BOSTON – Total ridership on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s buses, trains, boats and trolleys increased 21.66 million, or 6.13 percent, in the fiscal year ended June 30 to a record 374.79 million, the MBTA said in its annual report today.

Compared with the previous record high of 354.16 million, set in fiscal 2001, the number of people riding the MBTA rose 20.63 million, or 5.82 percent.

The sharpest increases compared with FY 2007 were seen in bus service, up 11 million rides in the most recent fiscal year, and Green Line light rail, up 8.4 million rides, the MBTA said. Trackless trolley rides rose by 870,000 compared with a year ago, while ridership on the MBTA commuter rail also increased slightly compared with FY 2007, the transit authority said.

Ridership increased by “many tons of people,” Daniel A. Grabauskas, the MBTA’s general manager, said in a statement today. “It’s pretty exciting,” he added. “We were definitely trending toward a good year and it turned out to be a phenomenal year for ridership for the MBTA, a historic all-time high.”

Average weekday unlinked passenger trips in the quarter ended June 30 amounted to 1.32 million, an increase of 5.78 percent from the year-ago average of 1.25 million. Last month’s average weekday trips system-wide also amounted to about 1.32 million.

Bus service in June averaged 377,500 trips per weekday, compared with June 2007’s 363,900. Green Line light trolley trips averaged 267,000 per weekday in June, up from 246,100 a year earlier. Commuter rail averaged 142,100 weekday passenger trips last month, compared with the year-ago 143,000. Trackless trolleys averaged 14,500, up from 13,300 weekday trips a year earlier.

Commuter boat, private bus and RIDE service together totaled about 15,700 unlinked weekday passenger trips in June, or 1.19 percent of that month’s total, compared with their year-ago total of 16,100, or 1.29 percent.

“It’s apparent to me that the high price of gasoline has finally hit home for people, and caused travel behavior changes that we did not see when gasoline was $2 a gallon or $3 a gallon,” said Mass. Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen. “Four dollars a gallon seems to be the turning point here in terms of people rethinking modes of travel.”

Moreover, the MBTA said, since gas prices didn’t hit that $4-per-gallon mark until May, “transportation officials and analysts expect interest in public transportation to continue in the months ahead.”

In the Ocean State, the R.I. Public Transit Authority also has seen its ridership rise along with gasoline prices. The increase has exacerbated budget problems at RIPTA, where revenue has failed to keep pace with rising diesel prices. (READ MORE)

At the Bay State agency, the situation is somewhat different: “Ridership equals revenue, insofar as I’m adding more people to existing service,” Grabauskas said. But the MBTA general manager conceded that ridership alone can’t solve the financial woes of an agency that faces an anticipated deficit of $75 million for fiscal 2009.

“This is an opportunity where people are experimenting with public transportation,” Eric Bourassa, a transportation policy analyst for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (Mass-PIRG), told the MBTA. “And if the T does a good job and provides good service, more people are going to use it and we're going to keep those riders. But if the T has to raise fares because of high debt costs and high fuel costs, or if they have to cut service because of that, then we will have missed that opportunity.”

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority – established by state legislation in 1964 to replace the former Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) – traces its history back to the establishment of a public ferry in 1631. Additional information, including schedules for MBTA bus, trolley, subway, boat and commuter rail service, is available at www.mbta.com.