Meeting_Body
OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE
OCTOBER 16, 2025
Subject
SUBJECT: NEXTGEN RIDERSHIP UPDATE - Q2 CY2025
Action
ACTION: RECEIVE AND FILE
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
RECEIVE AND FILE status update on NextGen Bus Ridership.
Issue
ISSUE
This report provides an assessment of Metro’s bus ridership for the second quarter of calendar year 2025 (Q2 CY2025), consisting of April, May, and June 2025, compared to the pre-pandemic and start of pandemic/pre-NextGen Bus Plan ridership from the same period in 2019. Ridership changes are examined by day type (weekday, Saturday, Sunday), service area, across Equity Focus Communities (EFCs) and non-EFCs, time period, line/line group, as well as average passenger trip length.
Background
BACKGROUND
• The Metro Board adopted the NextGen Bus Plan in October 2020.
• The NextGen Bus Plan was designed to create a fast, frequent, and reliable Metro bus system and was to be rolled out in two phases.
• “Reconnect” was the initial phase to restructure the existing network. It was implemented over three dates between December 2020 and December 2021.
• Transit First was an additional phase to maximize the plan’s effectiveness through strategic, quick-build capital investments in improved bus speeds and direct revenue service hours saved on bus frequency improvements.
• While the NextGen Bus Plan was fully implemented by the end of 2021, the national operator shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic required Metro to reduce service by 10% in February 2022 to stabilize service reliability, with full restoration by December 2022 with more operators hired.
• Full NextGen bus service levels have been operated since then into 2025 with improved reliability due to full bus operator staffing, which was achieved by August 2023, with a 1-2% shortage experienced by end of 2023, but higher recruitments led to full staffing again being achieved in January 2025, with very low cancellation rates.
The NextGen Bus Plan Reconnect phase implementation established a set of service frequency tiers for Metro’s 117 bus lines, summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: NextGen Frequency Tiers as of December 2024
When fully implemented, the Transit First scenario was expected to achieve a 15-20% increase in ridership. This expected ridership was attributed to increased speed of service/reduced travel times after implementing items from the speed and reliability tool kit, including new bus lanes and expanded transit signal priority, and reinvestment of time savings for increased service frequencies. terminals.
This quarterly report is intended to track progress towards the ridership growth expected from the NextGen Bus Plan, including growth to be supported by implementing the remaining Transit First bus speed and reliability improvements. The impact of immigration enforcement is working directly against such ridership growth potential from NextGen.
Discussion
DISCUSSION
In quarter Q2 CY2025, average daily Metro bus system boardings for weekday and Saturday declined over the same quarter of CY2024, the first decline in over two years. This decline is discussed further in the report, but is believed to be related to federal immigration enforcement actions in the LA region beginning in June 2025, making some riders afraid to use public transit in an open public environment, and reducing ridership in that month. Only Sunday average daily ridership in Q2 still managed to grow over CY2024 ridership, though it also saw ridership decline in June 2025. All day types saw year-over-year ridership gains in both April and May 2025, but the June declines were significant enough for weekday and Saturday to cause a decline for the quarter overall.
As of Q1 CY2025, average daily bus system ridership continued to grow. However, in Q2 CY2025, it declined for the first time in over two years for weekday and Saturday compared to Q2 CY2024. Only Sunday ridership grew in 2025 over the same quarter of 2024. The ridership recovery rates of Q2 CY2025 compared to Q2 CY2019 are:
• Weekday was 84.1% (down from 85.1% in Q2 CY2024)
• Saturday was 90.9% (down from 92.4% in Q2 CY2024)
• Sunday was 102.8% (up from 100.3% in Q2 CY2024).
Complete restoration of bus service by December 2022, combined with more reliable service delivery, speed and reliability initiatives, and the introduction of new fare programs (e.g., fare capping, GoPass for students and LIFE Program for low-income riders, fare capping), has contributed to much stronger ridership recovery in 2023, 2024, and continuing in 2025. This reinforces the importance of affordable, faster, more frequent and reliable service delivery in attracting and retaining ridership.
