WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's inauguration was a precedent-setting day in more ways than one: More passengers took Metrorail than ever before.
By 6 p.m. Tuesday, more than 930,000 passengers had used Metrorail, the transit agency said. A record of 866,681 had been set Monday.
About 1,120,000 rail trips were taken Tuesday, according to Metro. Add 423,000 bus trips and 1,721 MetroAccess trips and you have record ridership for the entire Metro system of more than 1,540,000 trips.
"Our Metro system wasn’t designed to transport this many people in such a short time, but we did it," Metro General manager John Catoe said.
Of the bus trips, 228,000 were on the 23 "Presidential" bus corridors, 3,000 were on supplemental service to park-and-ride lots outside the Beltway in Maryland and Virginia, 177,000 were on regular service routes, and 15,000 were on special shuttles supplementing crowding in the rail system.
Metro also beat its Sunday rail record this week by 75,000 riders with a total of 616,324.
Metro sold 93,380 commemorative Barack Obama SmarTrip cards, which are still available for purchase online and in Metro's sales centers. Metro also sold 53,462 commemorative one-day passes.
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Metro opened at 4 a.m., an hour earlier than usual, to bring huge crowds into the city. Extra trains also were used to handle the crush of passengers. Even still, there were many times when the number of passengers just overwhelmed some Metro stops, which were forced to close temporarily.
Metro remained open until 2 a.m. to accommodate late-night crowds.
Top 20 weekday Metrorail ridership days:
- 01/20/09, Obama Inauguration (1,120,000)
- 01/19/09, Obama inaugural events (866,681)
- 07/11/08, Baseball/Women of Faith Conference (854,638)
- 06/09/04, Reagan State Funeral (850,636)
- 06/25/08, Smithsonian Folklife Festival/Baseball (846,388)
- 07/10/08, Baseball (844,530)
- 07/08/08, Baseball/Basketball (835,072)
- 07/02/08, Smithsonian Folklife Festival (834,956)
- 04/03/07, Cherry Blossoms/Baseball (831,508)
- 06/24/08, Baseball/Basketball (831,464)
- 06/20/08, Baseball/Basketball (829,998)
- 04/24/08, Baseball/Basketball (828,973)
- 04/17/08, Pope Visit/Soccer (828,418)
- 04/11/08, Baseball/Cherry Blossoms (828,132)
- 06/27/08, Smithsonian Folklife Festival/Baseball (825,862)
- 06/18/08, No Event (823,516)
- 07/01/08, No Event (822,931)
- 04/10/06, Immigrant Rights Rally (821,283)
- 06/19/08, No Event (819,979)
- 06/26/08, Smithsonian Folklife Festival (819,722)
