Meeting_Body
OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE
APRIL 16, 2026
Subject
SUBJECT: NEXTGEN RIDERSHIP UPDATE - Q4 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 fourth quarter (October, November, and December) of calendar year 2025, compared to Q4 CY2024 when ridership last peaked. 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” and “Transit First.”
• “Reconnect” is the initial phase to restructure the existing network and was implemented over three dates: December 2020, June 2021, and December 2021.
• “Transit First” is an additional phase to maximize the plan’s effectiveness through strategic, quick-build capital investments in improved bus speeds and direct revenue service hours (RSHs) saved on bus frequency improvements.
• After achieving full operator staffing in mid-2023, the increased operators required for additional service and challenges in recruiting new operators resulted in a 1-2% operator shortage existed from December 2023 to December 2024. Recruitment efforts were increased in response and cancelled service levels were kept at relatively low levels.
• Full operator staffing was again achieved by January 2025, with cancellation rates during the first three quarters of 2025 reduced to very low levels, generally under 1% on weekdays and Saturdays and below 2% on Sundays.
• After ridership peaked in late 2024/early 2025, since June 2025, ridership has shown a reduction compared to the previous year; this appears to be linked to federal immigration enforcement actions that began in that month
The NextGen Bus Plan Reconnect phase implementation established a set of service frequency tiers for Metro’s 117 bus lines, summarized in Table 1. Tier 1 and 2 lines are all-day, high-frequency services designed to support ridership growth across the NextGen network and support ridership recovery after a decrease caused by the pandemic. Tier 3 and 4 lines ensure neighborhood connectivity and coverage throughout the service area.
Table 1: NextGen Frequency Tiers as of December 2024
When fully implemented, the NextGen Bus Plan Transit First scenario was expected to achieve a 15-20% increase in ridership resulting from 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, with reinvestment of time savings for increased service frequencies. Progress on implementation of the NextGen Speed and Reliability program is included in this report.
Discussion
DISCUSSION
Travel Market
Before reviewing bus system ridership, it is important to consider changes in the over travel market in the Metro service area. Overall travel demand is calculated from Location Based Services (LBS) cell phone data. In 2023, total overall travel demand remained about 8% below 2019 pre-NextGen levels, 7% below in 2024, and 2025 data shows it as around 5% below. See Charts 4 and 5 in Attachment E for this data by year in total and by time of day.
Travel volumes by time of day are mixed:
• AM peak travel volumes finally somewhat recovered in 2025 after remaining well below 2019 levels in 2023 and 2024, though the 6 AM and 7 AM hours have not fully recovered to 2019.
• Midday travel volumes exceeded 2019 levels in 2023, matched them in 2024, but in 2025, the midday travel showed a slight decline to below 2019 levels.
• After a surge in afternoon peak travel in 2022 exceeding 2019 levels in the 3 PM hour, demand appears to have leveled off to pre-2019 levels in 2023 and 2024, and slightly below 2019 levels for 2025. The same pattern is seen for evening hours.
• Late evening and overnight hours into the early AM appear to match 2019 levels.
Some of the slight decline in travel demand may relate to immigration enforcement actions as those impact not just transit ridership but overall travel demand. This slight decline in overall travel may also relate to expanded availability of online services and commerce (midday). Telecommuting (AM and PM peaks) may be continuing at higher levels than in the past, but with some decline as more workers return to more days per week in the office. While federal workers returned to the office full time in 2025, their numbers were significantly reduced. The state has delayed its return to office requirements. These trends will continue to be monitored.
Weekday Ridership:
Q4 CY2025 average weekday ridership declined 5.8% compared to the high point of ridership in Q4 CY2024 and compared to Q3 CY2025 overall decline of 6.4%, so there was a slightly lower rate of decline in Q4. The peak months for Q4 CY 2025 were September 2025 (764,647 down 4.9%) and October 2025 (760,709, down 5.5%) versus 804,279 and 804,963 respectively in 2024. Overall weekday ridership trends are depicted by month in Chart 1 in Attachment E, which clearly shows average weekday ridership back at 2023 levels since June.
