With gas prices at more than four dollars a gallon, drivers seem to be giving up their cars and using Link Transit instead. That's the reason Link's Communications Coordinator Erik West is giving for the five percent jump in April ridership compared to a year ago. Link had 77,541 total boardings last month, compared with 74,459 boardings in April 2022. That's about a four percent increase, but so far this year, Link has seen it's ridership increase by 14 percent.
While weekday ridership was down 20 boardings a day from March, it's up 324 boardings a day from last April. Weekend service has seen a healthy increase as well, with Saturday boardings up an average 200 from last year to 1,771; Sunday ridership has seen a similar increase to 1,126 average boardings.
Ridership numbers for Route 21 between Wenatchee and Manson are up 46 percent from last April; that route had 10,206 boardings last month, compared with only 6,969 boardings last April.
West says ridership has increased every month this year. What's more, Link has 92 percent of the ridership it had before COVID hit; that's one of the best improvements among transit systems in the state, where Metro Transit in King County is only at fifty percent or so of ridership compared with pre-COVID numbers.
