Photo courtesy of State House News Service.

Ridership on the MBTA’s Red Line dropped by about 10 percent in the week following a derailment in June that destroyed key signal equipment at the JFK/UMass station.

The week of the derailment, over 20,000 fewer rides were taking the line than in the same month last year, Commonwealth Magazine reported.

Whether discouraged by the ongoing delays created by the lack of automated signals or put off by perceptions of the MBTA’s reliability, the week after the derailment ridership was still down almost 6 percent on a year-over-year basis, the magazine reported.

In the wake of the derailment, business leaders have described transportation in Greater Boston as being in a “state of emergency,” in part due to the delays on the system and increased traffic caused by more people trying to drive instead of take the subway.