400,000 less people have travelled on Midland Metro in 2007 and 2008 compared to 2006 according to new figures released this week. 4.8 million passengers have been recorded in the past two years compared to 5.2 million in 2006 although this has been put down partly to vandalism attacks causing disruption to the service. Indeed, revised figures state that passenger numbers have actually increased by 2.6 per cent.
Despite these revised figures Centro have decided to initiate monthly performance meetings with Travel Midland Metro to keep an eye on the performance levels to ensure passenger numbers do not fall too much. Centro would like 5.8 million passengers per year to use Midland Metro so they can make a better case to the government for cash to fund extensions.
Steve Swingler, Centro media manager, commented: “More people are discovering the benefits of using the Metro and as a result passenger numbers have actually increased this year by 2.6 per cent. The system is well-used and highly regarded and provides a reliable, frequent, fast and environmentally-friendly service. It has taken an estimated 1.2 million car journeys off the roads with 15 per cent of passengers using the tram instead of their cars for the same journey. It operated at 98.9 per cent reliability last year and carried 4.8 million passengers.”
“It is important to realise why [passenger figures have fallen] and it is certainly not because people are deserting the Metro. During this period there have been a number of incidents of damage to the system which has forced its closure. One act of vandalism in May last year resulted in all Metro services being cancelled for a very lengthy period of time. Together with other incidents, there have been a significant number of days when no one could use the trams, which obviously resulted in a significant fall in the full year passenger figures. This drop in patronage was not because people were choosing against using the Metro. If we exclude these forced closures then passenger numbers have actually been increasing. These incidents also left two trams badly damaged and these have been out of service for extensive repair work. Having two less trams means the number of people we can carry during peak time is reduced by 250 an hour so this too has affected overall passenger numbers but again it’s not because people don’t want to use the Metro. The good news is that both these trams will soon be back in service very soon so frequency can be stepped up once again.”
Source: Wolverhampton Express & Star