Tacoma — Link Rail Ridership Beats Estimates

Rail Transit Online, February 2004

The city’s new fare-free downtown streetcar is carrying more people each weekday than had been projected for the year 2010, although that figure can be seen as extremely conservative.  Sound Transit latest available passenger count for Tacoma Link, through Dec. 8, shows 2,309 average weekday boardings, with a seven-day average of 14,317.  There were 233,159 passengers since the 1.6-mi. (2.57 km), $80.4-million line opened on Aug. 22, 2003, which extrapolated on a 12-month basis equals 744,473 riders annually.  ST had predicted about 600,000 boardings a year by 2010.