The highest monthly averages for post-pandemic weekday ridership in 2024 were in September (804,279) and October (804,963). In 2025, the highest month was May 2025 with 791,214. However, average weekday ridership declined year over year in June (686,215), July (647,000), and August 2025 (706,093), returning to CY2023 levels, with a Q2 CY2025 average weekday ridership decline of 1.2%. (Attachment A Chart 6 - Average Weekday Ridership 2019 - 2025).
Average Saturday bus ridership also showed declines in June, July, and August 2025 after increases in April and May. Average Q2 Saturday bus ridership showed a 1.6% decline over the same quarter in 2024. However, Sunday Q2 CY2025 showed a 2.5% growth over the same quarter in 2024, though average Sunday ridership declined in June, July, and August 2025. Sunday April and May 2025 ridership growth was high enough to offset June 2025 declines to still post growth for Q2 CY2025 over Q2 CY2024. See Attachment A, Charts 6, 7, and 8 for Average Weekday, Saturday, and Sunday Ridership and Chart 9 for comparison of average Q2 Weekday, Saturday, and Sunday ridership from 2019 through 2025.
Ridership by Service Area
Ridership recovery was examined for each of the five Metro Service Council areas. The San Fernando Valley showed the highest rate of weekday ridership recovery at 93.4% in Q2 CY2025 (up from 91.3% in Q2 CY2024). This recovery rate, in part, shows a strong response to NextGen Bus Plan improvements that created a network of 10 local lines and the Metro G Line BRT with 10-15 minute frequencies all day on weekdays (a big improvement from 20-30 minute off peak service) across the San Fernando Valley as well as lines restructured to focus on North Hollywood These changes resulted in a 3% gain in revenue service hours, with no other service area having such gains in service. This is a likely primary reason for the ridership gains in the San Fernando Valley and the more limited growth and recovery in other areas.
The average Q2 CY2025 weekday ridership of the San Fernando Valley area compared to Q2 CY2024 increased by 2.3%, indicating that ridership growth remained strong, with this being the only service area showing growth in this quarter. The improvements appeared to increase ridership more than any reductions from immigration enforcement, though this may only be the case for Q2, as the enforcement impacted only one of the three months of Q2. The other four service areas all saw ridership declines of between 2.3% and 5.6% over the same quarter of 2024, with the Gateway Cities service area showing the largest decline.
The weekday ridership recovery rates of the other four Service Council areas in Q2 CY2025 all declined compared to the same quarter in CY2024:
• San Gabriel Valley: 78.0% (down 3.3% from 81.3% in part due to two bus lines moving to Pasadena Transit, as well as some general decline)
• Gateway Cities: 76.4% (down 4.5% from 80.9% in Q2 CY2024)
• Westside Central: 81.6% (down 1.9% from 83.5% in Q2 CY2024)
• South Bay Cities: 82.8% (down 3.0% from 85.8% in Q2 CY2024)
Saturday's average recovery rate for Q2 CY2025 was 90.9% overall, a decrease from 92.4% for the same quarter of 2024. San Fernando Valley again showed the highest recovery at 102.4% (up from 101.4%), while other areas were 76.4% to 86.7% (down from 81.3% to 90.1%). Saturday ridership increased 1.0% for the San Fernando Valley over the same quarter in CY2024. The other four service areas decreased by between 2.7% to 6.1%, with the largest decline in the Gateway Cities area.
