In another sign commuters are leaving their fuel-guzzling vehicles behind, ridership on the Metro Gold Line increased by nearly 19 percent from last year, far outpacing ridership on other Metro Rail lines, according to figures released Tuesday, Pasadena Star-News reports.
Average weekly boardings on the 13-mile Gold Line from East Pasadena to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles hit a record 22,231 in March, a significant increase over the 18,735 weekly boardings the line logged in March 2007.
By comparison, the Metro Red Line subway, which experienced the second-highest percentage boost of all Metro rail lines, had a 5 percent increase in ridership between March 2007 and March of this year.
The Gold Line had only exceeded 20,000 weekly riders once before – in September 2006, when ridership peaked briefly at 20,952.
Metro officials attribute the increases to burgeoning gas prices. The agency has experienced a 5 percent boost in ridership across the entire Metro Rail system over the past year, officials said.
“Once prices approached the $4-a-gallon mark, that is when people started deciding they could alter their driving habits by maybe taking public transit once or twice a week,” said Rick Jaeger, a Metro spokesman.
