Detroit — Ridership Falls

May 2018

Crain's Detroit Business reports that ridership numbers have decreased on the QLine streetcar since free fares ended. Free rides in the first summer of operation for the 3.3-mile long streetcar line boosted the total ridership in QLine's first year to 1.35 million, nearly 500,000 fewer riders than its operator had set as a goal to achieve a minimum daily ridership average of 5,000 passengers.

Ridership numbers were expected to increase as warmer weather returns. Daily ridership in April 2018 increased by 52 percent when compared to March, the QLine's operators wrote in a report on its first-year operation.

The story also investigates ridership and other features of about a dozen new streetcar systems across the country and claims that many are also falling short.

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