Saturday Ridership:
Average Saturday bus ridership has showed year over year declines beginning in June after several years of consistent growth. Though average Q4 Saturday bus ridership showed a 5.8% decline over the same quarter in 2024, it was reduced compared to Q3 CY2025 (6.8%). Monthly Saturday ridership trends are depicted in Chart 2 in Attachment E. Average Saturday ridership has declined to around 2023 levels.
Sunday Ridership:
Average Sunday bus ridership also showed declines beginning in June 2025, though smaller than weekday and Saturday, Q4 CY2025 average Sunday ridership showed a 3.8% decline over the same quarter in 2024, and a lesser decline than the 4.4% decline for Sunday Q3 CY2025. Sunday ridership trends by month are depicted in Chart 3 in Attachment E.
These results show slight overall reductions of the ridership decline seen in Q3 CY2025 but still significant compared to previous consistent ridership growth. The next sections discuss some factors besides immigration enforcement that may be impacting ridership. While overall travel demand has continued to increase in the years 2023 2025, bus system ridership only kept pace with travel demand growth in 2023 through May 2025, again pointing to impacts immigration enforcement may be having on bus ridership since beginning in June 2025. Results for Q4 CY2025 average daily ridership are summarized in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Average Ridership by Day Type Q4 CY2025 compared to Q4 CY2024 and Q3 CY2025
Service Reliability
Service reliability improved in 2025 versus 2024 with overall bus system on-time performance at 76.9%, up from 74.4% in the same quarter of 2024. This improvement should be supporting ridership retention and growth and should not be considered an overall cause for ridership decline in this quarter.
Ridership Impacts from Fare Programs
The introduction and expansion of new fare programs (e.g., GoPass for students and LIFE Program for low-income riders) has likely contributed to ridership growth and recovery in 2024 and 2025.
Table 3: Comparison of Average Daily GoPass Boardings by Day Type and Year
Table 4: Comparison of Average Daily LIFE Boardings by Day Type and Year
The overall growth in the LIFE Program and GoPass boardings continued throughout CY2025, even with the decline in ridership overall in the second half of CY2025. While some of the growth of these programs is due to new rider participation, much of it is from existing riders enrolling in these programs. Enrollment and use of these programs have slowed in growth, likely due to the impacts of immigration enforcement, though they may be helping offset lost ridership.
Ridership by Service Area:
Overall, Q4 weekday bus system ridership declined 5.8% compared to 6.4% in Q3. When looking area by area, there are some notable changes with larger rates of decline in two service areas but reduced rates of decline in three areas compared to Q3.
Average Q4 CY2025 weekday ridership in the San Fernando Valley area compared to Q4 CY2024 decreased by 5.8%, indicating that ridership has been impacted even this service area, noting in Q2 CY2025 it had still shown a year over year increase and was the only service area that showed growth in Q2 CY2025, though mildly impacted in Q3 CY2025 (down 0.8%). Immigration enforcement activities may have impacted this area more in Q4, and it had declines similar to the other four service areas.
Weekday ridership declined between 3.6%-9.0% in the other four service areas over Q4 CY 2024. The Gateway Cities service area did not show the largest decline (down 7.3%) as it did in Q3, with a reduced level of decline compared to Q3. In contrast, South Bay showed the largest Q4 weekday ridership decline of 9.0%. This changed pattern of ridership decline may suggest that the immigration actions have been significant during Q4 in the San Fernando Valley and South Bay.
