Commuter Rail Still in Laboratory Mode after Three Years

The Music City Star marks an anniversary today. And after three years in service, ridership on the commuter rail line is still far below initial goals.

Before the commuter line started running back and forth to Lebanon in 2006, transit officials wanted to hit 15-hundred daily passengers in nine months. The closest the train got was this time last year, when gas prices topped $4 a gallon. Several days exceeded one-thousand riders.

Metro Transit Authority CEO Paul Ballard, whose agency oversees the train, says commuter rail still has a future in Nashville. He sees the Music City Star as a test-bed.

“Even though we’re not providing all the trips we had hoped to provide at this point in time, people can go and touch it and feel it and see how it works. So we think it’s a very important laboratory for the future of public transportation in this region.”

Though the train is now averaging fewer than 900 passengers a day, Ballard says he’s thinking long term. And he says buses, alone, won’t fill all the region’s mass transit needs.

Commuter rail will get at least a temporary boost next month. For two weeks starting October 13th, the Music City Star will service the city of Lakewood on Old Hickory Lake. The train will use the old Dupont rail spur off the Nashville and Eastern tracks.