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Quarterly ridership: system-wide decline of about 7.9% year-over-year, with mixed route-level results
Summary
Staff reported a system-wide ridership decline of roughly 7.9% for January–June versus the same period in 2025, with larger decreases in North Dakota and mixed changes at college partners; committee discussed causes including service cuts and schedule changes.
Staff presented the January–June ridership comparison to the same period in 2025 and said system-wide ridership was down about 7.9%, with North Dakota down about 11.6%.
"So taking a look at the system as a whole... North Dakota saw a decrease of 11.6%. And system wide, there's a decrease of 7.9% compared to previous year," Cole said during the presentation. Staff broke out route-level swings: some routes saw small increases while others had double-digit decreases; college U-Pass ridership was mixed (Concordia up ~34.8%, MSUM down ~15.6%, NDSU down ~13.7%), producing an overall U-Pass decline of about 11.9%. Staff attributed some lane-by-lane changes to summer seasonality, service reductions (including earlier cuts on Fargo routes) and timing changes that made some routes less usable.
Committee members asked staff to analyze whether the fare and service changes produced net savings or losses when factoring lower ridership; staff said they would follow up with an analysis.