Saturday system ridership decreased overall, down by 5.8% in Q4 CY2025 over Q4 CY2024, compared to 6.8% in CY2025 Q3. Saturday ridership decreased 6.3% for the San Fernando Valley over the same quarter in CY2024, versus a 0.6% decline in Q3 CY2025. The other four service areas decreased by 1.8%-8.8% in Q4 CY2025, with San Gabriel Valley, Gateway Cities, and Westside Central areas all showing lower ridership declines compared to Q3, while the South Bay area showed an increased rate of decline and the largest decline at 8.8% compared to Q3 CY2025. These patterns are similar to the weekday Q4 results.
Table 5: Percentage Change in Average Daily Ridership by Service Area and Day Type CY2025 compared to CY2024
Sunday ridership in Q4 CY2025 declined overall, down 3.8% compared to Q4 CY2024 (less than the 4.4% decline in Q3). In two service areas, the rate of decline was less than that of Q3 (Gateway Cities, San Gabriel Valley), while the other three areas showed an increased decline. The rates of decline varied from between 1.9%-8.7%. Again, the Gateway Cities service area saw a lesser decline and the South Bay had the largest decline. Also notable was the San Fernando Valley (4.4% decline), where a small increase had occurred in Q3 year over year.
The ridership by service area declines were generally consistent for all day types, and it appears that South Bay and San Fernando Valley saw notably increased declines, while Gateway Cities and San Gabriel Valley service areas saw less decline. Again, this may be due to immigration enforcement actions, which may have been more active in the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay this quarter. Table 5 shows full details of the percentage change in average daily ridership by service area between Q4 and Q3 CY2025 and CY2024.
Map 1 in Attachment E shows a comparison of average weekday ridership for Q4 2025 as a percentage of Q4 2024 ridership, illustrating by LA City neighborhood and other LA County cities the level of ridership decline. Noticeably, larger declines in ridership are still seen in Q4 CY2025 in the areas impacted by the January 2025 fires, though these areas are only a tiny portion of overall bus system ridership. Next largest declines were in parts of southeast and south LA and South Bay region as well San Fernando Valley (especially eastern areas around Sylmar/San Fernando/Sun Valley) where immigration raids may have been more common in Q4 CY2025.
Ridership in EFCs
For Q4 CY2025, EFC boardings as a proportion of total boardings were 0.6% higher than the same quarter of 2019 for weekdays (up just 0.1% in Q3 CY2025), down 0.5% for Saturday (down 0.9% in Q3 CY2025), and down 0.5% for Sunday (down 1.0% in Q3 CY2025) compared to pre-COVID levels. Compared to Q4 CY2024, this was a small drop for weekdays (0.1%), and a little more impacted Saturday (0.4%), and Sunday (0.5%) in Q4 CY2025.
Ridership by Time Period
When comparing Q4 CY2025 with Q4 CY2024, weekday early AM and AM peak period ridership showed the largest year-over-year declines of 11.7% and 9.6%, respectively, with the PM peak next most impacted at 7.1% year over year decline. While still a relatively large decline, midday weekday was the least impacted for the daytime periods on weekdays at down 6.4%. This data suggests travel for work may be the most impacted on weekdays. Weekday evenings showed the lowest decline in all time periods at 2.8%, with late evening and Owl period ridership on weekdays growing by 0.4% and 2.0%, respectively.
Saturday and Sunday ridership showed the largest declines year over year for Q4 CY2025, with AM Peak showing the largest declines (12.3% and -9.1% respectively on Saturday and Sunday). Midday and PM peak were the next most impacted on Saturday and Sunday, 9.5% and 7.6% Saturday, with 7.9% and 7.5% on Sunday, respectively. Least impacted for the daytime were early AM and evening periods (6.3% and 2.0% Saturday, with 3.3% and 1.7% Sunday). As with weekdays, both Saturday and Sunday late evening and Owl periods increased ridership (1.2% and 0.4% Saturday, with 1.0% and 1.4% Sunday, respectively). Sunday was the least impacted compared to Saturday, but both Saturday and in some cases, Sunday were more impacted for AM peak, midday, and PM peak than weekdays. It appears the work travel impacts occur later in the day on weekends than on weekdays.
