About the same number of residents are riding Durango Transit buses so far this year as in 2013.
Ridership, or the number of times a person took one trip, for all routes from January through April compared similarly with the same period last year, with a couple deviations.
March ridership dropped 4 percent, and it rose 4 percent in April compared with 2013.
The latest figures also reported ridership for just the loop buses, the Opportunity Bus and the trolley.
The fixed-bus system, which is $1 per trip, has six routes, and it also has evening and Saturday service. The Opportunity Bus is a door-to-door service for the elderly and disabled. The free trolley runs Monday through Saturday from the center of the downtown historic district to the Iron Horse Inn on the north end of town. In the summer, it runs Sundays, too.
Ridership on the loop buses and the Opportunity Bus was down in January and February but rose slightly in March and increased 11 percent in April. The trolley was up 11 percent in January, down 10 percent in March and down 4 percent in April.
Total ridership has increased overall since the Durango Intermodal Transit Center opened in 2009. Ridership was 365,050 in 2008 and 613,631 in 2013. Those numbers include the trolley.
smueller@durangoherald.com
