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January year-over-year ridership climbs 5%; weekend ridership continues to exceed pre-pandemic levels
L.A. Metro celebrated its 26th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth in January with 25,358,363 boardings. The combined bus and rail ridership reached 82.9% of its 2019 pre-pandemic ridership level. Metro’s average weekday boardings reached 80.7% of 2019 pre-pandemic levels and on the weekends, ridership attained 93.1% of its pre-pandemic level.
Bus Ridership
The Metro bus system saw 20,041,153 trips taken in January, marking a 5.6% ridership increase compared to January 2024. Weekday bus ridership saw an average of 729,709 daily boardings, marking a 5.6% year-over-year increase. Weekends saw an average of 502,735 trips on Saturdays, and an average of 395,323 trips on Sundays. Saturday bus ridership in January marked an 8.0% increase and Sunday bus ridership increased 3.3% year-over-year. Both average Saturday and Sunday ridership exceeded pre-pandemic ridership for January 2019, up 2.2% and 1.5% respectively.
Ridership on the Bus Rapid Transit J Line, which runs on dedicated bus lanes on the 10 and 110 freeways from El Monte to San Pedro, rose 6.2% compared to January 2024.
Rail Ridership
In January, Metro rail boardings grew 2.9% over January 2024 to 5,317,210. Weekday rail boardings grew by 2.7% year-over-year. Saturday and Sunday rail ridership in January 2025 grew 6.2% and 1.4% respectively year-over-year.
The E Line ridership grew 16.8 percent, led by Saturday and Sunday boardings, which were up 25.8 and 16.4 percent higher respectively in January 2025 compared to January 2024. Weekdays in January were up 15.7% year over year.
Effects of Wildfires
The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County in January caused several Metro bus lines to be cancelled or rerouted. Metro Bus Line 134 was cancelled for more than a month and has been partially restored following the Palisades Fire and subsequent mudslides. Line 602 is now running a modified route after having been cancelled for a number of weeks. In Altadena, Lines 660 and 662 are running modified routes due to the Eaton Fire. This month, in response to the LA Wildfires, the Metro board approved extending Metro’s LIFE program, which provides free rides and reduced fares to low-income customers, to those affected by the wildfires. The LIFE team was present at numerous Wildfire Relief events where they were able to assist 2,089 new riders with transit relief.
Information on Metro’s reduced fare programs, including discounts for low-income persons and families, seniors, persons with disabilities and students, can be found at: metro.net/riding/fares/.
Public Safety on Metro
Metro continues its ongoing work to improve public safety with a three-point plan:
- Keep our 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; and
- Continue to partner with the County, the Cities and Regional Agencies to address societal issues such as homelessness, untreated mental illness, drug addiction.
About Metro
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is building the most ambitious transportation infrastructure program in the United States and is working to greatly improve mobility through its Vision 2028 Plan. Metro is the lead transportation planning and funding agency for L.A. County and carries nearly 1 million boardings daily on four light rail and two subway lines and 119 bus lines utilizing 2,000 low-emission buses.
Stay informed by following Metro on The Source and El Pasajero at metro.net, facebook.com/losangelesmetro, x.com/metrolosangeles, x.com/metroLAalerts and instagram.com/metrolosangeles.
