LA Metro Marks Two Consecutive Years of Ridership Growth

L.A. Metro celebrated its 24th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth in November 2024 with 25,844,065 boardings. The combined bus and rail ridership reached nearly 88 percent of its 2019 pre-pandemic ridership level. While Metro typically sees a drop in ridership during November and December due to the holiday season, Metro’s average weekday boardings still reached 84.4 percent of its 2019 pre-pandemic levels and on the weekends, ridership attained 99.3 percent of its pre-pandemic level.
Bus Ridership
The Metro bus system saw 20,031,255 trips taken in November, marking a 4.5 percent ridership increase compared to November 2023. Weekday bus ridership saw an average of 760,985 daily boardings, while weekends saw an average of 528,078 trips on Saturdays, and an average of 434,233 trips on Sundays. November’s weekend bus ridership surpassed its pre-pandemic level for the first time marking a 102.9 percent increase of its November 2019 re-pandemic level.
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 5.5 percent compared to November 2023.
Rail Ridership
Rail boardings grew 11.2 percent in November 2024 over November 2023, with November 2024’s rail ridership standing at 75.3 percent of its November 2019 pre-pandemic level. Weekday rail boardings grew by 12.2 percent year-over-year and reached 71.2 percent of its November 2019 pre-pandemic level. Weekend rail in November 2024 grew 13 percent year-over-year and is now at 89.6 percent its of pre-pandemic level.
E Line ridership grew 14.1 percent, led by Saturday and Sunday boardings, which were 19.3 and 24.3 percent higher respectively in November 2024 compared to November 2023.
Strong Leisure Ridership Continues
Weekend and leisure riders continue to drive ridership growth. Weekend rail ridership exceeded its year-over-year ridership by 13 percent and reached 89.6 percent of its pre-pandemic November 2019 ridership. Notably, weekend bus boardings exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 2.9 percent for the first time.
The day of the Dodgers World Series Parade, Nov. 1, Metro saw approximately 80,000 additional rides on our system.
Discounted Fare Ridership
In November, Metro’s Low-Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program, which provides free rides and reduced fares to low-income customers, saw a 16 percent year-over-year ridership increase. LIFE ridership in November 2024 saw 1,761,586 boardings compared to 1,516,311 in November 2023. The LIFE team continues to share information about this important Metro program and in November hosted nearly 100 outreach and pop-up events, disseminated 2,300 brochures, and enrolled more than 6,101 new people into the program during the month.
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 1 million boardings daily on four light rail and two subway lines and 119 bus lines utilizing 2,000 low-emission buses.
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