WMATA Maryland Ridership Report

In 2015, the General Assembly passed my bill, HB 300, which required the Maryland Department of Transportation ("MDOT") and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ("WMATA") to study Maryland ridership of Metro in more detail.  The completed report was recently transmitted to the General Assembly and is available here.  I believe this type of data will help our state make policy decisions related to WMATA.

There are lots of interesting facts in the report.  In addition to the broad information it provides about system usage and purposes, some interesting discrete points include:

• The report shows where Montgomery, Prince George's, and other Maryland residents are traveling on the rail system (pg. 9).
• It shows that 34% of Montgomery County riders access Metro in the AM by foot, compared to just 11% in Prince George's County (Pg. 12; Pg. 17)
• There are thousands of Metrorail riders from jurisdictions in Maryland besides Montgomery and Prince George's Counties (Supplementary Tables)
• 5% of system riders commute from DC and Virginia into Maryland each weekday morning (Pg. 25).
• 3.3% of all Metro trips on a typical weekday are by Maryland residents besides those in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties (Pg. 21).
• 5% of daily Metrorail ridership on a typical weekday is by Maryland residents besides those in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties

This report was done on the basis of data WMATA was already collecting.  Future reports--which will be undertaken every five years--will have even more discrete information as WMATA shapes its ridership surveys for this purpose.
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