Metro has released ridership numbers from the 2016 NCAA Final Four.
The transit agency says there were over 250,000 boardings on the light rail system during the four-day tournament. That's up by about 100,000 from the last time Houston hosted the event in 2011.
Metro CEO Tom Lambert says you can now travel to more places using the light rail system than you could five years ago.
"In 2011 we had a seven-and-a-half mile system," says Lambert. "Now we've got almost a 23-mile system. We also back in 2011 had only about 18 rail cars, 19 rail cars. Now we've got 74 rail cars that we had in service."
And Lambert says they had to adjust service at times to accommodate the crowds.
"We were running trains, not only six minute headways but as we started getting really, really crush loads, you were seeing some trains come in every three minutes."
Lambert says they're already getting ready for the light rail system's big test. That's the 2017 Super Bowl next February.
