Some good news to close the week: Metro’s rail ridership in June was up significantly over June 2009 — 326,663 average weekday boardings versus 303,712, an increase of 7.5 percent.

The Gold Line did well, with 37,270 average weekday boardings in June 2010 compared to 24,219 in June 2009. Much of that — but not all — is due to the opening last year of the Gold Line Eastside Extension between Union Station and East L.A. But ridership to Pasadena has also increased. On a related note, subway ridership was several hundred boardings a day shy of a record.

I think this is worth noting because most transit agencies have seen ridership slip in the past 18 months due to the ongoing recession.

On the other hand, it’s also worth nothing that Metro bus ridership was flat year over year, showing just a .2 percent gain in June 2010 over June 2009 — 1,156,866 average weekday boardings compared to 1,154,094.

None of this makes for a trend, although it would certainly be nice if this was the start of a trend. It remains to be seen what the July 1 fare increase does to ridership.