[SustainableTompkins] TCAT ridership uptick continues

[Jon Bosak]

The upswing in TCAT ridership noted recently on this list
continues, according to May 2008 statistics circulated at last
Monday's TCAT Advisory Group meeting.  Ridership on the Rural
Minimum Service routes was up 9.7 percent for May 2008 compared
with the same month last year, with especially strong results on
route 40 (Groton, up 16.3 percent from 3,032 to 3,527), route 65
(Danby, up 23.2 percent from 1,095 to 1,349), and route 67
(Newfield, up 14.9 percent from 2,481 to 2,850).

It's pretty obvious that these year-over-year increases are due to
the high price of gasoline.  What's not clear is why we're not
seeing similar increases on Rural Large Market routes (21, 41, 43,
52, 67), May ridership for which actually decreased 1.0 percent
compared to May 2007.  The real puzzler is route 41 (Freeville -
TC3), which showed a whopping 36.0 percent decrease in monthly
ridership (2,588 to 1,657) compared to the same time last year.
No one in TCAT or on the Advisory Group could come up with a
theory for this.

Jon