The average Sunday ridership recovery rate was 102.8% overall, up from 100.3% in the same quarter of 2024. San Fernando Valley's recovery rate was the highest at 117.4% (up 2.9% from 114.5% in Q2 CY2024), and the four other service areas varied in recovery rate from 84.4% to 96.6% (down from 88.6% to 99.1%, a decrease of 1.9% to 4.8% in Q2 CY2024). Again, the Gateway Cities service area saw the largest decline. This was consistent for all day types; it appears this service area reacted most significantly to the immigration enforcement actions, which in all areas are negating in part of the potential of the NextGen improvements. See Table 3 in Attachment A for full details of the percentage change in average daily ridership by service area between Q2 CY2025 and Q2 CY2024. See also Attachment A, Charts 10-12, for Average Weekday, Saturday, and Sunday Ridership Recovery by Service Area Q2 CY2019 - Q2 CY2025.
Ridership by Equity Focus Communities (EFC)
Average daily boardings in EFCs increased by 2.0% on weekdays, 1.6% on Saturdays, and 1.3% on Sundays during Q4 CY2020. This was during the most impactful time of COVID cases, when much of the transit ridership was in EFCs, and people still needed to travel to access jobs and services.
By Q1 CY2025, EFC boardings as a proportion of total boardings were 1.2% higher for weekdays, up 0.3% for Saturday, and slightly down 0.1% for Sunday compared to pre-COVID levels. This dropped slightly in Q2 CY2025, with a 1.0% higher proportion than pre-pandemic on weekdays, but declined to 0.3% lower on Saturdays, and declined to 0.4% lower on Sundays. These declines in the proportion of EFC boardings may be attributable to the immigration enforcement being most concentrated in EFCs, meaning many who normally rely upon transit sought alternative transportation or forwent travel altogether. See Attachment A pages 19 and 20 including Chart 13 for further discussion of bus system ridership in Equity Focus Communities.
Ridership by Time Period
As of Q2 CY2025, early AM and AM peak periods ridership for weekday remain the least recovered at 74% and 70% of 2019 levels, respectively; these are also lower than in the same quarter of CY2024 (77% and 74% respectively) likely due to the ridership drop in June 2025 resulting from immigration enforcements, making some unwilling to ride public transit. The PM peak and evening recovery rates were 76% and 82%, respectively, again with declines, most significantly in the PM peak, over the same quarter of CY2024 (82% and 83% respectively). The base (midday) period also saw a reduction in recovery rate, from 88% in Q2 CY2024 to 86% in Q2 CY2025, a smaller decline than in the peak periods.
In contrast, late evening and Owl periods' share of weekday ridership continued to have the highest recovery rates compared to their 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels at 93%, and 95%, respectively, with improvements over the same quarter of CY2024 (91% and 92% respectively). Any growth factors, such as federal and state return to office directives, may drive further recovery in Q3 CY2025, but have clearly been negated by impacts from immigration enforcement, which began in June 2025 (part of Q2 CY2025), keeping many people from riding the Metro bus system.
The better midday recovery rate for weekday ridership is consistent with the intent of the NextGen Bus Plan to grow ridership during off-peak weekdays. However, in Q2 CY2025, all time periods except late evening and Owl showed declines in recovery rates of 1-6% over the same quarter in CY2024. Recovery rate declines are most significant in the AM and PM peak periods, with smaller declines in the early AM, base, and early evening periods.
Saturday early AM, AM peak, base, and PM peak ridership had the lowest recovery rates, at 87%, 81%, 83%, and 84% respectively, each declining from Q2 CY2024 (89%, 84%, 88%, 88% respectively). In contrast, Saturday evening, late evening, and Owl showed either stable (evening at 91%), or higher recovery rates at 96% and 100% (up from 95% and 98% respectively).
Sunday recovery rates by time period for Q2 CY2025 were topped by early AM, which was 111%, slightly down from 112% in Q2 CY2024. The AM peak was stable at 97%. The base, PM peak, and early evening each showed a decline in recovery rates at 95%, 94%, and 98% respectively (down from 97%, 98%, and 99% respectively), with the PM peak showing the largest decline in recovery rate. The late evening and Owl periods showed increases in recovery rate (both at 102%, up from 100% and 98% respectively) compared to Q2 CY2024. See also Attachment A, Charts 14-16: Weekday, Saturday, and Sunday Ridership by Time Period Q1 CY2019 - Q2 CY2025.
