COUNTYWIDE : SCAT Ridership Up 11% Over 9 Months
About 177,600 more people rode South Coast Area Transit buses during the nine-month period that ended March 31, officials said Wednesday.
The public transit agency, which is supported by local sales tax, fares and federal grants, serves Ojai, Santa Paula, Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme and surrounding areas.
SCAT carried 1.6 million passengers between July 1, 1989, and March 31, an 11.1% increase over the 1,422,400 passengers during the nine months that ended March 31, 1989, officials said. Revenue from fares rose 12.2% to $728,000 during the latest nine-month period.
Maureen H. Lopez, SCAT’s director of planning and marketing, estimated that about 2.2 million passengers rode the bus during the fiscal year ending June 30.
“I definitely see continued growth on the horizon,” Lopez said. “The county is growing, people realize that bus ridership helps fight pollution, and many employers are encouraging workers to take the bus.”
Lopez said the transit service’s busiest line is the Oxnard-Ventura route, which carried about 750,000 passengers in the past year. Another fast-growing route, Port Hueneme-Oxnard Transportation Center, carried about 300,000 passengers.
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