Translate
Weekday Bus Ridership Increase Marks New Post-COVID Record
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) today announced that the agency saw its 17th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth with a 10.8 percent increase in total ridership in April 2024 compared to April 2023. Average weekday ridership saw a 9.2 percent 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. In April, weekday ridership for bus and rail was at 80.5 percent of the level it was in April 2019, before the pandemic.
Weekend ridership in April reached 92.6 percent of the pre-pandemic level from April 2019. Overall Metro’s combined bus and rail ridership in April reached 82.5 percent of its April 2019 pre-pandemic level.
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 percent on weekdays, 2.7 percent on Saturdays, and 1.4 percent on Sundays.
This month, 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 percent, with average Saturday ridership up 30.5 percent and average Sunday boardings up 25.7 percent over April 2023 ridership of the A, E, and L lines that were combined as the new A and E Lines in June 2023.
Bus Ridership
In April, Metro bus saw a 12.5 percent 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 percent 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 percent over April 2023), with an average of 418,132 boardings on Sundays (up 4.5 percent over April 2023).
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 percent of April 2019 levels, and on Sundays during the month, average combined boardings reached 93.9 percent 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.
Dodger fans are using the Dodger Stadium Express, free to all Dodger Ticket Holders.
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 percent compared to last season, which is a higher rate of growth than Dodger game attendance overall (up 13.6 percent this season).
Fare Programs
Metro continues to provide programs that make riding more affordable for everyone. The agency’s reduced-price transit pass programs, such as 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, are helping those who need it most.
In April, the GoPass Program saw 2,077,801 total boardings versus 1,714,578 in April 2023, reflecting a 12 percent year-over-year increase. The LIFE Program observed an 18 percent year-over-year increase in April 2024 ridership, with 1,570,038 boardings compared to 1,260,155 in April 2023.
Metro’s fare-capping policy provides riders who pay with a TAP card a set fare of no more than $5 a day or $18 over seven days. Once they’ve reached those limits, they ride free for the remainder of the day or seven-day period.
Information on all Metro’s reduced fare programs, including discounts for seniors, persons with disabilities, and students, can be found at: metro.net/riding/fares/
Public Safety on Metro
Metro shares the concerns of customers and employees about ensuring that Metro employees and customers are safe and feel safe, too. Metro is taking the following steps:
- To address the recent increase in severity of crimes on the system, Metro has asked its law enforcement partners, which are contracted to keep the system safe, to surge and maintain a visible presence on buses, trains and station platforms – where Metro’s customers need them the most.
- Metro knows customers want to see regular patrols of the system and is ensuring the visible deployment of Transit Security Officers who enforce the code of conduct and enforce fare payment – both of which contribute to a safer system. Metro is also as ensuring the continued visible deployment of Ambassadors who help customers along their journey and report safety, maintenance and cleanliness issues to be addressed, and lend a hand to customers, law enforcement and security.
- Metro knows customers are concerned about the presence of persons with untreated mental illness and drug addiction, as well as unhoused individuals sheltering on the system, Metro is using a care-based approach of homeless outreach and crisis intervention teams.
- And because Metro knows controlling system access leads to a safer system, Metro is piloting new fare enforcement strategies, exploring fare gate enhancements, and implementing station design interventions to ensure that the system is being utilized only for the purposes of transportation.
As Metro’s ridership continues to grow the agency’s work to make the system safer is largely working. In March 2024, the most recently available statistics from Metro’s law enforcement partners, crimes against persons (5.22 crimes per 1 million boardings) were down 40.1 percent over March 2023 and down 27.6 percent from February 2024. (Please note that crime statistics are not yet available for April.) But one incident of violence is too many so Metro remains steadfast in its commitment to continue to improve safety on the system through new methods and ideas.
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 950,000 boardings daily on six electric rail lines and 117 bus routes utilizing more than 2,200 low-emission buses.
Stay informed by following Metro on The Source and El Pasajero at metro.net, facebook.com/losangelesmetro, twitter.com/metrolosangeles and twitter.com/metroLAalerts and instagram.com/metrolosangeles.
