Metro News Release

For immediate release: July 17, 2009

Metrorail records 11th highest ridership on Thursday, July 16

Customer confidence remains high

Hundreds of thousands of people helped Metro set the transit agency’s 11th highest weekday ridership day in the history of the 33-year-old rail system on Thursday, July 16, when 834,997 trips were recorded on the Metrorail system.

“To see such high rail ridership at a time when we have been moving slower than usual along the Red Line and on a day that included a five-hour pre-announced station closure to support the accident investigation speaks volumes about our customers,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe. “Their continued support is tremendous. We thank them for their loyalty and the confidence that they are demonstrating in our system by continuing to ride.”

The Washington Nationals baseball game helped contribute to the ridership.

Combined with Metrobus ridership, Metro provides more than 1.2 million trips on an average weekday.


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Media contact for this news release: Steven Taubenkibel or Lisa Farbstein at 202-962-1051.
For all other inquiries, please call customer service at 202-637-7000.

News release issued at 11:24 am, July 17, 2009.