Metro August ridership numbers

by ,

Here are the latest ridership numbers across the Metro system.

The average weekday ridership for the Blue Line (92,006 boardings) and the new Expo Line (19,776) were the highest ever. The Orange Line had its second-best average to date (27,513) and the Green Line its third-best month ever (45,536).

Below are the July numbers, which on the rail side are tabulated over the prior several months and then crunched to come up with the monthly numbers:

Bus – Directly Operated

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 1,074,951 1,048,258 1,050,267
Average Saturday Boardings 723,663 728,213 725,903
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 552,120 547,722 538,147
Total Calendar Month Boardings 29,827,005 29,213,674 28,700,221

Directly operated bus ridership includes Orange and Silver Line ridership.

Bus – Contract

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 45,836 41,327 42,870
Average Saturday Boardings 26,702 24,266 24,838
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 20,881 18,727 18,660
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,244,551 1,122,490 1,135,790

Bus – Systemwide

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 1,120,787 1,089,585 1,093,137
Average Saturday Boardings 750,365 752,479 750,741
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 573,001 566,449 556,807
Total Calendar Month Boardings 31,071,556 30,336,164 29,836,011

Directly operated bus ridership includes Orange and Silver Line ridership.

Orange Line

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 27,513 22,977 21,694
Average Saturday Boardings 17,776 14,187 13,880
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 13,601 11,420 10,666
Total Calendar Month Boardings 758,307 630,899 586,118

Silver Line

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 11,449 9,730 7,487
Average Saturday Boardings 4,441 3,825 2,811
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 3,168 2,517 1,919
Total Calendar Month Boardings 293,763 249,158 185,553

 

Rail Ridership Estimates

Red/Purple Line

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 154,025 159,302 150,435
Average Saturday Boardings 90,817 100,728 101,190
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 79,423 80,785 82,843
Total Calendar Month Boardings 4,223,540 4,389,998 4,128,552

Blue Line

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 92,006 82,189 81,126
Average Saturday Boardings 65,686 57,645 52,018
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 54,087 47,924 49,006
Total Calendar Month Boardings 2,595,229 2,312,624 2,237,870

Blue Line estimates do not include Expo boardings.

Expo Line

Aug. 2012
Average Weekday Boardings 19,776
Average Saturday Boardings 12,569
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 10,722
Total Calendar Month Boardings 548,009    

Green Line

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 45,536 43,373 41,172
Average Saturday Boardings 27,291 23,058 23,094
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 16,143 18,901 17,910
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,221,076 1,165,424 1,087,718

Gold Line

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 42,125 39,598 35,247
Average Saturday Boardings 21,050 24,460 24,269
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 17,075 20,868 21,157
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,121,376 1,092,062 978,287

 

Rail Systemwide Ridership Estimates

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 353,469 324,462 307,980
Average Saturday Boardings 217,413 205,890 200,571
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 177,450 168,478 170,915
Total Calendar Month Boardings 9,709,229 8,960,107 8,432,426

Includes Expo Line ridership.

 

Systemwide Ridership Estimates

Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011 Aug. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 1,474,255 1,414,047 1,401,117
Average Saturday Boardings 967,778 958,370 951,312
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 750,451 734,927 727,723
Total Calendar Month Boardings 40,780,785 39,296,271 38,268,437

Categories: Inside Metro, Policy & Funding

Tagged as: , , ,

11 replies ›

  1. Scott: That’s a good question regarding the subway (Red/Purple Line) ridership. Based on my research of long-term ridership trends, it looks there was an unusual spike in subway ridership last summer, with two of the top four ridership months in subway history, but that spike wasn’t repeated this summer. This could be a result of fluctuations in fuel prices, but it is strange that the subway ridership seems to be more volatile than the overall MTA system, which included light rail and bus.
    When I review the monthly estimates I see a lot of unusual “noise” in the MTA rail ridership. Remember that these really are estimates, since Metro has an open gate policy at rail stations. I assume that Metro is trying to revise their estimation methodology as they close the gates throughout the system. My guess is that a lot of the noise will continue to occur until the system is fully closed, and Metro can be more confident about their ridership counts.

  2. Why has Red/purple dipped so much? It dipped in July of this year as well. Can anyone explain why this is?

  3. LOL Matt! I sent a message to the authors of the Reason articles, suggesting that this would be a good time to write a follow-up article about Expo ridership. I mentioned that this might be their last chance to claim that the ridership is falling short of the (year 2020) ridership forecasts published in the EIS. No response so far.

  4. In a related story, Reason is issuing a full retraction of their article blasting Expo ridership that was based on the second day of operations.

    (waiting for you all to stop laughing…)

    (still waiting…)

  6. The ramp-up of ridership on Expo is especially impressive when compared to the Gold Line. The initial segment of the Gold Line (which is significantly longer than the Expo Line: 14 miles vs. 8 miles) – took almost five years to reach an average daily ridership of 20,000, a threshhold that Expo is set to reach in less than five months. I can only imagine the ridership that Expo will achieve once Phase II is completed to connect Santa Monica to downtown LA. I’ll be lucky to find a seat on my ride from Culver City to LA!

  7. I’m very impressed by the ridership growth on the Expo Line, which has increased steadily from 11,000 in the first month (May) to almost 20,000 in August. I commute on Expo every day and I can attest to the signs of higher ridership, it is more and more uncommon to find an emty seat. I expect that September ridership will be even higher, maybe 22,000 per day, since classes have opened at USC.

  8. There is some decline in Red/Purple Line Ridership. I wonder if its feeder bus routes sync better with the Red/Purple schedule during the off-peak hours would improve ridership. If more resources are put into both the Silver & Orange Lines, Red/Purple line ridership will increase as well.

  9. I’m doing a study on how people travel within urban areas and urban planning.

    Is there anyway to get an average distance Metro buses riders travel versus Metro rail riders? I want to know:

    1. What the average distance a person travels on mass transit
    2. Relationship between average distance traveled by those on buses versus rail
    3. Using that data, is there a better way to dynamically price fares based on travel distance

  11. Some Rapid Bus are pretty good, like Santa Monica Rapid 7. Some still operates like local bus with lots of stops, such as Santa Monica Rapid 12. These issue will have an impact to the overall ridership.