Average Trip Length
The Metro bus system's average passenger (unlinked) trip length dropped from 4.2-4.3 miles to just below 3.0 miles in the pandemic year 2021. This trend was likely due to a significant reduction in long-distance commuter trips. As ridership recovered in 2022 through 2024, average passenger trip lengths have increased and were at 3.4 miles for each day type in the most recent data, well below pre-COVID lengths. This change was expected as COVID has transitioned trip-making to shorter trips to address a market identified as a significant opportunity to grow ridership through the NextGen Bus study by providing more frequent local bus lines serving shorter distance trips. (Attachment A, Chart 17 Average Passenger Trip Length)
Ridership Recovery by Service Tiers and Lines
This section compares average daily line ridership for Q2 CY2025 versus Q1 CY2019 for each day type (weekday, Saturday, Sunday) and provides an overview of lines showing above and below system average ridership recovery. The review also examined lines/line groups for the four NextGen Bus Plan Tiers. As the NextGen Bus Plan restructured bus lines and line groups, this analysis must, in many cases, be based on comparing ridership for groups of lines to provide a fair comparison of the changes in ridership at the line level. In Q2 CY2025, 117 individual Metro bus lines were operating. However, the ridership recovery rate analysis for this quarter is based on 81 weekday, 75 Saturday, and 74 Sunday lines/line groups to allow for a fair comparison. Detailed data is included in Attachments B, C, and D, respectively.
Using Q2 CY2019 as a pre-COVID baseline and in comparison to Q2 CY2024, the overall Q2 CY2025 bus system ridership recovery rate was 84.1% for weekday (down from 85.1%), 90.9% for Saturday (down from 92.4%), and 102.8% for Sunday (up from 100.3%); only Sunday had improved recovery, with declines for weekday and Saturday.
There were 19 weekday (down from 28 in Q1 CY2025 but up from 18 in Q2 CY2024), 32 Saturday (down from 50 in Q1 CY2025 but up from 24 in Q2 CY2024), and 44 Sunday (down from 50 in Q1 CY2025 but up from 40 in Q2 CY2024) lines/line groups exceeding their pre-COVID Q1 CY2019 ridership numbers in Q2 CY2025.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 higher frequencies continue to show stronger recovery; some of these lines also include route changes to better connect riders to key destinations. The common denominator of lower ridership recovery of some Tier 1 and Tier 2 lines is that they serve Downtown LA. This neighborhood has seen reduced daily work-related trips due to increased telecommuting, which has negatively impacted many downtown service industry businesses and further reduced travel to downtown LA. Some of these lines were also restructured to move riders to other bus lines or, in some cases, rail lines. An opportunity exists to promote downtown LA travel on the new Metro Regional Connector and the Metro bus network for those returning to work, as well as the many cultural attractions and entertainment events based there. Metro is also monitoring return-to-office initiatives of federal and state governments, which may contribute to increased ridership recovery in Q3 and Q4 of CY2025.
This same pattern was noted for the G Line BRT service between North Hollywood, Canoga Park, and Chatsworth, with notably lower ridership recovery, especially on weekdays (57.1%) but also on weekends (Saturday 62.7%, and Sunday 70.2%). By comparison, the J Line BRT between El Monte, downtown LA, and Harbor Gateway/San Pedro had a 94% weekday recovery rate and much higher weekends (122.2% Saturday; 129.4% Sunday), perhaps from a mix of work and leisure travel. Before COVID, these lines had higher usage by discretionary riders. These riders do not appear to be traveling post-COVID as much for work in downtown LA (the G Line feeds the B Line rail to downtown LA) or other employment centers located in the San Fernando Valley, such as Van Nuys or Warner Center. Warner Center has seen the closure of a mall, and the G Line is also now being impacted by long-term detours for the Van Nuys grade separation project, which may divert more riders away from this service in Q2 CY2025. Poor performance of the signal priority system and some safety-related issues in and around the G Line may also be related factors. Lastly, the G Line may have lost riders to the NextGen improved transit lines in the San Fernando Valley.
