Go West Transit Carries More than 60,000 Riders in One Week

January 28, 2008

MACOMB, IL -- In just one week alone, nearly 61,000 members of the Western Illinois University and Macomb communities turned to Western's Go West Transit System to escape Jack Frost nipping at their noses in the frigid January weather.

According to Jude Kiah, director of Go West, this was the first time in the system's nine-year history that more than 60,000 riders were carried in one week. The system carried 60,761 riders for the week ending Jan. 20.

"Five years ago, we carried under 30,000 passengers a week, and now we average more than
50,000 riders weekly," Kiah noted.

In addition to the weekly system record that was broken, Routes 2, 6, 8 and 11, which run mostly off-campus, also broke all-time records, Kiah said.

"But the interesting thing to me isn't the record itself -- although 60,000 is a huge number to carry in a week -- it was the fact that we carried more than 11,000 riders every day during the week. We've never done that before," he added.

Kiah said that Go West has seen a six percent increase in ridership this year, even though there has been no increase in service hours. The system is on track to carry more than 1.65 million riders this year. During the Spring 2008 semester, Go West is set to carry its 10 millionth rider since its inception Feb. 22, 1999.

"This indicates that repeat ridership is up and the usage of cars (to get to campus) is down. That has always been our goal," said Kiah. "We want people to leave their cars and use Go West to get around campus and town. We are continuing to work on better frequencies and better routing to make it as convenient as possible for the public to get where they need to go.

"In a time of three dollar plus gas, we can see that the public is turning to us in increasing numbers for transportation," he added. "Go West isn't just student transportation, and breaking records on city routes consistently proves that."

When Go West began in 1999, carrying 10,000 riders a week stunned most everyone, Kiah remembered. Could Go West really carry that many riders? Today, the system has grown to levels that even the most optimistic could not envision. From three buses and two routes, Go West is now a 26-bus, 11-route system that carries more than 1.6 million people per year.

For more information on Go West, including bus routes, schedules and fares, visit gowest.wiu.edu.

Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing

Western Illinois University

Western Illinois University