Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has reported a 9.4% increase in ridership on its bus and rail services in March compared to the same time last year with nearly 26 million boardings.
Average weekday rail ridership grew to 205,320 from 193,025 in March 2023, representing a 6.4% increase while average weekday bus ridership grew to 750,598 from 642,468 from the same period last year, or a 16.8% increase.
The agency noted that combined the total bus and rail average weekday ridership has grown more than 14% since March 2023.
March 2024 marked the 16th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth, according to the transit agency.
In March, the MTA had a total of 25,880,698 boardings on its bus and rail systems. An average of 955,918 rides were taken each weekday with Saturday boardings averaging 606,255 and Sunday boardings averaging 555,029.
The total March bus and rail ridership combined stood at 81.5% of its March 2019 pre-pandemic level. Total weekend ridership in March was 89.2% of pre-pandemic levels and total March weekday ridership was 79.5% of pre-pandemic level.
The reconfigured A (Blue) and E (Gold) Lines were up 25.6% on weekdays and 26.3% on weekends.
In March, the A Line saw 1,412,523 total weekday boardings and surpassed the subway B Line, which saw 1,385,496 boardings. The C Line average weekday ridership was up 22.2% and the K Line saw a 6.5% increase in average weekday ridership.
Total March rail boardings were 5,717,630 with 4,311,720 trips taken on weekdays.
Bus ridership in March saw a 11.3% year-over-year increase over March 2023.
More than 20 million rides were taken on buses, with total bus ridership in March at 85.6% of its pre-pandemic level. The MTA recorded an average of 750,598 bus boardings on weekdays in March, an average of 460,779 boardings on Saturdays and an average of 419,323 boardings on Sunday.
The agency says the strongest ridership recovery as leisure travelers are turning to buses or rail lines for travel to activities throughout the county. Average boardings on bus and rail combined on Saturdays reached 85.5% and on Sundays during the month average combined boardings reached 93.7% of March 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Also in March, the GoPass Pilot Program saw 1,985,314 total boardings versus 1,771.640 in March 2023, reflecting a 12% year-over-year increase. The Low-Income Fare is Easy Program observed an 18% year-over-year increase in March ridership with 1,484,150 boardings compared to 1,260,155 in March 2023.
The MTA’s fare capping policy provides riders who pay with a TAP card a set fare of no more $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.
The MTA’s Mobility Wallet Pilot Program gives in-need Angelenos a debit card with $150 per month to spend on transportation. The card can be used to take the bus, ride the train, use bike share, take Metro-Micro and much more.
The agency recently updated its monthly ridership numbers dating back to April 2022 to correct a data validation error which inaccurately counted ridership at an average of 5% lower than actual ridership on five light rail lines (A, E, L, C and K).
The transit agency has corrected its data validation procedures to account for this error and has added additional validations to avoid such an error occurring again. This error had no effect on operations or finances. The error was discovered through a public discussion on Reddit.