D.C. Metro Ridership Set Saturday Record On Day Of Rally For Sanity And/Or Fear

Doug Mataconis · · 4 comments

Yes, this will just contribute to the never ending “my crowd is bigger than your crowd” debate, but the ridership figures from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority hit a record for a Saturday on the day of the Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear:

Metro set a new record for highest Saturday Metrorail ridership on Saturday, October 30. Officials estimate 825,437 Metrorail trips were taken, with many people traveling to the National Mall for the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.” In anticipation of the crowds, Metro added extra trains, and additional Metro personnel were on hand to assist customers at the fare gates and with purchasing fare cards. But because of the record setting ridership, Metro experienced unprecedented crowds throughout the day with long lines at many end-of-the-line stations early in the day as customers waited to enter the system. Average Saturday Metrorail ridership is typically about 350,000. Yesterday’s record ridership surpassed the 1991 Desert Storm rally, which was held on June 8, 1991 and held the top spot for 19 years.

This number exceeds by more than 300,000 the 510,000 trips recorded on August 28th, the day of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally.

This would seem to confirm that Saturday’s crowd was in fact larger than the Beck rally, to the extent that matters.