:00-3:15 PM ET
GA 26C, Tr.9, DL 3880V
