Metro surpasses 3,000,000,000 riders!

Watch the video - Windows Media (2:03)

Watch the video - Real Media (2:03)

Bus tunnel rider says:

I’m the three billionth passenger, he’s actually three billion and one!

Narrator Says:

Whether this rider actually was the three billionth rider in Metro’s 36-year history may never be known.

What is known is that metro recently passed the milestone of three billion riders since beginning operations January 1st, 1973.

With about 400,000 daily boardings, pinning down the actual three billionth rider would have been next to impossible. So, Metro and county leaders were on hand at select locations March 31st to hand out commemorative buttons to mark the milestone.

King County Metro Transit Marketing Supervisor Bob Virkelyst Says:

Well, it's a big deal, three billion rides actually equates to 14.5 billion passenger miles, so it equates to a lot of people we've made an impact and changes in their lives. To have the people ride with metro every day and have us be a part of their commute and livelihood means a lot to us.

And it's not this whole mass of three billion people we're talking about, we treat our customers one-to-one, we got a one-to-one relationship with them. And it is a relationship because we play such a big part of their daily lives, we want to make sure we do the right thing for them and it's a reciprocal relationship, but we do appreciate their business and we thank them for riding, and to us that's why three billion is one heck of a huge accomplishment.

King County Department of Transportation Director Harold Taniguchi Says:

I want to thank the citizens and riders of king county for helping us reach this key milestone. Today, we serve our three billionth rider. It took over 36 years to get here, but we've done it. With our record riderships of the last few years, I know we'll get to four billion before we know it, so thanks again everybody.

Narrator Says:

To put the numbers into perspective, the Washington State Department of Transportation estimates three billion is the total number of vehicles that have traveled on I-5 for the last 30 years.

Metro statisticians say the 14.5 billion miles traveled by metro passengers since 1973 is about the same as 156 one-way trips to the sun.

Metro began using Automated Passenger Counters in the late 1980’s, and accumulated the data needed to reach three billion rides from buses, street-cars, electric trolleys, and special event service.