The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) announced ridership increased more than 10% over the past year as more and more residents opt to use the transit system to get around.

During the last fiscal year (July 2023 – June 2024), the transit agency logged 75,663,343 passenger trips, a 10.4% increase over Fiscal Year 2023 (68,511,363).

“We believe the increase in ridership is due to a number of factors,” said MTS CEO Sharon Cooney. “People are working from home less often or not at all, MTS provides a reliable alternative to driving a car, and taking transit is much more affordable than driving. With inflation, rising costs of housing, and strained pocketbooks, residents are looking for any way they can to save money. Taking transit is a great way to do that.”

More Ridership Milestones

Other ridership milestones for MTS include:

• Youth ridership increased by 22.7% over the previous year, logging 6,839,876 passenger trips from its more than 113,000 youth riders who use a Youth Opportunity Pass.

• Thirteen bus routes experienced increases of 20% or higher.

• Eight bus routes surpassed the million-trip mark.

• The highest ridership month in Fiscal Year 2024 was October 2023, with 6,929,191 passenger trips.

The agency also shared that in May it experienced a week with an average of 271,000 passengers per day, the highest week on record since the onset of the pandemic.

Snapping Back Post Pandemic

During the pandemic, MTS experienced a steep decline in ridership as hundreds of thousands of San Diegans stayed home.

Due to the loss in ridership, and because approximately 25% of MTS’s system operation is supported by fare revenue, the agency is experiencing a multi-million-dollar structural budget deficit.

But now, the public transit agency is experiencing an upswing in its ridership, consistently reaching 85% to 90% of pre-pandemic ridership, thanks to agency-wide efforts to attract more riders.

The efforts include an increase in security presence system-wide and a new Bus Rapid Transit network.

Other factors that contribute to growing ridership are workers returning to the office, students returning to school, housing density, special events, and more.

More Positive Changes on the Way

The agency also plans to continue implementing improvements in the coming years to make transit more reliable and accessible.

The improvements include an overnight express bus service between the border and downtown San Diego, increased bus and Trolley frequencies, infrastructure rehabilitation on the Orange Line Trolley, and charging infrastructure for the zero-emissions transition.

The improvements will be funded in part by state funding secured by Senate Bill 125 and implemented once the funds are delivered to MTS.