Ridership Records
Strong Ridership Trend Continues During First Five Months of 2024
CINCINNATI – Ridership on the Connector totaled 114,296 in May, the second-best month ever and a 12 percent increase over the previous May record of 102,189 passengers in 2023.
The streetcar's single best month for ridership ever occurred last September with 115,114 passengers, just 818 passengers ahead of May 2024.
May marks the fourth month of record ridership out of five so far in 2024 after posting record annual results in 2022 and 2023. Other monthly records this year include:
- April with 103,565 passengers compared to 90,165 in April 2023
- March with 101,017 passengers compared to 80,215 in March 2023
- February with 73,361 passengers compared to 71,183 in February 2023
"May was a great month, capped off by robust ridership during Taste of Cincinnati downtown close to the streetcar route," said Lori Burchett, deputy director for streetcar services with the Cincinnati Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE). "We came close to breaking a new all-time monthly record."
Burchett added: "We're happy about our strong results in the first few months of 2024 and look forward to a good summer and fall when ridership is historically the strongest. We will continue to focus on providing the best customer experience possible in partnership with our operations manager Transdev."
Ridership in January was strong, though not a record with 67,686 passengers compared to 71,363 in January 2023. For the first quarter, ridership was up 8.7 percent to 242,164 passengers versus 222,761 passengers during the January-to-March period in 2023.
Ridership during the first five months of 2024 was up 10.8 percent to 460,025 passengers versus 415,115 passengers January-to-May 2023.
Ridership Exceeds 1.1 Million Passengers in 2023 to Set New Record on the Heels of 2022 Record
Ridership on the Connector rose more than 30 percent in 2023, significantly outperforming its previous best year to achieve a new annual record with 1,108,092 passengers.
“It was an awesome year in 2023 on top of a great 2022,” said Burchett. “All our ridership metrics continued to increase. We couldn’t have achieved these consecutive record results without our operations partner Transdev, which continues to keep the streetcar running smoothly with excellent on-time performance.”
Total ridership increased 30.9 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, the previous annual record with passenger counts of 846,622. Before the most recent two years, the streetcar’s annual record was 571,601 passengers in 2017, the streetcar’s first full calendar year in operation.
Other 2023 Highlights
The streetcar set new ridership records every month except in October, including five consecutive months with 100,000 plus passengers in May, June, July, August and September, and celebrated another milestone with 1 million passengers in a single calendar year in late November.
Burchett also credits the strong ridership to more people being aware of the Connector as a convenient, free and enjoyable way to travel between OTR, Downtown and The Banks.
Weekday Ridership Fueled 2023’s Momentum
Passenger counts Monday through Friday increased 35.3 percent to 712,711 compared to 526,858 passengers in 2022. Weekend ridership rose 23.6 percent to 395,381 passengers in 2023 on Saturdays and Sundays from 319,764 in 2022.
In addition, weekday ridership as a percent of total ridership continued its upward trend. Ridership during the work week represented 64 percent of total passengers in 2023, up from 62 percent in 2022 and 53 percent in 2017, with 526,858 and 302,721 weekday passengers in those years, respectively.
Overall ridership since passenger service began in September 2016 totals approximately 4.5 million.
Though ridership typically slows in late fall through winter, the streetcar still achieved monthly records in November 2023 with 82,509 passengers and in December with 88,995 passengers.
“We were really happy to see such positive weekday momentum throughout 2023 and record performance to finish the year in November and December,” Burchett said, adding that she is looking forward to assessing the results of an upcoming survey to learn more about ridership trends.
Details about the survey, which will poll riders and non-riders, will be announced closer to its launch.
The streetcar travels 3.6 miles between OTR and The Banks via the Central Business District. It operates 365 days a year and has been free to ride since September 2020.
Many Milestones, Other Statistics for 2023
The Connector reached 1 million riders in late November, a first in a single calendar year. That milestone came after the streetcar had already secured a new annual record by the end of September with year-to-date ridership at 849,161.
The streetcar also beat its all-time monthly record three times in 2023.
All-time monthly records:
- 115, 114 passengers in September
- 111,320 passengers in July
- 105,624 passengers in June
On a daily basis, the streetcar averaged 3,036 passengers in 2023 versus 2,320 in 2022. Weekday ridership Monday through Friday averaged 2,741 in 2023, up from 2,026 in 2022. Weekend ridership averaged 3,766 in 2023 versus 3,045 in 2022.
The streetcar's best single ridership day in 2023 was Sept. 16 with 8,747 passengers. By comparison, its single best day of all time was during BLINK with 14,670 passengers on Oct. 12, 2019.
