Metro Updates: 25 Months of Ridership Growth, and More

New data shows that Metro ridership continues to grow. According to Metro’s latest monthly Chief Operating Officer presentation, Metro averaged 930,111 daily weekday boardings in December 2024.

December 2024 marks the twenty-fifth month of year-over-year Metro ridership growth. Compared to December 2023, Metro bus ridership grew 7.3 percent and rail grew 11.5 percent.

See also earlier Streetsblog coverage of Metro’s recent steady ridership growth, including surpassing a million daily boardings in September and October.

Additional news updates from this week’s Metro board committee meetings below:

• Metro chair County Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced a motion to further facilitate Metro efforts in responding to wildfires. The full motion does not appear to be posted online yet, but will soon be included in the agenda packet for next week’s board meeting. Find some details at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
• Metro and Caltrans are poised to restart their approval process for the $5+ billion 605 Freeway Corridor Improvement Project which would expand the 605, 5, 10, 60 and 105 Freeways. Details at staff report.
• Also shepherded by Hahn, Metro is looking to rename the Long Beach Boulevard C Line Station to Lynwood Station. The station is in the city of Lynwood, so there is some confusion with other stations (on the Metro A Line) serving the city of Long Beach. Details at staff report.

• Under a recent motion from Boardmember Katy Young Yaroslavsky, this month Metro began quarterly reporting on its electric bus program – called its ZEB (zero-emission bus) Program. Recent progress includes installation of en route charging stations at the Harbor Gateway Transit Center. These chargers will support Metro’s long delayed J Line BRT electrification pilot (where electric buses had been anticipated to start in 2021.) Details at staff report.
• Metro’s costly Metro Micro microtransit pilot encountered a plot twist. The current operator Via was squeezed out of the “software services” portion of the program. Via’s competitor Spare offered to run Metro Micro software charging just one cent for three years – in order for Spare to break into the L.A. microtransit “market.” Under separate contracts, Via is in charge of essentially just drivers and vehicles. Even with no software costs, the Metro Micro per-trip subsidy will remain high. In the past, Metro had paid $40-60+ per Metro Micro ride; the agency now forecasts bringing that subsidy down to $24.22 per ride. Compare this to subsidies around $8 for Metro’s worst performing bus lines. If Metro cancels Metro Micro and redirects that operations funding toward actual transit service, Metro could serve at least three times the number of people that its low ridership microtransit does.