Cincinnati's streetcar had its best year yet in 2022

Cincinnati's streetcar system had a banner year in 2022, surpassing previous records for ridership by a large margin.

According to data released by the city Thursday, 846,622 people rode the 3.6-mile rail loop through Downtown and Over-the-Rhine last year. That's a big increase over the system's previous peak the first full year it was open in 2017. That year, 571,601 passengers used the streetcar.

Streetcar Services Director Lori Burchett credits a number of factors with the increase. She says improved reliability and efficiency came after the streetcar got signal priority Downtown and the city stepped up enforcement against drivers stopping on the streetcar tracks. The streetcar system has also started running most of the hours it ran before the pandemic started. Large events like BLINK in October — a month when more than 100,000 people rode the rail transit system last year — also played a big role.

"We see a lot of weekend ridership, when people are taking it to different events like the Reds or the Bengals," Burchett says.

Ridership was higher over the previous year every month last year except for June, when the partial collapse of a building on Main Street blocked the streetcar tracks. You can see the monthly record ridership numbers below and more streetcar stats at the city's website here.

The city counts riders with infrared sensors mounted above every door on the five streetcars in the system. The city also spot checks the numbers the sensors generate with occasional manual passenger counts.