Mass transit getting more crowded

As gas lines dissipated across metro Atlanta on Tuesday, lines of commuters using bus and train transportation are getting noticeably longer.

While mostly anecdotal, several public transit agencies are reporting increased riders, which began even before the current gas shortage.

Gwinnett transit had one of its busiest days in history Monday as drivers parked their cars and took express buses to jobs in downtown Atlanta.

“Just based on what we’re hearing from every bus driver, everything was pretty much loaded,” said Phil Boyd, director of Gwinnett County Transit.

Gwinnett County operates three morning transit routes to downtown Atlanta Monday through Friday. It also contracts with the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to operate three other routes into Atlanta.

Cobb County public transit likewise reported a surge in ridership Monday, according to Rebecca Gutowski, director of Cobb County Transit.

“We looked at our numbers this morning and we had a 14 percent increase in ridership yesterday [Monday],” Gutowski said. Boardings increased from the daily average of 17,000 to 19,533 Monday, she said.

“We didn’t run into any problems,” Gutowski said. “We haven’t gotten any complaints, so we were able to handle the additional riders.”

William Mecke, communications director for the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, said operations personnel did not report a surge in ridership numbers on its Xpress buses Monday. But, he added, buses along the 27 routes the agency operates in 12 metro counties have been filling up all year.

“It was pretty normal [Monday],” Mecke said. “Now, pretty normal for us is just about full.”

Mecke said average daily boardings grew by almost 200 from July to August, and he expects September numbers to be higher yet.

Atlanta’s MARTA also has reported solid increases in ridership, although figures for this month are not available. The transit system has reported ridership in August rose 11.5 percent over the same month last year, according to Cara Hogsden, MARTA press secretary. The increase was across all modes, she said, rail, bus and paratransit service.

Hogsden said there has been an increase in customer calls for information about the service, and park-and-ride lots are more crowded than before, although space remains.

“Given the trend that we’ve been seeing throughout the year,” Hodgson said, “I think we can expect to see an increase in ridership in September.”

Longtime users of public transit are noticing they have more company, too.

“When I first started riding, there were empty seats all the time,” said Bill Reynolds of Lilburn, who for two years has been taking the Gwinnett express bus at the Indian Trail park-and-ride lot in Norcross to downtown Atlanta. “It was riding maybe 75 percent full. But over the last six to eight months it’s been getting increasingly more and more full.”

Reynolds said that over the past several months, he has seen the 7:30 a.m. bus packed many times with as many as 12-14 people standing. It’s a condition he has passed along to transit officials.

“It’s not like we’re complaining because the service isn’t good enough,” he said. “We’re happy that the service is there. We just want to make people aware that there are a lot more people using it.”

Gwinnett county this month approved purchase of 35 new motorcoach buses. Each would accommodate up to 20 more passengers than the current models. But those buses aren’t expected to be delivered until spring, Boyd said.

“We were already running pretty much at capacity,” Boyd said Tuesday. “Any new riders yesterday pushed us.”