Table 6: Average Ridership by Day Type and Time Period Q4 CY2025 versus CY2024
Average Trip Length
Weekday and Saturday were at 3.3 miles and Sunday was at 3.4 miles average passenger trip length when most recently measured in Q3 CY2025. Trip lengths have remained very stable since 2022 (compared to 4.2-4.3 miles pre-NextGen). This may in part be attributable to the NextGen Bus Plan’s focus on increasing market share for transit among shorter distance trips through more frequent local bus service. Even with the recent declines in ridership likely due to immigration enforcement activity, average trip length was relatively stable.
Ridership by Line
Average daily line ridership for Q4 CY2025 versus Q4 CY2024 is compared for each day type (weekday, Saturday, Sunday) and provides an overview of lines showing various levels of line ridership increase or decline year over year.
Overall ridership declines of 5.8% weekday, 5.8% Saturday, and 3.8% Sunday were recorded for Q4 CY2025 compared to Q4 CY2024. Table 7 shows the distribution of line ridership results. For weekdays, 74% of the 108 weekday bus lines had ridership in Q4 CY2025 at between 90-99% of Q4 CY2024 ridership levels, with 56% of Saturday lines and 55% of Sunday lines at this level, which was the largest share of lines.
Even with the overall system-level trend of reduced ridership in Q4 CY2025, there were 17 weekday lines (16% of total), 29 Saturday lines (28% of total), and 36 Sunday lines (35% of total) that saw ridership growth over Q4 CY2024. Interestingly, many were lower frequency, lower ridership Tier 3 and Tier 4 lines rather than the higher frequency and ridership Tier 1 and Tier 2 lines.
Table 7: Average Daily Ridership by Line Q4 CY2025 versus CY2024
A few lines with increased ridership were associated with service changes, such as Line 665 on weekdays where a weekday frequency improvement took place (35 minutes increased from every 50 minutes), Line 296 with a restructure focused on Lincoln Cypress A Line Station, and Lines 180/217 with the extension of Line 217 to Eagle Rock. Other lines with increased ridership did not have any recent frequency or routing improvements. These lines were distributed across the service area, thought the San Fernando Valley again shows the most significant ridership growth among these lines.
• San Fernando Valley 9 weekday, 15 Saturday, 14 Sunday lines
• San Gabriel Valley 1 weekday, 2 Saturday, 7 Sunday lines
• Gateway Cities 2 weekday, 4 Saturday, 5 Sunday lines
• South Bay Cities 2 weekday, 2 Saturday, 1 Sunday lines
• Westside Central 2 weekday, 4 Saturday, 9 Sunday lines
Common to all day types were four bus lines with significant ridership decline; these are linked to impacts from the Altadena or Palisades fires of January 2025. Line 602 serving Pacific Palisades was the most impacted line, with ridership in Q4 CY2025 at 46.6% weekday, 52.8% Saturday, and 56.0% Sunday of Q4 CY2024 levels. With the exception of five miles of closed bus stops on PCH south of Malibu, the other three lines have gone back to normal, but the population has not all returned yet, so results for these lines will remain lower than 2024.
Besides the fire-impacted lines, the largest ridership drop for a line was at 84.6% weekday, 86.5% Saturday, and 85.3% Sunday. Lines with significant drops included the Van Nuys corridor Lines 233 (Local) and 761 (Rapid) which are being impacted by East San Fernando Valley Rail construction, and G Line BRT construction of grade separation at Van Nuys is impacting the service due to detours.
Bus Line Productivity
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 implemented in 2020-2021 held annual bus service hours at a constant 7 million, and that remains the same in CY2025, so productivity varies mostly in line with ridership changes.
Table 8 compares the ten highest and ten lowest productivity bus lines based on weekday Q4 CY2024, while also providing the same data for Q4 CY 2025 for weekdays as well as the same data for those lines for weekends.
