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GREENSBORO — The Triad’s regional transportation agency saw its first drop in ridership in 2009 after six years of steady growth.

But Brent McKinney, executive director of the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation,  considers the 2 percent dip from soaring 2008  ridership a decent showing, especially with the nation’s sour economy, heightened unemployment across the region and lingering cold at year-end.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the holidays, plus the cold weather,” McKinney said. “When you have all that snow out there, a lot of people say, 'I’m going to drive today or maybe carpool.’ ”

PART ridership fell about 11,000  commuters from its historically high 2008 tally of more than  465,000 passengers. Record ridership that year stemmed from nationwide high gas prices , which at one point averaged $4  a gallon.

The 2009  decline occurred mainly in the last three months, McKinney said.

Similarly, the Greensboro Transit Authority saw a 1.5 per­cent  dip in ridership in the last half of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier, said Kevin Elwood of GTA. 

GTA’s ridership slipped 30,000 from just more than 2 million passengers during that part of 2008.

Both PART and GTA did better than most. Nationally, transit agencies are reporting average declines of 3.8 percent  in ridership, said Mantill Williams of the American Public Transportation Association in Washington.

“In terms of the national picture, that’s good,” Williams said of the local systems’ performance. “When you look at the picture nationally, you have high unemployment and less support (for transit) from local and state government.

“So to only be down 2 percent from 2008 levels, you guys are bucking the trend.”

Meanwhile, McKinney is exploring an idea that could give PART ridership another boost:  deeply cutting its standard $2 fare,  or perhaps eliminating it.

“We want to be in position to know what the impact of that would be,” McKinney said.

PART plans to study whether potential federal and state subsidies for higher ridership might offset all or part of roughly $750,000  that PART earns yearly at the fare box.

“We get a really good return from the fare box, but it’s also costly,” McKinney said, noting that collection requires expensive electronic equipment on every bus, financial administration, sales efforts and professional auditing.

Additional state and federal money could be on tap in the future for successful transit agencies, stemming from intensified efforts to get more cars off the road and to fight such problems as traffic congestion and pollution.

PART wants to know if it could remain viable with very low to no fares in such a situation where additional revenue from federal and state governments came with greater use by the public, McKinney said.

PART was formed by state and Triad officials in the late 1990s to provide service across the region and to link municipal transit systems in Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.

It began bus service in November 2002.
 

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com