The City of Tempe shared information on Metro light rail ridership today and the numbers echo what most urban dwellers have already noticed-- crowds of people are enjoying the light rail!  Still, the numbers are quite impressive and are worth noting here.

Prior to the completion of the light rail, Valley Metro projected light rail ridership to be 26,000 passengers each weekday.  For the month of February 2009, the rail actually averaged close to 35.300 each weekday. That’s more than 35% higher than anticipated!  Weekends were only slightly less with Saturday’s averaging 31,400 and Sunday at 19,200.

Those who live/work and play on the Metro light rail line have been singing it’s praises since it began service in December of 2008.  If you haven’t already taken the time to give it a ride, may we would suggest a trip to downtown Tempe?  Start your trip by hopping on a car at the main Transportation Center at 5th Street and College.  The new Tempe Transportation Center has a great modern design, which is the vision of architectural firm “Architekton”.  When you are done taking the architecture all in, ride the rail from downtown Tempe, over the bridge at Tempe Town Lake, fly past Sky Harbor Airport and hop off again when you arrive in downtown Phoenix.  If you haven’t spent much time in downtown Phoenix in a while, we suggest taking some time to explore the area before making the trip back to Tempe.  This is a great, little light rail trip and will certainly give you a taste of what the light rail is all about.  If you find your stomach growling along the way, make sure you take a look at our previous web post for some great restaurant options for just about any foody-- Food Sojourning on the Metro Light Rail.

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Life is in the heart of the city!