The Portland Aerial Tram has exceeded ridership expectations and has already provided it’s one millionth trip between OHSU and South Waterfront.
From the Portland Tribune:
Colleda O’Neil was just headed downhill for her doctor’s appointment at the OHSU Center for Health and Healing.
Instead, the OHSU employee was selected as the one-millionth rider of the Portland Aerial Tram.
“I’m shocked,” she told a group of reporters and TV cameras, who were waiting for her at the lower tram station.
OHSU Transportation Operations Manager Mike Brooks handed over a briefcase full of prizes, including a tram logo t-shirt, DVD’s, and a coffee table book about OHSU.
As for how they calcualated the 1,000,000 figure, OHSU says it counts a one-way ride on the tram as one trip, meaning if a passenger rides up to OHSU and back down to the South Waterfront it counts as two trips.
35 responses to “Tram: 1,000,000”
I wonder what the original ridership projections were, and it’s stacking up against them on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
The Oregonian reports (while not quantitating) that the weekday ridership is 37% above projections, while the weekend ridership is “even higher.”
I rode the tram that day myself, love to use the bus to ride up the hill, keep an appointment and ride the tram down to the streecar, still is a free ride down and a very nice experience, all 5 times…
From the Portland Aerial Tram website:
Excerpt taken from: http://www.portlandtram.org/news_item/Tram_Ridership.htm
1,000,000 riders? HUH?
3,080 riders a day?
How many people fit into that thing anyway?
THATS MORE RIDERS THAN DISNEYLAND!
If they’re making $4 per trip they should be pulling down +4mil per year!
DAMN, LETS GET RID OF THE BUSES AND THE STREET CARS AND START USING FEE BASED TRAMS ALL OVER THE CITY!
1,000,000 riders? HUH?
Total boardings since opening of regular service.
3,080 riders a day?
Which has been exceeded by current ridership.
How many people fit into that thing anyway?
Up to 79 people each way. (It’s crowded at that level… the usual large loads I’ve counted myself are more like 40-50 people).
With departures approx. every 5 minutes, that means a maximum capacity of 948 people per hour per direction. So it’s not hard to imagine daily boardings well beyond 3,000.
THATS MORE RIDERS THAN DISNEYLAND!
I couldn’t find Disneyland monorail statistics, but the larger Disney World monorail system in Florida actually carries more daily riders than MAX — 150,000 (at least according to Wikipedia)
If they’re making $4 per trip they should be pulling down +4mil per year!
It’s $4 per roundtrip, and only for those rides not related to OHSU (which OHSU basically pays for under the operating agreement) and for those people not holding TriMet or Streetcar passes.
It would be interesting to see how much they are bringing in just from $4 fares in relation to the city’s share of operating expenses — with weekend ridership higher than expected maybe they stand a change of bringing in more $$$ than projected.
DAMN, LETS GET RID OF THE BUSES AND THE STREET CARS AND START USING FEE BASED TRAMS ALL OVER THE CITY!
Well, not quite. :-) But I did calculate once that to provide the equivalent level of service using shuttle buses instead of the tram would cost in the same ballpark over time, and of course the bus service wouldn’t get you up or down the hill in less than 5 minutes.
Bob R.
The Oregonian’s “Tram facts” box indicated that in July, “people made roughly 123,000 rides, including 101,000 trips by OHSU workers or students, 18,055 fare-paying rides and 2,269 patient rides.”
Assuming July is typical, about 15% of the rides pay the $4 fare. In August, there were “nearly 137,000 rides.” That’s about 5,500 riders per day (six day operating weeks). In July, it was about 4,900 per day.
In the absence of date covering more months, I’m comfortable rounding it to about 5,200 riders per day. At 15% paying fare, that means about 780 $4 fares, or $3,120 per day. That annualizes (remember, six day weeks) to almost $975,000 per year.
Anybody know the operations and maintenance costs for this thing?
Anybody know the operations and maintenance costs for this thing?
From OHSU’s tram page:
Excerpt taken from:
http://www.ohsu.edu/ohsuedu/about/transformation/tram/tramqanda.cfm
According to July figures (as pointed out by djk), it appears their preliminary estimates nailed the 85/15 split on the head.
15% of 5200 riders per day is indeed 780, but that is one way. There are only 390 round trip non-OHSU rides per day, and it is $4 per round trip, if you don’t have a TriMet or Streetcar/Tram pass, so at best they are making $480,000/year, but probably quite a bit less because of all the passes…
“THATS MORE RIDERS THAN DISNEYLAND!