The city took over day-to-day management of the streetcar in January 2020 from the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) and it has been fare-free since September 2020, when it returned to service after a five-month hiatus due to COVID pandemic restrictions.
► Please see the chart below for more ridership details.
► Watch a time-lapse video along the Connector’s route and read a timeline with highlights about the current streetcar system, which began passenger service Sept. 9, 2016. Cincinnati’s original streetcar discontinued service April 29, 1951.
Other Streetcar Updates
The streetcar team is finalizing a new advertising contract with a vendor to be announced in early 2024 following a request for proposals last fall. The new contract is unrelated to the system’s naming rights contract with Alta Fiber, which remains in place until 2026.
The streetcar also recently received a $250,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration to use for technology upgrades to its headway management system. The city currently uses SORTA’s headway management system. Proceeds from the FTA grant will allow the city to study the feasibility and cost to obtain its own headway management system.
Annual Streetcar Ridership Totals
| 2023 | 1,108,092 |
| 2022* | 846,622 |
| 2021 | 555,884 |
| 2020** | 165,768 |
| 2019 | 530,016 |
| 2018 | 473,684 |
| 2017 | 571,421 |
| 2016*** | 260,548 |
* Previous annual ridership record.
** Partial year. Passenger service suspended April - August due to COVID 19 pandemic.
*** Partial year. Data as of Sept. 9, 2016, the date passenger service began.
Monthly Streetcar Ridership Records
|
New Record |
Passenger Count |
Previous Record |
Passenger Count |
| May 2024 | 114,296 | May 2023 | 102,189 |
| April 2024 | 103,565 | April 2023 | 90,165 |
| March 2024 | 101,017 | March 2023 | 80,215 |
| February 2024 | 73,461 | February 2023 | 71,183 |
| December 2023 | 88,995 | December 2022 | 69,303 |
| November 2023 | 82,509 | November 2022 | 64,675 |
| September 2023 | 115,114 | September 2022 | 88,992 |
| August 2023 ** | 101,988 | August 2022 | 83,078 |
| July 2023 ** | 111,320 | July 2022 | 89,074 |
| June 2023 ** | 105,624 | June 2017 | 61,404 |
| May 2023 | 102,189 | May 2022 | 81,175 |
| April 2023 | 90,165 | April 2022 | 65,352 |
| March 2023 | 80,215 | March 2022 | 58,874 |
| February 2023 | 71,183 | February 2022 | 49,641 |
| January 2023 | 71,363 | January 2022 | 43,131 |
| December 2022 | 69,303 | December 2021 | 55,105 |
| November 2022 | 64,675 | November 2021 | 52,440 |
| October 2022 | 103,700 | October 2016 | 82,934 |
| September 2022 | 88,992 | September 2016 | 75,485 |
| August 2022 | 83,078 | August 2019 | 56,402 |
| July 2022 | 89,07 | July 2017 | 61,404 |
| May 2022* | 81,175 | May 2017 | 53,116 |
| April 2022* | 65,352 | April 2017 | 49,966 |
| March 2022* | 58,874 | March 2017 | 37,471 |
| February 2022 | 49,641 | February 2017 | 36,681 |
| January 2022 | 43,131 | January 2017 | 35,334 |
| December 2021 | 55,105 | December 2016 | 52,209 |
| November 2021 | 52,440 | November 2016 | 49,920 |
* Denotes audited results versus previously reported passenger counts.
** Denotes estimates. See explanation below in the last footnote.
Please note:
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requires the city to track, audit and submit ridership to its National Transit Database (NTD) every month. The city, which uses one of the most conservative methods for reporting streetcar ridership, derives its figures for passenger boardings from infrared sensors known collectively as the Automatic Passenger Counting system (APC). An APC sensor is mounted above every door on all five streetcars.
The city also audits its APC figures to certify to the FTA that the system is accurate. The city does so by periodically conducting manual passenger counts and comparing those samples to the corresponding APC figures.
Among the metrics measured for ridership, the sensors count each passenger as a single boarding except when unable to distinguish between one or multiple passengers. In those cases, a given passenger boarding is discounted to zero, which results in lower-than-actual passenger counts.
Ridership totaled 49,627 in June 2022, the only month the streetcar didn’t hit a record in 2022. Service on the Downtown loop was suspended for more than half the month due to the closure of the station stop at 12th and Main. The stop was closed June 12 – July 1 for safety reasons following the partial collapse of an adjacent building.
Passenger counts for parts of June, July and August 2023 are estimates based on an FTA-approved method. A hardware upgrade to the streetcar’s headway management system didn’t integrate with existing software as configured, which resulted in inconsistent counts between June 29 and late August 2023. The integration issue has since been resolved and the streetcar’s APC system is working properly.