Notable ridership changes also occurred on the Vermont corridor, a very high EFC corridor where frequent Local and Rapid bus service continues to operate. The corridor’s overall ridership recovery rate was 87.9% on weekdays (down slightly from 91.7% in Q1 CY2025), with the Local Line 204 having a recovery rate of 108.8% (down from 114.5% in Q1 CY2025). By comparison, Vermont Rapid Line 754, which operates with the same frequency as the local line but on a limited stop format, had a ridership recovery rate of 66.7% (down from 69.3% in Q1 CY2025). Line 754 saw notably high cancellation rates in 2022 and to some extent in 2023 and 2024, which may have diverted riders to use the Local bus. The same patterns were seen for Saturday (Local 118.4%; Rapid 63.2%) and Sunday (Local 114.0%; Rapid 85.2%).
As mentioned, the performance of the largely Tier 2 network of lines in the San Fernando Valley is notable for its strong ridership recovery as a group. Other Tier 2 lines across Metro’s service area had similarly high ridership recovery rates above 100%. Examples include Line 55 on Compton Av and Line 117 on Century Bl, both of which serve South LA, as well as Line 605, which serves Boyle Heights.
Several Tier 3 lines had frequency improvements that generated high ridership recovery. By comparison, many Tier 4 lines (40-60 minute frequency) had low ridership recovery, with no NextGen route or frequency changes in most cases, and a lower percentage of route miles serving EFCs. It will be essential to test the best performers among these lines by upgrading to a 30-minute service to see what ridership growth potential some of these lines may have.
The devastating Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires that occurred in early January 2025 (Q1) have had a continued impact this Q2 CY2025. The impacts of the Palisades fire were primarily on two bus lines: Line 134 (Santa Monica - Malibu) and Line 602 (Westwood - Pacific Palisades). These lines were suspended for up to seven weeks. Line 134 is now operating, but with a 5-mile zone with limited bus stops on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) due to fire recovery activity. Line 602 western half from Bundy to PCH, remains out of operation due to fire recovery efforts. The no-stop zone on Line 134 has since been reduced to around 5 miles, but impacts are expected to continue through at least the remainder of 2025. Ridership impacts have lower but improving recovery rates (except Line 602 weekends)
The Eaton fire in Altadena impacted Lines 660 and 662, which link Altadena and Pasadena. Operation of these lines was shortened approximately half a mile to Woodbury Rd (originally further south at Washington Bl). Again, these impacts are expected to remain in place through 2025. Ridership has been impacted on these two lines, though not nearly as severely as for Lines 134 and 602.
Bus Line Productivity
Data also consistently shows that increased revenue service hours implemented through the NextGen Bus Plan for many lines or line groups generated higher ridership recovery compared to lines that saw stable or fewer service hours compared to pre-NextGen. However, a separate analysis is required for the productivity (passenger boardings/revenue service hours) of lines resulting from the NextGen Bus Plan changes. While ridership recovery is important, it is also important to determine if the scheduled service hours are being productively utilized. The measure of passenger boardings per revenue service hour is an industry standard measure of productivity.
The NextGen Bus Plan held annual bus service hours at a constant 7 million, and that remains the same in CY2025. However, distribution of service hours was moved between lines and day types. The following is a comparison of bus system productivity (passenger boardings per revenue service hour) before and after NextGen, comparing Q2 CY2019 with Q2 CY2025:
• Weekday: 35.2 passenger boardings per revenue service hour (2025) versus 40.3 (2019)
• Saturday: 34.2 passenger boardings per revenue service hour (2025) versus 37.8 (2019)
• Sunday: 30.4 passenger boardings per revenue service hour (2025) versus 36.2 (2019)
The weekday change in productivity is explained by a 2.6% decline in revenue service hours versus a 24.9% decline in ridership between 2019 and 2025. This simply means ridership has not recovered sufficiently yet to equal or exceed the former productivity level, even with a slight reduction in weekday service hours, especially with the recent decline in ridership due to immigration enforcement.
