VIA Park & Ride hits 10-year ridership high due to busy downtown weekend

SAN ANTONIO – After city leadership anticipated more than 100,000 people flooding downtown San Antonio last weekend, VIA Metropolitan Transit saw the greatest utilization of its Park & Ride service since October 2013, according to a news release.

VIA provided 23,254 rides last Saturday to and from the Robert Thompson Transit Station located at the Alamodome, the news release stated.

The transit service partnered with city, Alamodome and Muertos Fest leaders as well as Centro San Antonio and its Alamo City Amigos on the mobility plan for the weekend, which saw Paul McCartney and Muertos Fest take over downtown at the same time.

VIA offered fare-free service last Saturday across the system to encourage ridership to the events.

“Each trip represents more than a ride,” VIA CEO Jon Gary Herrera said, “it’s fewer cars on the road, less congestion downtown and stronger connections to the people and places that matter most.”

Last Saturday’s ridership beat the previous record for special event ridership, which was set Dec. 30, 2013, when the Texas Longhorns faced the Oregon Ducks in the Alamo Bowl.

Read also:

• VIA Park and Ride in Stone Oak costs over $25M, but services only a couple hundred riders a day, records show
• Alamo Area MPO report envisions more walkable, bikeable Beacon Hill, Alta Vista neighborhoods
• City of New Braunfels to launch new microtransit service in November