A REPORT RELEASED THIS WEEK by the Boston Foundation pegged weekday ridership on the Fairmount Line at 2,257 passengers in June 2016, which is about 15 percent higher than counts taken by Keolis Commuter Services at roughly the same time.
The Fairmount Line travels between Readville and South Station through Mattapan and Dorchester. The Boston Foundation report focused exclusively on June 1, 2016, using human counters on each individual train car. Keolis conducted its passenger surveys using human counters at several stations along the line over several days in May 2016 and came up with an average weekday ridership of 1,954. The Keolis surveys indicated 486 passengers traveled the line on Saturdays and 264 on Sundays.
Both the Boston Foundation and Keolis weekday numbers are way up from earlier counts. MBTA records indicate passenger boardings on the Fairmount Line have bounced around a lot, going from 1,561 in fiscal year 2009 to a low of 792 in fiscal 2012 to 1,038 in fiscal year 2013.
The passenger levels on the Fairmount Line are the lowest of any commuter rail line. Eighteen trains run inbound and outbound on the line during a typical weekday, and there were 19 runs each way during 2016. At the 2016 ridership levels in the Boston Foundation report, that works out to 59 passengers per train.
The Framingham/Worcester Line was the busiest commuter rail line in 2016, averaging 18,423 passengers on weekdays. Next to Fairmount, the Greenbush Line had the lowest passenger level, an average of 5,384 on weekdays.
The Boston Foundation report recommended a number of initiatives to increase ridership on the Fairmount Line, including providing free transfers to buses and subways and extending service to Legacy Place in Dedham.
The T is hoping to attract new riders to the line by allowing anyone to ride for free from May 8 through May 21. The roughly $50,000 tab for the free rides is being picked up by US Rep. Michael Capuano, who is using funds from his campaign account.
Keolis and the MBTA have been criticized for unreliable passenger counts, prompting the purchase of new automated counting equipment that will be rotated among commuter rail lines to generate more reliable data.