On weekdays, 10 of the 81 lines/line groups managed to exceed their former productivity level, while another 49 lines/line groups exceeded 80.0% of their former productivity (pre-NextGen). These were a mix of all frequency tiers as well as some lines that had major changes, or in many cases, minimal changes. The lowest level was 39% of former productivity, though this line and another low-level line were both impacted by the January wildfires.
There were 12 weekday lines with productivity under 20 boardings per revenue service hour, and 2 lines with under 10 boardings per revenue service hour. Two of the 12 weekday lines with the lower productivity were wildfire-impacted lines (Lines 134, 602), and the lowest was the Willowbrook - Del Amo Line 202. Staff will continue to explore opportunities to better align service and ridership levels to increase productivity.
With the recent decline in ridership, the Saturday productivity change is no longer slightly positive, nor does it exceed the former productivity level seen in Q1 CY2025, with a 7.1% decrease in ridership but a 2.7% decrease in service hours.
On Saturday, 22 of the 75 lines/line groups managed to exceed their former productivity level, while another 43 lines/line groups exceeded 80.0%. These were a mix of all frequency tiers, as well as lines that had minimal to major changes. The lowest level was 43% of former productivity, though this line was impacted by the January wildfires. There were 16 Saturday lines with productivity under 20 passengers per revenue service hour.
While the Sunday ridership was up 3.9% overall, the service hours were up 23.6% with the alignment of Sunday schedules with those of Saturday, resulting in a productivity change that is negative, i.e., well below the former productivity level. This may suggest NextGen overinvested in Sunday service, though Sunday ridership recovery has been strong, though still impacted by the recent immigration enforcement.
Of the 74 Sunday lines/line groups, 12 managed to exceed their former productivity level. These were a mix of frequency tiers as well as lines that had, in many cases, minimal changes. The lowest level was 43% of former productivity, though this line and one of the next lowest were both impacted by the January wildfires. Many other Sunday underperformers relate to low ridership recovery. Most lines were between 80.0%-99.9% of former productivity. This represents an important opportunity to reassess Sunday service levels to align them with ridership levels. There were 22 Sunday lines with productivity under 20 passengers per revenue service hour.
For both Saturday and Sunday, there were two lines with productivity under 10 boardings per revenue service hour, but one was a wildfire-impacted line; the other was the Warner Center shuttle. Staff will continue to explore opportunities to better align service and ridership levels to increase productivity.
In contrast, the highest productivity lines for all three day types were Vermont Av Local 204 (60.6), Vermont Av Rapid 754 (53.9), and Western Av Local 207 (55.5), which operate in the Hollywood - South LA area.
More line-level ridership details can be found in the report (Attachment A) and data tables (Attachments B, C, D). These ridership recovery and productivity results will continue to be tracked and reported as further investments in NextGen bus speed and reliability improvements occur, including new bus lanes, expanded transit signal priority, and all-door boarding; more details on these initiatives are in the next section. Staff will review ridership for Q3 CY2025 (July through September 2025) as the basis for the next ridership report.
Speed and Reliability
Beyond the initial Reconnect phase of the NextGen Bus Plan with route restructuring and establishment of frequency tiers, the NextGen Transit First scenario is designed to increase ridership based on the increased speed of service/reduced travel times by implementing items from the speed and reliability toolkit. These items include new bus lanes, expanded transit signal priority, stop optimization, and reinvestment of time savings to increase service frequencies.
