Metro has released ridership numbers for November and there’s relatively little news to report. Rail ridership across the system increased slightly from Nov. 2008 — due to the opening of the Eastside Gold Line Extension — and bus ridership dipped from one year earlier.

Metro officials believe the weak economy has a lot to do with it, as out of work commuters have no reason to commute.

Here are the numbers:

RAIL RIDERSHIP

Nov. 2008 — 276,404 average weekday boardings

Nov. 2009 — 283,551

BUS RIDERSHIP

Nov. 2008 — 1,192,722 average weekday boardings

Nov. 2009 — 1,134,900

I’ve posted a full spreadsheet with ridership statistics on Metro’s rail and bus systems, with some of the bus ridership data going back to the 1980s (when a predecessor agency was running the county bus system). Keep in mind that the method Metro used to estimate ridership changed in the fall of 2008, Orange Line ridership was added to the bus ridership category this summer and that it’s difficult to compare the present to the 1980s because some routes reflected in the statistics are now being run by municipal bus lines that aren’t part of Metro.

Nonetheless, the data is quite interesting and allows viewers to see how ridership has changed over the years.