Outgoing Metro Transit General Manager Justin Stuehrenberg attributes the ridership increase to the September 2024 rollout of bus rapid transit in Madison.

Bus ridership in the Madison area surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time this April. Ridership on Metro Transit last month hit more than 1.3 million, the highest recorded that month in nearly a decade.

“We're excited to see that it not only exceeded 2019, but is the highest since 2015 in April,” says Metro Transit General Manager Justin Stuehrenberg, who will leave the agency May 30. “Metro's peak ridership was in 2014 and then [was] slowly going down, even before COVID.”

Ridership in April 2019 was at 1.26 million. Other cities have struggled to recoup their pre-pandemic ridership numbers, and Stuehrenberg says there’s “only a handful” of agencies nationally that have surpassed pre-pandemic ridership: he mentions Spokane, Nashville, Tucson, and Richmond, Virginia, as examples. Those agencies, he says, have either gone fare-free or “undertaken pretty substantial service enhancements.”

It’s a strong bounceback for the agency. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum found in 2022 that Metro’s ridership numbers were “alarmingly low” after the pandemic. Systemwide ridership in 2019 totaled an estimated 12.9 million rides. In 2024, Metro’s annual ridership was at 9.2 million.

Transit experts say the decline is largely related to the rise of remote work. Former riders continuing to work remotely or on a hybrid basis could cause a “permanent” national reduction in 9 a.m.-5 p.m. commuter ridership, one 2024 U.S. Department of Transportation report warned. National public transit ridership — including trains and other forms of public transit — is at 79% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Stuehrenberg expects Madison’s bus ridership to continue rising and attributes the increase to the September 2024 rollout of bus rapid transit: “As we get any kinks worked out in the system and the operation gets a little bit more smooth, and people get more familiar with it, they're seeing the value and really gravitating towards it. I think [the increase is] directly attributable to those investments we've made.” 

Stuehrenberg is “relatively confident” about a crucial expansion to Metro’s service. Though former Madison Director of Transportation Thomas Lynch said in March that the city was at “high” risk of not receiving federal money for a second, north-south BRT route, Stuehrenberg predicts $118 million in funding will come through.

“The biggest concern was that program just being eliminated or reduced dramatically,” says Stuehrenberg. “That didn’t happen. That funding program was fully funded in the 2025 continuing resolution that passed [on March 15]. That's a really good sign that money is there.”

He says he feels Madison’s proposal is “well situated” for the U.S. Department of Transportation's new criteria for the Capital Investment Grants program, which “largely mirror” executive orders signed by President Donald Trump. The revised criteria, Stuehrenberg says, disincentivizes electric buses and replaces references to environmental justice and race-based criteria with targeting of “opportunity zones,” federally-designated tax-incentive areas for low-income communities.

But, he notes, Madison won’t need to purchase any electric buses for the new BRT system — they were purchased with previously awarded federal funds — and most of Madison’s opportunity zones lie along the proposed north-south BRT line.

“We can, I think, still score very well even under some of these new criteria.”

[Editor’s note: This article was corrected to indicate that the cities Metro Transit General Manager Justin Stuehrenberg mentioned were examples of cities that have surpassed pre-pandemic ridership.] 

https://isthmus.com/news/news/metro-transit-ridership-in-april-surpasses-pre-pandemic-numbers/