Total ridership on the downtown Milwaukee streetcar system decreased by 35 percent from December to January, a dip city officials attribute to the extreme weather.
The city also said a software glitch in the Hop’s passenger counter system has made February ridership data unavailable.
The streetcar system provided a total of 49,501 rides in January (an average of 1,597 per day), down from about 72,000 rides in both November and December, its first two months of service.
The combined totals from the Hop’s first three months average to daily ridership of 2,105.
The city said industry trends indicate streetcar ridership often dips during colder months and peaks in the summer.
Malfunctions of the streetcar system’s automatic passenger counter system has resulted in “large blocks of missing data” from February and early March, the city said. Each of the system’s five streetcars has sensors located above the doors that track riders. Data from January was recovered.
“Ridership totals provide benchmarks for us to track the system’s growth and key insights into how and when people ride that will allow us to refine the level of service we provide,” a city statement said
“Our priority now is to ensure the APC is functioning as designed so that we can continue compiling accurate data moving forward,” the statement added.
Before the streetcar began service, city officials estimated the initial route would provide 1,850 rides per day. Rides on The Hop are free during the first year of service, as a result of a $10 million, 12-year sponsorship by Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.
The city is planning to extend the streetcar system to the Wisconsin Center prior to the start of the 2020 Democratic National Convention next July, Ald. Robert Bauman recently told BizTimes. The city has plans to extend the streetcar system up to the Fiserv Forum and eventually into the Bronzeville district.
