The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority presented new ridership numbers that continue to tell a story of a slow but steady revival in usage of Austin’s public bus and rail system.
CapMetro, like virtually every other transit agency in the United States, saw its ridership numbers plummet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those numbers have improved across the country. Sharmila Mukherjee, an executive vice president at CapMetro, presented the findings of the report to CapMetro’s Board of Directors on July 28, noting that the recovery in Austin has outpaced other comparable metros by about 9 percent.
Overall, while ridership is still down about 20 percent from the 2019 pre-pandemic high, it’s up about 42 percent from the 2021 nadir, at least as of when those numbers were most recently reported in 2023…