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Ridership has risen steadily over the past five years on North County Transit District’s buses and trains, but the annual totals remain well below the peaks reached prior to the pandemic, a new report shows. “We are on a ridership rebound, it’s clear,” district CEO Shawn Donaghy said Thursday in a presentation to the NCTD board. Total boardings for the district’s Breeze buses increased by 8% in fiscal 2023-24 over the previous fiscal year, the statistics show.
The district had 4,876,019 bus boardings in the fiscal year that ended June 30. “Boardings” is the term for the number of times someone got on a bus or train. The total also indicates “ridership.
” The Sprinter rail line runs east and west with 15 stations between Oceanside and Escondido. It had 1,822,849 boardings in 2023-24, the most recent fiscal year, also an 8% increase from a year earlier. Coaster trains, with stops at eight stations on its north and south route from Oceanside to the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego, had 852,993 boardings in the last fiscal year.
That was a 5% increase over fiscal 2022-23. Coaster service has seen the toughest climb back from pre-pandemic levels. One reason is that the Coaster trains are used more by commuters than other transit services, and many of those former riders continue to work from home.
Ridership systemwide declined by 46 percent for NCTD in fiscal 2020-21, largely as a result of the stay-home mandates issued in 2020 to slow the spread of COVID-19. Coaster ridership dropped much more than other transit services in 2020, the district’s statistics show. Only 162,707 people boarded the train, down by 83 percent from nearly 1 million riders in the previous fiscal year of 2019-20 and 1.
4 million boardings in fiscal 2018-19. Coaster service began in 1995. Ridership hit a peak of 1.
7 million in 2014. Sprinter service was initiated in 2008 and reached a high of just under 2.8 million boardings in 2015.
Breeze bus boardings declined by 42 percent in fiscal 2021, less than either train service, but buses were already losing riders. Bus ridership in the district hit its peak 20 years ago, when more than 10 million people a year were getting on board in the early 2000s. The decline since then has been attributed to the advent of on-demand services such as Uber and Lyft, and a proliferation of affordable used cars.
Sprinter trains, which carry students to Palomar College and California State University San Marcos, saw a 41 percent drop from the pandemic in fiscal 2020-21. Today, Sprinter service has some of the district’s best potential for growth, Donaghy said. Additional Sprinter runs have been added to serve events at the new Frontwave Arena that opened in September in Oceanside, transit officials said.
The multipurpose indoor venue, home to the San Diego Sockers and San Diego Clippers, can hold as many as 7,500 people. Coaster ridership could increase further as more people use the service for non-commuting reasons such as shopping and to attend events such as the San Diego County Fair and horseracing in Del Mar, and baseball games at Petco Park. “The Coaster gets a consistent boost through the Padres season,” said Katie Persons, the district’s director of service planning.
One of two post-season games against the Dodgers in San Diego saw more than 7,000 Coaster riders in a single day. The district’s special transit services, such as its Flex on-demand vans, make up a smaller percentage of the total but are increasing at a faster rate. Flex service was up 26 percent in fiscal 2023-24, with a total of 48,663 total boardings.
The district also has LIFT service for passengers with disabilities, and it recently started a new zone-based, on-demand, ride-sharing service available in some communities..