Progress on such speed and reliability implementations includes 70.7 lane-miles of new bus priority lanes implemented at the end of CY2024 across Metro’s service area, with the Roscoe Bl bus priority lanes in the San Fernando Valley being the latest to be implemented and completed at the end of October 2024. Updates on upcoming and recent projects are listed below:
Sunset Bl Boulevard Bus Priority Lanes (Metro Line 2)
Metro began outreach on the Sunset Bl Bus Priority Lane project in summer of 2025. This 8.4 lane-mile project on Sunset Bl between Vermont Av and Havenhurst Dr will improve bus speed and reliability for the over 19,000 daily weekday riders on Metro Line 2. The project proposes to convert existing peak-hour parking lanes on Sunset Bl to peak-hour bus priority lanes. This project will complement the Alvarado St bus priority lanes that were installed in 2021 and 2023, which also serve Metro Line 2.
Florence Avenue Bus Priority Lanes (Metro Line 111)
In summer 2025, construction of this peak-hour bus lane project in the City of LA and Unincorporated LA County began. This project will provide 10.2 lane-miles of peak-period bus priority lanes in both directions on Florence Av between West Bl and the Florence A Line Station. This project is expected to be completed in Fall 2025 and will bring improved speed and reliability to riders of Metro Line 111.
Vermont Avenue Bus Priority Lanes (Metro Lines 204 & 754)
Metro will deliver quick-build bus priority lanes to key corridor segments ahead of the larger BRT project as part of the Vermont Transit Corridor project. This will improve the speed and reliability improvements to over 36,000 daily weekday riders ahead of the larger project.
The Bus Speed Working Group identified a 5-lane-mile northern segment of Vermont Av between Sunset Bl and Wilshire Bl, as well as a 7.5-lane-mile southern segment of Vermont Av between Gage Av and Vermont/Athens C Line Station, for quick-build bus lane projects that could be delivered ahead of the BRT improvements on Vermont Av. The proposed bus lanes would be in service full-time along the southern segment and weekday peak periods along the northern segment.
Metro Community Relations staff and Community-Based Organization partners have completed briefings and presentations to interested stakeholders, community groups, and neighborhood councils, as well as outreach to businesses along Vermont Av for the overall BRT project and the quick-build bus lanes.
Northern segment construction was expected to begin in summer 2025, but has been delayed to fall 2025 to further coordinate this complex project and ensure that feedback received during the outreach process is incorporated into the design. The southern segment will follow after the construction of the northern segment is complete.
Bus Lane Enforcement (BLE)
Metro continues partnering with LADOT to have dedicated parking enforcement details patrol and enforce bus lanes in the City of LA. Enforcing the no-parking regulations in the bus lanes helps riders arrive at their destinations faster and more reliably.
Metro completed the required 60-day education and outreach effort on the affected BLE lines, and the initial phase of the BLE program began operations as of May 12, 2025. There are now 100 vehicles equipped with photo/video capabilities that are capturing vehicles stopped or parked on bus lanes during posted operating hours, as well as at bus stops along the affected routes. A bus lane enforcement expansion program is in early development.
Metro is working with the City of West Hollywood to extend the BLE violation and citation process on the existing BLE routes within its city limits. This extended BLE program effort is being targeted to begin in the mid-summer timeframe.
Equity_Platform
EQUITY PLATFORM
The NextGen Bus Plan was developed with an equity methodology, placing more service in Equity Focus Communities, which have historically been more transit dependent. A central goal of the NextGen Bus Plan is to provide improved transit service frequencies, travel times, and reliability improvements for Metro system riders. Eight in 10 Metro riders are Black, Indigenous, and/or other People of Color (BIPOC); nearly 9 in 10 live in households with total annual earnings below $50,000, and almost 6 in 10 are below the poverty line.
Improvements such as greater off-peak frequencies have helped essential workers and other riders make essential trips, with an increased share of off-peak ridership noted during the height of the pandemic.
