Kawundo.com

MINOT, N.D. (KXNET) — In the past few months, the number of those who use the City of Minot’s transit bus system has risen steadily — and in some cases, marked new records in recent ridership.

“The first half of this year,” explains city Transit Superintendent Brian Horinka, “we were down about 2,000 rides collectively. But then it really started to rebound. We had about 2,500 more rides in the third quarter of this year, and we had 1,943 more rides this October compared to last year. That’s a 25 percent increase.”

According to city statistics, ridership rates in February, April, July, and August of 2024 were the highest they have been in three years. Horinka states that this year, the city has made a concerted effort to distribute more information on the transit system to the general public, which may be responsible for the increased use.

“Through our Public Information Office,” Horinka adds, “we’ve had a lot bigger push getting information out to the public about our system with the new routes starting and the new transit center opening,” Horinka said. “Plus, Nicole from our office went out to every school open house to get information out to them and she’s done a lot of other things, too, to help get the word out.”

Below is a list of the most recent ridership statistics from Minot, as well as how they compare to the previous years.

July:

2022: 2,417

2023: 2,064

2024: 3,033

August:

2022: 4,998

2023: 4,998

2024: 6,474

September:

2022: 9,624

2023: 10,165

2024: 9,827

October:

2022: 7,936

2023: 7,730

2024: 9,763

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Horinka said of the ridership increase. “We’ve done more marketing of the system, we added two new routes, and we opened the new transit center downtown. It’s all good for our community.”

To learn more about bus ridership in Minot, visit the city’s website here.

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