Miami-Dade’s transit operations carried almost 7 million riders in March, the most in any month since October 2019, well before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, latest county figures show.

The March passenger tally of 6,989,938 was up nearly 41% from March 2022 and was 4.1% more than March 2019. By March 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, March passengers had fallen to fewer than 4.7 million riders.

The post-pandemic passenger return has been strongest on Metrobus, where the 5 million-plus March rider trips were more than any month since May 2017.

The bus system had been bleeding riders for at least a decade until it recorded a 2.1% gain from fiscal year 2021 to 2022, but the gains from 2022 to 2023 have been 45% or more a month as pandemic rider losses have disappeared. The gain in March from March 2022 was more than 57%.

Gains have been less on Metrorail, up 14% in March from March 2022, though last year Metrorail gained nearly 22% from 2021 depths.