In April 2024, Metro had 26,210,300 boardings on its bus and rail services. A total of 21,286,056 rides were taken each weekday, with Saturday boardings at 2,702,268 and Sunday boardings at 2,221,976.
In April, weekday ridership for bus and rail was at 80.5% of the level it was in April 2019, before the pandemic.
Photo: LA Metro
3 min to read
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) saw its 17th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth with a 10.8% increase in total ridership in April 2024 compared to April 2023. Average weekday ridership saw a 9.2% increase in boardings over April 2023.
In April 2024, Metro had 26,210,300 boardings on its bus and rail services. A total of 21,286,056 rides were taken each weekday, with Saturday boardings at 2,702,268 and Sunday boardings at 2,221,976.
Ad Loading...
In April, weekday ridership for bus and rail was at 80.5% of the level it was in April 2019, before the pandemic.
Weekend ridership in April reached 92.6% of the pre-pandemic level from April 2019. Overall, Metro’s combined bus and rail ridership in April reached 82.5% of its April 2019 pre-pandemic level.
Passenger Rail Ridership
The total number of April rail boardings was 5,705,850, with 4,504,214 trips taken on weekdays. Average ridership across the A, B, D, and E rail lines was up 2.6% on weekdays, 2.7% on Saturdays, and 1.4% on Sundays.
In April, the A Line saw the largest total weekday boardings with 1,469,754 trips taken and slightly surpassed the B Line, which had 1,466,124 weekday boardings, as Metro’s busiest weekday rail line as riders continued to enjoy the benefit of one-seat boardings to their downtown destinations.
On the A and E Lines combined, average weekday ridership was up 27.9%, with average Saturday ridership up 30.5% and average Sunday boardings up 25.7% over April 2023 ridership of the A, E, and L lines that were combined as the new A and E Lines in June 2023.
Ad Loading...
L.A. Metro’s Bus Ridership
In April, Metro bus saw a 12.5% year-over-year ridership increase over April 2023. More than 20 million (20,504,450) rides were taken on Metro buses. Metro recorded an average of 762,811 bus boardings on weekdays in April 2024 (up 10.9% over April 2023 and a new post-COVID record for weekday bus ridership).
An average of 512,520 boardings occurred on Saturdays (up 3.7% over April 2023), with an average of 418,132 boardings on Sundays (up 4.5% over April 2023).
In the first 22 games of the season, Metro has welcomed almost 81,000 Dodger fans onto the Dodger Stadium Express from both Union Station and the South Bay — and boardings have increased 17.2% compared to last season.
Photo: LA Metro
Weekend/Leisure Ridership
Weekend riders continue to use Metro for travel to leisure activities, boosting weekend boardings and quickly closing the gap between pre-pandemic and current weekend ridership.
Average Saturday boardings on bus and rail combined reached 91.5% of April 2019 levels, and on Sundays during the month, average combined boardings reached 93.9% of April 2019 levels.
In April, weekend activities such as the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the LA Times Festival of Books, Anime Nation Fest, CicLAvia, and LAFC all saw participants opting to ride Metro, boosting weekend ridership.
In the first 22 games of the season, Metro has welcomed almost 81,000 Dodger fans onto the Dodger Stadium Express from both Union Station and the South Bay — and boardings have increased 17.2% compared to last season, which is a higher rate of growth than Dodger game attendance overall (up 13.6% this season).
The brand strategy was developed based on input from RTA board members, staff, and stakeholders, along with secondary research conducted over a months-long process.
In close coordination with regional partners including Caltrain and BART, the agency ensured convenient interagency connections and seamless transfers for game-day passengers.
Because rail has high fixed costs and low marginal savings, it is impossible to close the projected FY27 $376M deficit with service cuts and fare increases alone, said agency officials.
The total ridership includes all fixed-route bus service, C-VAN paratransit service, The Current, Vanpool, and special event service. Almost all individual routes saw year-over-year increases from 2024 to 2025.
The Renton Transit Center project will relocate and rebuild the Renton Transit Center to better serve the regional Stride S1 line, local King County Metro services, and the future RapidRide I Line.
In this episode of METROspectives, METRO’s Executive Editor Alex Roman sits down with Ana-Maria Tomlinson, Director of Strategic & Cross-Sector Programs at the Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group).
In this edition, we cover recent appointments and announcements at HDR, NCTD, STV, and more, showcasing the individuals helping to shape the future of transportation.
The region’s fixed-route system finished out the year with a total of 373.5 million rides. Adding 12.3 million rides over 2024 represents an increase that is equal to the annual transit ridership of Kansas City.
The service is a flexible, reservation-based transit service designed to close the first- and last-mile gaps and connect riders to employment for just $5 per day.