That’s an average of more than 1,500 people per game that took the bus from Union Station to Dodger Stadium — pretty good numbers for the first full season of the bus service.

Even better, more than 60 percent of the people who used the Dodger Stadium Express also used mass transit to get to Union Station, an indication that they were able to take the full trip to the ballpark on transit, not just the last mile. The Dodger Stadium Express was free to those holding tickets to the ballgame.

Will the service be back for 2011? This past year’s service was paid for with a $300,000 grant from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC). County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is a member of the committee and member of the Metro Board of Directors and he helped secure the money.

The news release from Metro, posted after the jump, indicates the agency will try to secure money to continue the bus service for next season.

EDITORS NOTE: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect ridership number for the bus that was slightly lower than the number above.

Metro Dodger Stadium Express Bus Service Used By More Than 117,000 Fans During The Regular 2010 Dodger Baseball Season

Metro’s Dodger Stadium Express bus service from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Dodger Stadium during the past 2010 Dodger baseball season was used by 117,523 fans with more than 60 percent of those riders using public transit from their place of origin to get to Union Station to take advantage of the special bus service to the games.

The special service was made possible through a grant of $300,000 awarded to Metro by Clean Transportation Funding from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC), supported by LA County Supervisor and Metro Board Second Vice Chair Michael Antonovich, a member of MSRC, and cooperation from the Dodgers organization. The project’s goal was to support air quality by encouraging the use of public transportation to Dodger Stadium.

An estimated 85 percent of those riders using transit to get to the special bus service used the Metro Rail system to get to Union Station and seven percent took either Metrolink or Amtrak trains with the remainder riding buses directly to Union Station. The service averaged 19,759 boardings a month.

The Dodger Stadium Express service began in late March picking up Dodger fans at the Patsaouras Bus Plaza adjacent to the east portal of Union Station and continuing to Dodger Stadium via Sunset Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Avenue dropping off and picking up patrons in the Dodgers parking lot behind Left/Center field.

The grant funding was used to offset the cost of fares for passengers possessing a Dodger ticket. Service was provided every 10 minutes approximately 90 minutes prior to the beginning of the games and ended approximately 45 minutes after the end of the game. The service was provided by Southland Transit Inc. under contract to Metro.

By using the service, thousands of vehicle miles traveled and car emissions were reduced by bussing baseball fans from throughout Los Angeles and other counties such as Orange , Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura. Some fans came from as far away as Santa Barbara, San Diego and even New York City. Riders surveyed found that they could conveniently connect to other transit providers in the region through Union Station.

The Los Angeles Dodgers worked closely with Metro to ensure a high level of awareness for this bus service to Dodger Stadium and promoted the service to fans during each game. In addition to the extensive marketing and advertising campaign, Metro also heightened the visibility of the service by making its schedule and route available via Google Transit.

Funding for the service was for a one-year demonstration period. Because of the success of the program, Metro will continue to work with its funding partners on how to possibly fund this service in future years.