Caltrain ridership on the rise

Those are a few takeaways from the transit agency’s annual passenger counts.

While the annual count brought largely good news for Caltrain, most statistical changes are relatively minor and there’s often not a clear explanation for them.

“We’re taking these numbers and reading the tea leaves as to what it means,” Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman said.

Since 2017, ridership during peak and reverse peak hours has gone up 2.5 percent and 5.1 percent respectively, though midday and nighttime ridership has dropped 9.2 percent and 5.8 percent for a total increase in ridership of just 1.5 percent.

Lieberman attributed the overall jump in ridership to congestion on Highway 101 and to a relatively brief rainy season this year.

Average mid-weekday ridership on the Gilroy Extension jumped 15.4 percent in the last year, following a trend of increasing ridership in that area since 2011.

Lieberman said those numbers are an indication that the population is shifting to where housing is more plentiful.

The order of busiest stations on weekdays changed modestly in the last year. Menlo Park was the 10th busiest station in 2017, but that rank now belongs to the 22nd Avenue station, and Sunnyvale and Millbrae have traded spots over the last year — they’re now ranked sixth and seventh place, respectively.

Ridership has increased at 18 Caltrain stations, especially at Hayward Park, College Park and Belmont, but is down at 11 stations, including South San Francisco and Menlo Park.

Bike ridership has seen a 6 percent average mid-weekday increase since 2017 and bicyclists are not getting bumped off of overcrowded trains as often. Lieberman said the bike ridership increase could also be explained by this year’s shorter rainy season, and bumps have been steadily decreasing since the agency added a third bike car in 2016.

Caltrain has also changed the methodology for its passenger counts, switching from the average weekday ridership statistic to the average mid-weekday ridership statistic. The new methodology requires fewer hours of labor and is expected to save the agency $400,000 to $500,000 a year.

A key findings report with more detailed analysis of passenger counts will be published by the end of the month, Lieberman said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102