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New A Line Extension Service, Rise in Leisure Travel Contribute to Growing Ridership Momentum
Metro ridership continues to strengthen, driven by weekend and event travel and the opening of the Metro A Line extension to Pomona. In September 2025, Metro recorded 26,260,796 total boardings, down just 1.9% from September 2024. This represents a significant improvement from the 6.0% year-over-year decline reported in June when federal law enforcement activity began impacting travel. The data points to a steady recovery following 30 consecutive months of year-over-year ridership growth through May 2025, with overall ridership in the last 12-month period being up 1.1% over the previous 12-month period.
A Line Extension Adds New Riders
On Sept. 19, Metro opened the A Line extension from Azusato Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, and Pomona, reconnecting light rail service to the San Gabriel Valley for the first time since 1951. In its first 12 days of operations, the new stations saw nearly 3,000 boardings. The expansion extends service from Pomona to Long Beach, connecting even more communities ahead of major regional events such as the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
E Line Sees Strong Growth
The E Line continues to be one of Metro’s strongest performing rail lines, with 1,508,087 million boardings in September — a 6.7% year-over-year increase. Weekday ridership rose 4.7%, Saturdays 3.5%, and Sundays 10.8%. Event and leisure travel remain key drivers, especially near major venues like Crypto.com Arena, the Los Angeles Convention Center, BMO Stadium and Exposition Park. During LA Comic Con, held Sept. 26–28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, boardings at Pico Station jumped 65% compared to non-event days.
September Systemwide Trends
Metro Rail saw 5,960,493 boardings, up 1.7% year over year. Average weekday ridership decreased by 2.0% while weekend ridership rose sharply by 6.5% on Saturdays and 9.4% on Sundays. According to quarterly pulse survey, rail customer satisfaction climbed from 76% to 81% on the three most recent quarterly surveys, compared to the three previous.
Metro Bus saw 20,300,303 boardings, down 2.9% from last year. Weekday boardings were down 4.9%, while boardings on Saturdays and Sundays were down 3.8% and 2.4% respectively. Bus customer satisfaction remains high according to quarterly pulse survey, increasing slightly from 87% to 88% on the three most recent quarterly surveys, compared to the three previous.
Public Safety on Metro
Metro continues to make progress on its three-point public safety plan to:
- Keep our employees and customers safe and ensure they feel safe through a 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.
As a result, violent crime decreased by 16% in August 2025 compared to the previous year. On Metro Rail, the average customer satisfaction related to crime rose from 52% to 58% over the last three quarterly surveys, compared to the three previous.
In addition, the 2025 annual point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness on the transit system fell significantly, with a nearly 40% decrease from the previous year. This year’s count estimates 631 to 684 unhoused individuals on Metro’s system, compared to 1,041 to 1,092 in 2024. Metro’s outreach teams connected 2,709 people to interim or permanent housing, exceeding the agency’s goal of 1,800 by more than 50%. Satisfaction with how Metro addresses homelessness also improved from 37% to 40% on the three most recent quarterly customer surveys as compared to the three previous surveys.
Metro continues to advance initiatives to ensure that the system is being used for its intended purpose. Metro recently debuted taller, modern fare gates at eight new stations: Wilshire/Vermont, Vermont/Santa Monica, Hollywood/Western, North Hollywood, Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne Fairplex and Pomona North. This brings the total number of stations with the new faregates to 11.
These modern faregates have many more features such as precise motion sensors to reduce piggybacking, electromechanical locks to prevent forced entries and paddle-style doors that improve accessibility for customers with bicycles, strollers and other items.
According to Transit Watch App data, these faregates are also having an immediate positive impact on the station experience; after the new faregates were introduced at the Firestone and Lake stations earlier this year, the reported incidents on the Transit Watch App declined 75% at these stations as compared to the same period in 2024.
When compared to the three previous, the three most recent quarterly customer surveys demonstrated that Metro riders are increasingly satisfied with improvements in system cleanliness:
- Satisfaction with rail train cleanliness is up from 53% to 57%;
- Satisfaction with bus cleanliness is at 66%;
- Satisfaction with bus stop cleanliness rose four points to 53%; and
- Satisfaction with rail station cleanliness is up eight points to 49%.
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 a fleet of 2,200 low-emission buses and six rail lines.
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.
