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John Daley ReportingWith those rising gas prices, more and more Utahns are swapping their wheels for a ride on the rails. TRAX ridership is hitting record numbers.
When the choice is between pumping your car with petrol, or hopping TRAX to head downtown, more and more people are taking the train.
Gary Loveridge, TRAX Rider: "I save quite a bit. I work downtown and sitting on the freeway takes a lot more gas than it does to sit on a train."
Wade Hansen, TRAX Rider: "Normally I take my vehicle, but the way gas prices are right now, I think it's a crime."
UTA is seeing record numbers this year. Consider this: in January, TRAX ridership was up 58%. In February it was up 44%; and last month, ridership increased by 43%. All of those are compared with the same month in '05.
Those March numbers are impressive too because more than 58-thousand people a weekday took TRAX in March, and that's an all-time record, the most the system ever seen in one month.
Many we spoke with are happy mass transit is an option, but say they're not so happy the oil companies seem to have consumers over a barrel.
Brittany Hester, TRAX Rider: "I think a little bit is the gas companies taking advantage of high prices and then bumping it up a little more and taking advantage, getting more profit."
Gary Loveridge, TRAX Rider: "As dependent as we all are on it, it is a problem. I mean, our country is basically based on using cars."
Sterling Provost, TRAX Rider: "They're atrocious. They're beyond the point of reason and I would support all measures, legislative and otherwise, to tax these oil companies, which are making bonus profits."
Meantime, that kind of thinking has plenty of people voting with their wallet, spending cash on TRAX rather cash on gas.
Another interesting number, bus ridership is also up, but by about 2.5% in March. And for the system as a whole, TRAX and buses, 144-thousand people a day used mass transit in March. That's also a record number.
