After a 4% ridership decline from 2001 to 2003, NJ Transit reported a 2.2% increase between July 2003-March 2004 and July 2002-March 2003.

State officials say the state’s recovering economy, along with reopened PATH service and Secaucus Junction, is behind the increasing ridership.

However, according to the Star-Ledger, the number of passengers using Secaucus Junction is about 5,600 per day. NJ Transit projections from September hoped for about 7,500 by this time. But NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington told the paper that station use was increasing by 300-400 a month, and should reach 8,500 riders by the end of the year.

Further east, MTA overall ridership, along with that on each of its subsidiaries, continued to drop during the winter. The system’s ridership also declined from 2002-2003.

Meanwhile, the JFK AirTrain, which opened in December, is steadily attracting riders. In May 2004, ridership reached 26,500. 23,000 were free trips within the airport and 6,778 were revenue rides from Howard Beach or Jamaica. Projected monthly passenger total after 12 months is 34,000.

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