Metro News Release
For immediate release: January 19, 2009
Metrorail sets new Sunday record for highest ridership
616,324 riders used Metrorail on Sunday, January 18
Hundreds of thousands of people attending the Inaugural Opening Ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday helped Metro set a new Sunday ridership in the transit agency’s 32-year history on Sunday, January 18. Riders took 616,324 trips, smashing the previous all-time high ridership day for a Sunday by 75,000 trips.
Combined with 86,836 Metrobus trips, the Metro system carried about 703,000 trips yesterday.
Yesterday’s high rail ridership also makes it the third highest overall weekend ridership day in Metro’s history. The highest weekend ridership day occurred on Saturday, June 8, 1991, when 786,358 trips were recorded for a Desert Storm rally. The second highest weekend ridership day occurred on Saturday, October 4, 1997, when 725,909 trips were recorded for a Promise Keepers rally.
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Metrorail Top 5 Sunday Ridership Days
Date Ridership Event
1) 01-18-09 616,324 Inaugural Opening Ceremony
2) 07-04-99 540,945 Fourth of July Celebration
3) 07-04-93 505,157 Fourth of July Celebration
4) 01-17-93 440,138 Reunion America (Clinton Inaugural Event)
5) 04-25-93 413,312 Lesbian/Gay Rights March
News release issued at 11:28 am, January 19, 2009.