The amount of daily rail riders who didn’t have a train delay was nearly 98 percent between July and September of this year. That’s down about a half a percent from the same period last year and can be attributed to delays from police incidents, including reports of suspicious packages and persons. However, riders experienced fewer mechanical breakdowns between July and September versus the same period last year. Crime and complaints also were down, while the average weekday ridership  increased by 40,646 to 707,381, or 6 percent.

 Bus rider satisfaction grew to about 85 percent between July and September. This despite a slight increase in the number of breakdowns and crime.

 "The good news is we should be getting a total of 417 new buses by June, which we expect will mean fewer breakdowns," said Jack Requa chief operating officer of Metrobus.

 Complaints were up for MetroAccess, the curb to curb transportation service for the disabled, and on-time performance dipped slightly from 93 percent to nearly 89 percent. Metro expects service to improve when a new contractor takes over managing the service in January. 

 Meanwhile, a telephone survey of about 2,400 Metrorail and bus riders finds women ride buses and trains more often than any other demographic group.

           Of the 1,428 people surveyed who said they rode Metrorail, 54 percent were women. Forty percent were between the ages of 30 and 49. Sixty-seven percent were white. Most of those surveyed worked full-time. More than one-third of the rail riders had a  household income of at least $100,000 and 43 percent had two vehicles.

 Of the 1,000 people surveyed who said they rode Metrobus, 63 percent were women; 40 percent were between the ages of 30 and 49; 48 percent were African-American; 61 percent worked full-time, and 44 percent earned  less than $50,000 a year. Thirty-six percent had one vehicle per household.

Rider Demographics

FY 2005 Annual Survey (July 2004 to June 2005)