I couldn’t find Disneyland monorail statistics, ”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hallelujah!
Bob R finally couldn’t find a statistic!
I’m gonna celebrate that one!
15% of 5200 riders per day is indeed 780, but that is one way.
Quite right. I should have said “5200 rides per day” since that was how the Oregonian broke the numbers down — by “fare-paying rides”. So 15% of “rides” (not “riders”) were paying fares.
I need to repost this because this could be a once in a lifetime event:
Al said:
“THATS MORE RIDERS THAN DISNEYLAND!”
To which Bob R replied:
“I couldn’t find Disneyland monorail statistics”
There ya have it folks, Bob R actually couldn’t come up with the Disneyland monorail statistics!
I can’t even believe my own eyes!
:-O
Anybody know the operations and maintenance costs for this thing?
That’s what I’d like to know – what’s the farebox recovery rate of the tram? It’s fairly easy to find this information for TriMet or any other system out there.
I also heard from a TriMet planner that since the tram opened, ridership on the 8-Jackson Park is down 16% (I’m going off of memory, I hope I’m right).
“That’s what I’d like to know – what’s the farebox recovery rate of the tram? It’s fairly easy to find this information for TriMet or any other system out there.”
Well its not on the official site, which makes me wonder what are they hiding?
Well, Al, I should have been more specific as to why I couldn’t find the statistics… the west-coast Disneyland monorail system is currently being refurbished/modernized, so current ridership statistics are unavailable.
From the Wikipedia Disneyland Monorail System Page:
Going back further in time, this article about potential Disneyland monorail service cutbacks from a fan-site in August, 2003, seems to indicate that the monorail’s full-service ridership was 20,000 per day:
(The Disneyland monorails operate on a one-way loop route)
Another interesting excerpt from that article, perhaps a counter to those who say the private sector might run transit better:
(“CM/Cast Member” is the Disney-designation for employees working in the normal guest areas of the park, and “On Stage” also indicates any normal guest area of the park.)
“Well, Al, I should have been more specific as to why I couldn’t find the statistics..”
ACHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
BOB R
Can you stop being so goddamn educated and organized!
Your in a class of your own in the blogger world, do you know that?
al and Bob R., you guys are crackin’ me up on this thread.
Thanks all, for hunting down all those stats! Seems like the tram is doing quite well, though it’s not yet “breaking even” with regards to fares covering operating costs. However, what with OHSU covering all of those rides… perhaps, you could argue, it actually is breaking even. Hard to tell, with that kind of financial arrangement.
And Bob, those stats on the Disneyland monorail are fascinating, indeed. I think it does go to show that the private sector really isn’t suited for running public transit operations. ;-)
cheers,
~Garlynn
I must admit. This has been an entertaining comment thread.
How many cars is it taking off the road?
Bob Tiernan
the tram?
I would say zero bob tiernan.
How many cars is it taking off the road?
Anectodotally, based on the number of bikes parked at the bottom, quite a few (I’m assuming they didn’t all ride up the hill before).
But it’s the wrong question. The correct question is “how many new trips up the hill can be accommodated without additional auto capacity.”
And the answer is “a lot”.
Because remember, the alternative was for OHSU to expand out in Hillsboro, where a MUCH higher auto mode share would have been required (it’s a pretty good walk to the nearest MAX station).
I guess all those free ride weekends paid off in building the feel-good stats. Nicely done…
It would take a lot more than a few “free ride” weekends to achieve those kinds of stats.
– Bob R.
Can we declare a cease fire on the tram?
It exceeded cost estimates. Yes.
A million riders in such a short time is pretty amazing.
So, we have learned a few things as a city and we have something to be proud of.
Can we declare a cease fire on the tram?
I don’t know why. The folks that opposed MAX in the early 1980’s have been trying to prove its really a failure ever since. :)
The case against the Tram was never the suggestion it wouldn’t be used, but that it was an expensive, invasive way of accomplishing the purpose. The ridership numbers are a good thing, but they don’t prove it was a good idea. In fact, one of the arguments against it was that it would become too popular as a tourist attraction to be effective as an everyday transit connection.
“A million riders in such a short time is pretty amazing.”
Hmmm, those statistics are a little fishy if you ask me. As I have said many times, DON’T BELIEVE A WORD ABOUT AN AGENCY PRESS RELEASE ABOUT ITSELF!
“The ridership numbers are a good thing, but they don’t prove it was a good idea.”
Definitely! That is such a specialized transit option that it is basically without purpose for all most all of Portlanders!
