SP RED ELECTRIC ON TRIMET'S QUARTERLY REPORTS

WES commuter rail, meanwhile, saw a nearly 9 percent jump in ridership with 112,740 boardings and deboardings. Still, that averaged out to only 1,780 daily trips for the rush-hour service in Washington County. 
 
Yet after THREE years of operation, WES is still far below the 2,500 daily rides that were expected after just one year of operation, and was promised to be a 'very conservative' estimate. 
 
TriMet is shifting from monthly ridership reports to quarterly numbers to "get a broader view" of trends, Fetsch said 
 
Because TriMet is forced to acknowledge bus ridership is up, MAX is down, and TriMet wants to control the message as best as possible even when the facts fly in the face of what TriMet wants to promulgate (the "success" of rail transit, and that people choose not to ride buses). 
 
This is another disappointing report from TriMet - where TriMet believes it has to depend on massively expensive rail projects, but total ridership is down while transit agencies nationwide are reporting higher and higher ridership. TriMet is barely hanging on to the ridership it has, as many long-time riders have given up on the system. In fact, much of the success of bicycling in our region directly comes from people who no longer ride TriMet, while auto use is constant.