Link Is Now Bigger Than All ST Express Routes Combined

Sounder Bruce (Flickr)

Though we've already covered daily ridership for ULink's first full month - a weekday average of 60,000 with spikes above 80,000 - Sound Transit also recently released its April systemwide summary. The figures are as robust as you'd expect, with 79% year-over-year growth for Link Light Rail, clocking in at 60,000 weekday boardings versus 33,000 a year ago.

ULink is also trending roughly 30% above Sound Transit's target, with 200 passengers per trip compared to the April 2016 target of 150.

Sounder continued its robust growth, with 600 passengers per trip and 5% year over year growth. Sounder carries 1/4 as many weekday riders as Link (15k vs 60k), a healthy figure for just a couple dozen daily trips.

But April also crossed another interesting threshold, as Link now carries more total riders than all 28 Sound Transit Express routes combined. To be fair, this is largely due to Link's very high weekend frequency relative to ST Express, and ST Express still carries slightly more weekday passengers (65k versus 60k), but likely not for long as ULink growth continues and Angle Lake opens in late summer/early fall.