Table 8: 10 Highest and Lowest Productivity Bus Lines
Not surprisingly, bus lines serving some of the LA region’s busiest corridors, such as Vermont Av and Western Av continue to have the highest productivity, while those with the lowest productivity are often at the outer edge of the system and on less busy corridors, and in one case, an express service with limited stops.
Below is data comparing bus system productivity (passenger boardings per revenue service hour) Q4 CY2025 and Q4 CY2024:
• Weekday: 33.8 passenger boardings per revenue service hour (2025) versus 36.2 (2024)
• Saturday: 33.6 passenger boardings per revenue service hour (2025) versus 35.5 (2024)
• Sunday: 28.6 passenger boardings per revenue service hour (2025) versus 29.3 (2024)
The weekday productivity change between Q4 CY2025 and Q4 CY2024 is explained by a 1.0% increase in service hours versus a much larger 5.6% decline in ridership. On Saturday, service was almost unchanged (down 0.1%) while ridership was again down by a much larger 5.6%. Lastly, Sunday service hours were down 1.3% while ridership was down a larger 3.6%. This means ridership has declined more than any percentage change in service hours, resulting in reduced productivity for the system overall and for many individual lines, especially the more frequent Tier 1 and Tier 2. However, improved productivity was seen in Q4 CY2025 compared to Q4 CY2024 for 14 of 108 weekday lines, 27 of 103 Saturday lines, and 38 of 103 Sunday lines. Improved performance is more common on weekends. In some cases, recent service improvements had been made; in others, ridership grew even without service improvements. Line-level ridership details are in the Attachments A, B, and C data tables. Ridership and productivity results will continue to be tracked and reported as further investments in NextGen bus speed and reliability improvements occur, and the results above re-enforce the value of improving service
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 include 71.9 lane-miles of new bus priority lanes implemented at the end of CY2025 across Metro’s service area. The Florence Av bus lane project is the latest to be installed, with portions being completed in Fall 2025. The remainder of this project will be completed by Spring 2026. Updates on upcoming and recent projects are listed below:
• Sunset Bl Bus Priority Lanes (Metro Line 2): Metro began outreach on the Sunset Bl Bus Priority Lane project in Summer 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 Metro Line 2 riders. 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 Av Bus Priority Lanes (Metro Line 111): By May 2026, construction of this peak-hour bus lane project in the City of LA and Unincorporated LA County will be complete. This project will provide 9.6 lane-miles of peak-period bus priority lanes in both directions on Florence Av between West Bl and the Florence A Line Station. These bus lanes will bring improved speed and reliability to Metro Line 111 riders.
• Vermont Av 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 for 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.
Construction was expected to begin on the northern segment in Summer 2025 but has been delayed to later in 2026 to further coordinate this complex project and ensure that feedback received during the outreach process is incorporated into the design.
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.
There are now 100 vehicles equipped with photo/video capabilities 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 proposed for funding in the FY27 capital budget program cycle. The intent of the expansion would be to establish bus lane enforcement on all existing and planned bus lanes.
Metro is also partnering with the City of West Hollywood to extend the BLE violation and citation process on the existing BLE routes within its city limits at the City’s request. Full operation (post 60-day outreach/warning period) began in July 2025.
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. Although, as of 2025, this is only true for weekdays. 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 into 2026 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 in 2026, such as new bus lanes and transit signal priority. Meanwhile, only an end to the immigration enforcement activities may give many riders the confidence to return to riding the Metro system. Another update is planned for the Board in July 2026, covering Q1 CY2026 (January through March 2026) versus Q1 CY2025.
Attachments
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A - Weekday Ridership Recovery Comparison by Line and Line Group
Attachment B - Saturday Ridership Recovery Comparison by Line and Line Group
Attachment C - Sunday Ridership Recovery Comparison by Line and Line Group
Attachment D - NextGen Service Tier Changes
Attachment E - NextGen Ridership Review Supporting Data Charts
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
