Metro News Release
For immediate release: July 17, 2003
Wednesday’s Metrorail ridership surpasses 700,000for second time this week
Yesterday’s Metrorail ridership of 708,944 was the 10th highest ridership in Metrorail history, marking the fourth day this month that ridership has made the top 25 highest ridership days list and the third day this month that ridership has topped 700,000. It is also the second day this week that ridership surpassed the 700,000 mark.
An average weekday usually sees Metrorail ridership in the 650,000 to 670,000 range. The majority of riders travel during the morning and afternoon commute times; however, during mid-day and evening hours, the Metrorail system has much more capacity to carry customers. Weekends also tend to see considerably fewer riders in the Metrorail system, with fewer than 300,000 customers, another time when there is plenty of room to ride on Metrorail.
Metrorail’s High Ridership Days Including this Month
| Rank | Date | Ridership* | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-20-93 | 811,257 | Clinton Inauguration |
| 2 | 10-16-95 | 804,146 | Million Man March |
| 3 | 6-25-03 | 726,789 | No Event |
| 4 | 6-26-03 | 724,507 | No Event |
| 5 | 4-15-02 | 718,747 | Pro Israel Rally |
| 10 | 7-16-03 | 708,944 | No Event |
| 13 | 7-15-03 | 704,175 | No Event |
| 18 | 7-11-03 | 700,167 | No Event |
| 24 | 7-9-03 | 697,088 | No Event |
*Every trip a customer takes counts as one ride toward the total ridership count for a day.
News release issued on July 17, 2003.