NORFOLK, Va. — Hampton Roads Transit is seeing more people return to public transportation, with ridership across its transit services growing by 6 percent during the last fiscal year.
Between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, HRT recorded 10.01 million boarding's across its bus and trolley, light rail, ferry, Paratransit and OnDemand Ridesharing services. That’s up from 9.46 million boarding's the previous fiscal year, an increase of nearly half a million.
Bus ridership accounted for the largest share of those trips, growing 4.1 percent to 8.3 million boarding's.
The Tide Light Rail also saw significant growth, with a 9.5 percent increase. Meanwhile, the Elizabeth River Ferry welcomed 260,512 passengers, up 17.2 percent from the previous fiscal year.
Thomas Becher with Hampton Roads Transit said several factors contributed to the overall increase, including more people returning to the office after working hybrid schedules and major events throughout the region.
“I think in that fiscal year more people returned to the office from some sort of hybrid,” Becher said. “We also saw a huge June, with Sail 250, Harborfest, Juneteenth. The Light Rail and the Ferry saw huge numbers during that time.”
HRT has also introduced several initiatives aimed at encouraging people to use public transportation. Students can ride HRT services for free, and the agency has promoted free transit options for people attending Norfolk Tides games.
The agency has also expanded its OnDemand Ridesharing service in recent years. In Newport News, the service recorded 82,679 riders during the last fiscal year.
HRT said OnDemand Ridesharing was not included in the previous fiscal year's reporting, making a year-over-year comparison unavailable. Services in Chesapeake and Hampton are still in the pilot-program phase and were not included in HRT’s required ridership reporting.
Still, Becher said the agency is seeing growth in the communities where the service is operating.
“We’re seeing a strong growth in those cities,” Becher said. “Like Newport News, where it had been before in Hampton, which is new, good, good growth as well, and Chesapeake's taking hold as well.”
The rise in ridership comes as HRT prepares for a leadership transition. Brian Smith is set to become the agency's new CEO in about a month.
One of Smith's early priorities will be helping with the launch of HRT's system optimization plan in 2027. The plan will examine the agency's bus routes and determine where changes could improve service.
“We're taking a look at all the bus routes,” Becher said. “We're going to see which ones are efficient, which ones can be re-purposed into other routes. Which ones should be dropped, which ones could we add on-demand ride sharing to cover those gaps.”
The increase in ridership comes during Try Transit Week, an effort encouraging people to give public transportation a try.
For Hampton Roads residents who have not used public transit recently, the week could provide an opportunity to get back on board.
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