DC Metro carried nearly 780,000 passengers on Obama Inauguration Day

More than 779,000 people rode Washington, D.C.’s MetroRail subway system on the day of President Obama’s second inauguration, officials with the transit agency said.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) said 779,787 people entered its rail system between 4 a.m. Monday morning and 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. The agency ran trains more often and later than its usual midnight weekday closing time to accommodate inauguration traffic.

Washington, D.C., officials estimated about 1 million people attended Obama’s inauguration, down from the record 1.5 million who watched him take the oath of office for his first term in 2009. The figure, though, still topped estimates, which had predicted between half a million and 700,000 attendees.

WMATA set a single-day ridership record of 1.1 million passengers during Obama’s first inaugural, which still stands today.

The agency noted that Obama’s second swearing-in took place on Martin Luther King Day, which is a federal holiday that many D.C.-area residents have off from work. Obama first’s inauguration ceremony fell on a Tuesday in 2009.

Metro normally averages between 200,000 and 400,000 passengers on holidays, according to a planning website operated by the agency. The transit system carries about 787,000 riders on its trains during normal weekdays.

— This post was updated at 8:12 a.m.

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