SEATTLE (AP) - Ridership on the Sounder transit trains between Tacoma and Seattle seems to be enjoying a continued boost even after completion of the Interstate 5 renovation work that spooked many commuters into trying alternate forms of transportation.

Sounder trains drew about 10 percent more traffic this past week, compared with ridership before the recent northbound I-5 lane closures, Sound Transit officials said Thursday.

The Sounder averaged 7,423 riders a day in the three weeks before the construction, but ridership jumped to a daily average of 9,480 during the I-5 lane closures. Some riders actually returned to their cars during the project, seeing that a drop in the number of vehicles on the road had eased the pain of the highway commute.

Still, based on morning and afternoon trips Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning's commute, the average daily ridership remained at about 8,120.

Some commuters who tried the train during the lane closures found it a better alternative to the road, Sound Transit spokeswoman Linda Robson surmised.

"We're hoping people are finding we're a viable option through construction, congestion or future population growth," she said.

One such commuter was 55-year-old Bruce Sommerville. A few weeks ago, he would have hopped into his car to creep back along I-5 and related highways from Seattle to Puyallup in rush-hour traffic.

But a little after 4 p.m. Thursday, he settled into one of the soft seats on a southbound Sounder train leaving Seattle's King Street Station and headed home.

Like thousands of others, he started taking the train to avoid the Aug. 10-25 construction delays on the northbound interstate. Now he's one of hundreds who decided to stick with it.

Of course, about 1,300 of the roughly 2,000 additional riders who took the Sounder during construction have apparently returned to their cars. Still, Robson said she was happy with the results, and hoped some riders would return when Sound Transit adds two round trips between Tacoma and Seattle in late September. One of the trips will be a reverse commute, leaving Seattle in the morning and departing Tacoma in the afternoon.