Midland-Odessa bus system sees 48 percent ridership spike

Fixed-route ridership on EZ-Rider, the bus system serving both Midland and Odessa, increased by nearly 48 percent in July compared to the same month last year, according to the Midland-Odessa Urban Transit District.

A record-breaking 12,818 riders in July is 1,300 more than in May and over 4,000 above July 2023, the transit agency stated.

The spike in ridership comes amid a flurry of productive news locally. For the first time this past June, the number of passengers boarding an airline in one month at Midland International Air & Space Port surpassed 70,000.

Last week, Midland also reported that is set to “post one of the largest sales tax collections on record” for the city. Also in June, the Midland metropolitan statistical area posted the lowest unemployment rate in the state during at 2.9 percent. Midland’s unemployment rate was 2.6 percent that month, with Odessa’s jobless rate not far behind at 4 percent (below the state average of 4.5 percent during the month). In addition, the size of the civilian labor force in June was 116,900, nearly 3,000 more than one year ago (114,200 in June 2023), the City of Midland reported.