Chris Smith:
But it’s the wrong question. The correct question is “how many new trips up the hill can be accommodated without additional auto capacity.”
And the answer is “a lot”.
Because remember, the alternative was for OHSU to expand out in Hillsboro, where a MUCH higher auto mode share would have been required (it’s a pretty good walk to the nearest MAX station).
Bob T:
This is a new one! So the cars taken off the
road (or not needing to get on the road to
begin with) are those that would be
going out to Hillsboro had this tram not been
built to prevent that particular expansion?
That’s a good one. But I’d still like to know
if it was really important to keep the shuttles
and cars off the road leading from the top of
the hill down to Macadam. That’s not exactly a
route that had a congestion problem or anything
close to it.
Bob Tierna
This is a new one!
Bob, if what Chris said is new to you, then you haven’t been paying much attention to the actual arguments in favor of the tram. As someone who was never enthusiastic about the tram, I don’t recall anyone claiming its purpose was to fix or prevent congestion.
This is a new one!
No it isn’t. As I recall, this was one of the original motives for building the Tram.
That’s not exactly a route that had a congestion problem
Really? What route from SoWa to Pill Hill does not suffer from congestion during some parts of the day? How else would you suggest that one travel from SoWa to the top of the hill – in three minutes?
In response to Bob T –
The equivalent shuttle bus journey, depending on the time of day, could take up to 25 minutes.
Supposing, just for a moment, that we ignore trip times and that shuttle buses could move the same quantity of people as the tram all day with regular 5-minute departures, you’d be talking about long-term costs in league with the tram’s.
But the tram offers an approximately 3 minute journey with regular 5-minute departures. It simply facilitates trip types which are not supportable by road-based transportation: It is one thing to take a 5 minute journey to reach a meeting or appointment at the top/bottom of the hill, and then make it back again. It’s akin to walking down the street. It’s another thing to take a 15+ minute bus ride, and then return again that way.
The tram simply facilitates a level of campus integration which is physically impossible (due to the geography and existing development) with road-based modes.
That being said, I still think Jim Howell’s original idea of a tunnel plus people-mover and elevator should have been given serious consideration… it could have offered similar trip times with the added benefit of transit connections on Barbur and other streets — but the cost would have been up there with the tram as well.
Additionally, I’ve personally seen food service carts, other utility carts, and parcel deliveries facilitated by the tram. These would not generally have been supportable by bus and would have required separate, dedicated vehicle trips on the roads without the tram.
– Bob R.
“The equivalent shuttle bus journey, depending on the time of day, could take up to 25 minutes.”
Yeah Bob R,
BUT WHY IN THE HELL WOULD ANYBODY BE DOWN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
So you have to drive down there to go up there?
Why not just drive up there?
Oh yea, I forgot, you can’t.
They call that a RIGGED GAME!
Al asked: BUT WHY IN THE HELL WOULD ANYBODY BE DOWN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE? (Al, please dial it down a bit… no need to shout.)
Because that’s where the campus expansion is going. OHSU doesn’t have room for a major campus expansion on the hill, and there isn’t much more room for parking either. A major parking structure up there could easily cost in the same ballpark as the tram, and you still wouldn’t have room for the campus expansion.
Take a look at this Google Map of OHSU — the non-cliffside areas (and some of those, too) are fully built-out.
OHSU has already received massive private donations for a new medical/dental school building on the new Schnitzer campus.
– Bob R.
ok Bob R; (al whispered)
but as I said previously, this is a highly specialized transit option, one which the vast majority of Portlander’s will never have any use for!
It serves a very user specific clientèle, all funded by tax dollars, albeit city/state/ohsu, etc., which the vast majority of Portlander’s pay into.
My point is, the public funded something that most of the public has no use for;
EVER! (al raises his voice)
“the public funded something that most of the public has no use for”
Same could be said for the street in front of my house. You’ve probably never driven on it nor will you ever in the future, (okay, bad argument, the 4F ran up and down my street until about a year ago, but if you can apply the argument to the same street one block over…) Or the space shuttle, none of the people here have never ridden in it, why should taxes pay for it?
“Or the space shuttle, none of the people here have never ridden in it, why should taxes pay for it?”
When your right, your right! Public funds have always been used for special interest! The public very seldom gets any benefit from the taxes we pay. (with the exception of roads, police, fire, transit).
“All the taxes paid over a lifetime by the average American are spent by the government in less than a second.”
I’ll tell you what bothers me about the tram, really.
They masquerade it as some sort of TRANSIT OPTION! What a load of crap!
Sorry Bob R, don’t ball me out please!
:]