Ridership on Santa Barbara's downtown-waterfront shuttle in the third quarter of fiscal year 2019 dropped by nearly 11,000 passengers from the previous year, according to the Metropolitan Transit District.

The ridership was 57,218 from January to March 31 in 2018, but down to 46,666 for the same period this year.

The plunge continues a trend of declining ridership for the downtown-waterfront shuttle.

However, transit officials say they believe the ridership numbers will rebound soon, particularly after the MTD added a shuttle stop in the Funk Zone, on the corner of Yanonali and Anacapa streets, on June 10.

Hillary Blackerby, MTD's interim planning and marketing manager, said there's less of a need for people to travel up State Street, so the transit agency is seeing the decrease in ridership on the shuttle uptown.

"Santa Barbara's downtown and waterfront have changed significantly in the past two years," Blackerby said. "Whether you're a tourist or a local, the center of activity has shifted to below Gutierrez Street. When in a two or three block radius you can go to the beach, have lunch and dinner, do some wine tasting and either stay in a hotel or hop a ride all the way home — you might not have cause to take the shuttle further away."

She said waterfront routes often "wax and wane" based on cruise ship visits and the capacity of those ships, which is also a factor.

The shuttle goes from Cabrillo Boulevard to Sola along State Street, and then from the harbor area to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

"This route was extremely popular in years past —the '90's were the heyday," Blackerby said. "Electric shuttles were new and novel, transit service had come to downtown, and Paseo Nuevo had just opened. All told, the State Street route in particular is still well-used, especially in the summer and on weekends.

"Our new electric vehicles, unveiled last year, have larger capacity, greater battery range, and air conditioning."

Ridership on the shuttle may have also declined because of the length of time it takes. Although MTD's goal is have the buses hit stops every 10 minutes, that isn't always the case.

A round trip up State Street used to take 30-35 minutes, but now can take up to 45 minutes.

Blackerby and MTD are hopeful that people will once again rediscover the shuttle.

"The crowd is changing," Blackerby said. "We’re trying to make it the best we can, and hope riders give it a shot."

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.