Critical Reasoning

Crowding on Mooreville’s subway frequently leads to delays, because it is difficult for passengers to exit from the trains. Subway ridership is projected to increase by 20 percent over the next 10 years. The Metroville Transit Authority plans to increase the number of daily train trips by only 5 percent over the same period. Officials predict that this increase is sufficient to ensure that the incidence of delays due to crowding does not increase.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest grounds for the officials’ prediction?

A. By changing maintenance schedules, the Transit Authority can achieve the 5 percent increase in train trips without purchasing any new subway cars.
B. The Transit Authority also plans a 5 percent increase in the number of bus trips on routes that connect to subways.
C. For most commuters who use the subway system, there is no practical alternative public transportation available.
D. Most of the projected increase in ridership is expected to occur in off-peak hours when trains are now sparsely used.
E. The 5 percent increase in the number of train trips can be achieved without an equal increase in Transit Authority operational costs.

:roll:

D should be the answer.

The authority plans to increase only 5% trains to accommodate 20% increase in ridership over a given period of time. Something that could support the authority's prediction that 5% more trains would be sufficient, should indicate that there is some other contributing factor.

A. Irrelevant. The text does not talk about cost of new subway cars or their impact on the plan.
B. Maybe relevant to the success of the plan but does not address the specific prediction of the authority.
C. This would increase the burden on the subway cars and keep them crowded.
D. Because most of the increase will be during off-peak hours, the sparsely used trains would be almost sufficient to handle the load and the 5% increase would come in as the added cushion to avoid crowding.
E. Irrelevant

OA please.

IMO A.

Is the answer C?

D should be the answer.
OA please?

clearcut D

Its a pretty simple question by GMAt standards.

Answer is D


The 20 % increase in commuters can be alleiated by 5% increase in number of trains only if D holds true.

OA seems to be D

OA is D

Thanks sethids. Nice explanation.. I was confused between B and D But now it seems pretty clear that D is right.

I will Go with option D in this case.