CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Bell Connector is on a roll and this weekend’s Taste of Cincinnati event downtown will likely push the streetcar into record territory for the seventh straight month.

“We’re trending toward another record month for May after notching our best November, December, January, February, March and April,” said Matthew Hulme, interim streetcar director. “With robust ridership through most of May, I expect the popularity of this weekend’s event near the streetcar line to give us another monthly best.” 

Ridership for the first three weeks of the current month totaled 52,092 as of May 21. By comparison, the best May on record totaled 53,116 passengers for the full month in 2017. 

Daily ridership on the streetcar has averaged 1,800 passengers per day for the past year. The daily average ridership during the current month has increased to 2,400 passengers.

For the last six months, passenger counts are up 26 percent compared with all previous November-to-April periods since the streetcar began operations in downtown and OTR in 2016. 

Ridership totaled 325,590 for the six months ended April 30, compared to the system’s previous high-water mark of 258,789 for the six-month November-to-April period when the streetcar initially began operations in late 2016 through spring of 2017.

The streetcar’s highest single month for ridership occurred in October 2016 during its first full month of operations with 82,934 passengers. Its second-best month occurred during downtown’s BLINK light festival in October 2019 with 76,752 passengers.

Note: Please see the monthly ridership chart below for reference.

The streetcar, which is free to ride, will operate until 11:30 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday and until 9:30 p.m. Monday to accommodate Taste of Cincinnati near Fountain Square. The streetcar travels a 3.6-mile loop between OTR, the Central Business District and The Banks. 

Monthly Streetcar Ridership Records

New Record	Passengers	Previous Record	Passengers
April 2022	66,391	April 2017	49,966
March 2022	58,882	March 2017	37,471
Feb. 2022	49,641	February 2017	36,681
Jan. 2022	43,131	January 2017	35,334
Dec. 2021	55,105	December 2016	52,209
Nov. 2021	52,440	November 2016	49,920

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