LA Metro Sees 21st Consecutive Month of Year-Over-Year Growth

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) was able to achieve its 21^st consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth with 27,066,446 boardings, reaching 84% of its August 2019 pre-COVID ridership levels.

Total weekday boardings were 21,187,496 and weekends saw 5,878950 boardings. Weekday boardings reached 82.3% of pre-pandemic levels and weekend ridership was 94.9% of pre-pandemic levels.

Bus Ridership

Bus ridership grew with 21,147,858 rides taken in August, marking an 8.2% year-over-year ridership increase which is 85.8% of its August 2019 level. 

16,669,840 bus boardings were recorded on weekdays, while Saturdays had 2,68,410 boardings and Sundays had 1,799,608 boardings bringing weekend ridership up to 93% of its pre-pandemic level.

Rail Ridership

There were 5,918,588 rail boardings in August, showing a gain of 2.5% over August 2023 and an 81.3% recovery of August 2019 rail ridership.

4,517,565 of those boardings were on weekdays and made up 76.9% of August 2019’s boardings. Ridership grew 13.2% year-over-year compared to August 2023.

A and E lines saw their second full month of year-over-year ridership comparisons. The A line grew 15.6% and the E line grew 10.1% when compared to August 2023.

A line surpassed B line as the busiest rail line in the system with 1,930,786 trips taken.

Leisure Ridership

Metro provided special event support to nearly 50 events at large venues and entertainment parks in the L.A. region this August. They also provided special event parking at several of its station for event goers to park and ride.

Parking at the C line Crenshaw Station saw a 10% increase in weekend parking utilization as patrons rode transit to Sofi Stadium and Kia Forum.

Leisure riders choosing Metro for transportation to their events continue to be a driver of overall ridership growth, especially on weekends. 

Weekend rail ridership surpassed its August 2019 pre-pandemic ridership by 1.27%. Weekend bus ridership was at 93% of its pre-pandemic level.

Events supported by Metro included Hard Summer Music Festival at Hollywood Park, Nisei Week in Little Tokyo, Reggae Night, The Gipsy Kings and Sara Bareilles at the Hollywood Bowl, CicLAvia in Hollywood, the Leimert Park Jazz Festival, end of summer concerts at Crypto, BMO, Expo Park, Kia Forum and SoFi Stadium, and Dodgers, Angel City Football and LAFC games.

Fare Programs

Metro continues to provide programs that make riding more affordable for everyone. The agency’s reduced-price transit pass programs. 

These include the student GoPass program which offers free transit passes to K-12 and community college students, and its Low-Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program, which provides free rides and reduced fares to low-income customers.

The GoPass program had 937,551 boardings marking an 18% year-over-year increase. Six new schools joined the program including Valley Charter, St. Mary’s Academy, Options for Youth: San Gabriel, Global Education Academy, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, and Ahava Academy.

LIFE boardings are up 5% year-over-year with 1,683,407 boardings. The LIFE team held more than 85 in person enrollment eve3nts to sign eligible people up in August.

Public Safety on Metro

Metro continues to increase its work to improve public safety with a three-point plan:

• Keep employees and customers safe and ensure they feel safe through an increased visible presence of uniformed personnel, station improvements and improved bus safety measures.

• Ensure the system is being used only for its intended purpose of transit through fare gate improvements and removal of trespassers.

• Continue to partner with the County, the Cities, and Regional Agencies to address societal issues such as homelessness, untreated mental illness, drug addiction.

As part of this strategy, law enforcement partners have expanded their visible presence on the rail system.  More Transit Security Officers have been added to enforce Metro’s Customer Code of Conduct rules on the rail and bus systems.

Metro Transit Security Bus Safety Teams performed end-of-line operations during late-night “Owl” service on some of the busiest bus lines. 

Metro Ambassadors are also out in force on all six rail lines and five of the busiest bus lines to provide support to customers and keep a watchful eye out for problems.