Inauguration Crowds Set Weekend Records On D.C.'s Metro Transit

(AP)

As the festivities began for Barack Obama's inauguration, Washington's mass transit system carried a record number of passengers on Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of people attending the Inaugural Opening Ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial used Metrorail, the District's subway system, helping to set a new Sunday ridership record.

Riders took 616,324 trips, smashing the previous all-time high ridership day for a Sunday by 75,000 trips.

Combined with 86,836 Metrobus trips, the Metro system carried about 703,000 people yesterday.

The high rail ridership also makes it the third highest overall weekend ridership day in the Metro's 32-year history. The highest weekend ridership day occurred on Saturday, June 8, 1991, when 786,358 trips were recorded for a Desert Storm rally. The second highest weekend ridership day occurred on Saturday, October 4, 1997, when 725,909 trips were recorded for a Promise Keepers rally.

Carter Yang

Carter Yang is a Washington, D.C.-based producer for the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. He covers aviation and transportation.

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