Re: SMART usage
Author: Art Carney
Date: 04-09-2018 - 17:54
There are 34 trains on a the weekday.
Farhad reported in SMART's annual report that
the average weekday ridership is 2,191.
If 12 of them have 150 riders, that's 1800 riders
on 12 trains, leaving 391 riders on 22 trains.
If Farhad released ridership by train -- which he has
on a spreadsheet -- we wouldn't have to guess about
this distribution.
In other words, SMART is operating a lot of trains
with very few riders. And most riders think the trains
are well used because they're on one of the 12 highly
used trains.
SMART could save lots of dollars operating fewer
trains in the mid day and the early morning before
Hwy 101 is congested.
Alas, the Board doesn't ask about ridership and
Farhad is doing what he wants.
This will come back to bite SMART when sales tax
revenues decline because of the fires or
a recession.