Comments on: Limited Lead Led to Low Ridership for Late Night Red Line and DASH http://la.streetsblog.org/2009/02/06/limited-lead-led-to-low-ridership-for-late-night-red-line-and-dash/ Covering Los Angeles's livable streets movement Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:39:49 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Wad http://la.streetsblog.org/2009/02/06/limited-lead-led-to-low-ridership-for-late-night-red-line-and-dash/comment-page-1/#comment-4110 Wad Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:04:13 +0000 http://la.streetsblog.org/?p=1721#comment-4110 This may also show that night service is a poor target market for transit expansion. The Red Line, with an abundance of destinations (NoHo, Universal City, Hollywood and downtown L.A.), still only attracted 1,000 boardings. Metro would cancel a bus line that had 1,000 boardings in the daytime. We could test this hypothesis by doing trial runs of night service at other times of the year, or at the same time but having 7-night-a-week service. If ridership still does not nudge, then it is not worth night service. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. Right now, Metro uses the downtime to keep the system maintained so the service is more reliable (all trains have 98%+ on-time rates) for when the service is in high demand. This may also show that night service is a poor target market for transit expansion.

The Red Line, with an abundance of destinations (NoHo, Universal City, Hollywood and downtown L.A.), still only attracted 1,000 boardings. Metro would cancel a bus line that had 1,000 boardings in the daytime.

We could test this hypothesis by doing trial runs of night service at other times of the year, or at the same time but having 7-night-a-week service.

If ridership still does not nudge, then it is not worth night service. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. Right now, Metro uses the downtime to keep the system maintained so the service is more reliable (all trains have 98%+ on-time rates) for when the service is in high demand.

]]> By: John http://la.streetsblog.org/2009/02/06/limited-lead-led-to-low-ridership-for-late-night-red-line-and-dash/comment-page-1/#comment-4106 John Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:17:30 +0000 http://la.streetsblog.org/?p=1721#comment-4106 The late night service really needs to operate, not just during the Holiday Season, but during the rest of the year, as well. If L.A. is supposed to be a "World Class City", then we need late night service, at least on Friday and Saturday Nights when most people are out and about. But we also need late night Metrolink service so that people can come into L.A., have a good time and still be able to get home without having to worry about leaving early or having to drive and fight traffic. If L.A. really wants to be known as a green city, a world class city, then we need late night transportation services to support that vision. The late night service really needs to operate, not just during the Holiday Season, but during the rest of the year, as well. If L.A. is supposed to be a "World Class City", then we need late night service, at least on Friday and Saturday Nights when most people are out and about. But we also need late night Metrolink service so that people can come into L.A., have a good time and still be able to get home without having to worry about leaving early or having to drive and fight traffic. If L.A. really wants to be known as a green city, a world class city, then we need late night transportation services to support that vision.

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