This analysis shows that a subsequently greater proportion of increased ridership has occurred among EFC residents since the NextGen changes were implemented, with increased frequency of service and speed and reliability enhancements that continue to be implemented. By providing a fast, frequent, reliable network designed through the NextGen process, there is a significant focus on serving EFCs to provide these communities with reduced wait times, shorter travel times, and improved access to key destinations. However, the impact of immigration enforcement in keeping people away from the Metro bus system is negating the potential of the NextGen Bus Plan for increasing ridership. These impacts will be monitored closely.
Staff will continue to monitor ridership in EFC and non-EFC areas to ensure NextGen benefits for marginalized groups are achieved, ensuring that enough service capacity is provided based on ridership, and that all planned NextGen speed and reliability initiatives are implemented with the intended benefits achieved. Staff will also continue to gather rider feedback through the various sources used to gather public input regarding bus services and related adjustments, such as comments received via Metro’s social media channels, Customer Care, and Service Council meetings. These channels provide valuable insight into riders' key customer experience concerns.
Vehicle_Miles_Traveled_Outcome
VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED OUTCOME
VMT and VMT per capita in Los Angeles County are lower than national averages, the lowest in the SCAG region, and on the lower end of VMT per capita statewide, with these declining VMT trends due in part to Metro’s significant investment in rail and bus transit.* Metro’s Board-adopted VMT reduction targets align with California’s statewide climate goals, including achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. To ensure continued progress, all Board items are assessed for their potential impact on VMT to ensure continued progress.
This item supports Metro’s systemwide strategy to reduce VMT through planning and operational activities that will improve and further encourage transit ridership, ridesharing, and active transportation. Metro’s Board-adopted VMT reduction targets were designed to build on the success of existing investments, and this item aligns with those objectives.
While this item does not directly encourage taking transit, sharing a ride, or using active transportation, it is a vital part of Metro operations, as it assesses Metro bus ridership trends. Because the Metro Board has adopted an agency-wide VMT Reduction Target, and this item supports the overall function of the agency, this item is consistent with the goals of reducing VMT.
*Based on population estimates from the United States Census and VMT estimates from Caltrans’ Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) data between 2001-2019.
Implementation_of_Strategic_Plan_Goals
IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIC PLAN GOALS
The recommendation supports strategic plan goals:
Goal #1: Provide high-quality mobility options that enable people to spend less time traveling. Improving the speed and reliability of the bus network will reduce transit travel times and improve competitiveness with other transportation options.
Goal #2: Deliver outstanding trip experiences for all transportation system users. These initiatives help to move more people within the same street capacity, where currently transit users suffer service delays and reliability issues because of single-occupant drivers.
Goal #3: Enhance communities and lives through mobility and access to opportunity. With faster transit service and improved reliability, residents have increased access to education and employment, with greater confidence that they will reach their destination on time.
Next_Steps
NEXT STEPS
The NextGen Bus Plan network ridership will continue to be monitored through 2025 as Metro continues to deliver full service based on the NextGen Bus Plan. The agency will continue to hire new bus operators to remain fully staffed and to reliably deliver full service daily. Metro will also continue implementing bus speed and reliability improvements, such as new bus lanes. Meanwhile, it is important to see an end to the immigration enforcement to allow many riders the confidence to ride the Metro system. Another update is planned for the Board in January 2026, tracking the detailed progress on ridership recovery during Q3 CY2025.
Attachments
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A - NextGen Ridership Analysis Q2 CY2025
Attachment B - Weekday Ridership Recovery Comparison by Line and Line Group
Attachment C - Saturday Ridership Recovery Comparison by Line and Line Group
Attachment D - Sunday Ridership Recovery Comparison by Line and Line Group
Prepared_by
Prepared by: Joe Forgiarini, Senior Executive Officer, Service Development, (213) 418-3400
Reviewed_By
Reviewed by: Conan Cheung, Chief Operations Officer, (213) 418-3034
