Introduction
BOSTON REGION METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION Richard A. Davey, MassDOT Secretary and CEO and MPO Chairman Karl H. Quackenbush, Executive Director, MPO Staff MEMORANDUM DATE December 21, 2012 TO David Mohler, Executive Director of Planning Office of Transportation Planning, MassDOT FROM Thomas J. Humphrey, Chief Planner, Transit Service Planning Central Transportation Planning Staff RE MBTA Commuter Rail Passenger Count Results INTRODUCTION This memorandum summarizes the results of passenger counts conducted by CTPS on the MBTA commuter rail system between January and June 2012, and provides recommendations concerning the nature and frequency of future counts. Those counts included the number of passengers boarding and alighting from each train in each direction at each station on each line on one weekday. This level of detail is useful for many planning purposes but is not currently obtainable by any method other than manual counting. The data collected by CTPS were compared to several types of MBTA commuter rail ridership and ridership-related data that have historically been collected on an ongoing basis. The purpose of the comparison was to newly assess the accuracy of those ridership data and to inform recommendations regarding the nature and frequency of future counts. The data compared were: • Monthly ticket and pass sales figures • Daily conductor headcounts • Train Audits from the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company (MBCR) that are more detailed than the conductor headcounts and are performed by conductors several times each year • MBCR peak-period passenger counts conducted at selected stations by consultants to MBCR twice each year1 1 A description of each type of data can be found in Appendix D, Glossary of Terms, and a full explanation of the various types of commuter rail passenger count methodologies can be found in section 6 of this memorandum, Limitations of Other Commuter Rail Ridership Information Sources.
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