Below are the October ridership statistics for Metro. Numbers were up across the board when compared to the previous two Octobers. Here are the comparisons month-to-month numbers — it looks like record months for the Orange Line, Silver Line, Blue Line and the newly-opened Expo Line.
Bus – Directly Operated
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
1,141,759
1,119,721
1,094,143
Average Saturday Boardings
737,193
741,178
726,981
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
551,674
543,027
520,636
Total Calendar Month Boardings
31,415,925
29,935,166
29,215,088
Directly operated bus ridership includes Orange and Silver Line ridership.
Bus – Contract
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
48,503
45,588
45,590
Average Saturday Boardings
26,218
25,337
25,125
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
19,107
18,366
17,501
Total Calendar Month Boardings
1,296,868
1,175,868
1,170,529
Bus – Systemwide
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
1,190,262
1,165,309
1,139,733
Average Saturday Boardings
763,411
766,515
752,106
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
570,781
561,393
538,137
Total Calendar Month Boardings
32,712,793
31,111,034
30,385,617
Directly operated bus ridership includes Orange and Silver Line ridership.
Orange Line
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
32,069
26,614
23,958
Average Saturday Boardings
19,396
15,376
13,520
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
14,140
11,564
10,311
Total Calendar Month Boardings
871,731
693,594
622,273
Silver Line
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
13,765
11,234
8,118
Average Saturday Boardings
5,235
4,095
2,892
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
3,782
2,433
2,044
Total Calendar Month Boardings
352,663
268,554
195,158
Rail Ridership Estimates
Red/Purple Line
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
157,605
145,737
143,174
Average Saturday Boardings
97,768
86,230
93,780
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
84,308
74,723
76,831
Total Calendar Month Boardings
4,353,213
3,865,234
3,859,706
Blue Line
Oct. 2012
Oct. 2011
Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings
92,953
77,738
77,528
Average Saturday Boardings
63,619
56,637
49,469
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings
62,213
45,345
43,710
Total Calendar Month Boardings
2,641,237
2,142,398
2,093,990
Blue Line estimates do not include Expo boardings.
You gotta listen to the people, public transport is not an imposition. If you fine people as if they are criminals without investing in proper boarding gates people will not not take the system seriously or not use it. Treat people how you would want to be treated, ask people what they want obviously staying open to 2am was a major factor. These numbers could easily be 20% higher if rail went thru Sunset/La Cienaga.
Loading...
John Walsh: I can’t tell if the ridership statistics are accurate or not, but that argument of Bus vs Rail is kind of unreasoneable.
1. You state that the bus ridership has been growing. Don’t you think that could be because the growing popularity of rail transit and not despite it? a transit system is, well, a system, so all the components are necessary. If more people are draw to transit, because they see rail as a more reliable and convenient transportation mode, it is likely that the bus system get benefited as well, as many patrons must use buses to get on / off the stations. NYC has by far the highest ridership of heavy rail in the USA, but it has as well the highest ridership in buses by far also.
2. Orange and silver lines are counted differently because they are branded differently. They use buses, but larger ones, in exclusive lanes and with more spaced stops, so they are faster and with higher capacity. Their operation is more similar to that of rail than conventional buses.
Loading...
If Metro would just move to a tap-in and tap-out format system wide across all buses and rail lines, not only will we get true figures, but better data on how to coordinate schedules better for transfers.
Loading...
MTA COULD EASILY INSTALL THE HARDWARE NECESSARY TO ASSURE PERFECTLY ACCURATE RAIL PASSENGER COUNTS IF MTA HAD THE WILL TO DO IT!INSTEAD WE ARE LEFT WITH THESE WHOLLY UNRELIABLE AND PROBABLY INFLATED RAIL PASSENGER COUNTS EMANATING FROM MTA.
ON THE OTHER HAND, BUS PASSENGER COUNTS ARE PERFECTLY ACCURATE.
MTA ALSO LOWERS THE BUS PASSENGER COUNT DELIBERATELY BY REMOVING THE MONTHLY BUS PASSENGER STATS OF THE SILVER AND GOLD LINE BUSES FROM THE BUS OPERATIONS GRAND TOTAL.
DON’TVFORGET THAT THE BUS PASSENGER TOTALS ARE INCREASING PRODIGIOUSLY DESPITE THE POTENTIALLY DEVASTING BLOW DEALT BY THE MTA BOARD DECISION TO
ELIMINATE ONE MILLION HOURS OF BUS REVENUE SERVICE WHILE ADDING TWO NEW RAIL LINES.
THE BUS PASSENGERS COUNT PER HOUR OF REVENUE SERVICE HAS SKYROCKETED OF LATE. A STATISTIC THAT MTA NEVER PUBLISHERS BY THE WAY. UNITED RIDERS OF L.A. (URLA)
DID THE MATH!
MTA WISHES TO CREATE THE FALSE IMPRESSION THAT THE PASSENGER POPULARITY OF RAIL IS GROWING BY
LEAPS AND BOUNDS WHILE THE POOR BUS PASSENGER STATISTICS ARE LIMPING ALONG AND FADING FAST!
THAT’S THE NARRATIVE EMPLOYED IN THE RECENTLY UN-SUCCESSFUL EFFORT TO PASS MEASURE J.
INCIDENTALLY, THE SCHEDULE CHECKERS JOBS ARE NOT AT RISK. MANY OF THEM ARE OPERATORS WHO ARE PARTIALLY DISABLED. IN ANY CASE, THE UNION CONTRACT GUARANTEES THEY CAN’T BE LAYED OFF.
Loading...
And those people say no one takes public transportation in the city of angels
Loading...
The rail lines are estimates because the ridership is counted occasionally by schedule checkers, people who get paid to count how many people get on and off transit vehicles. All buses now have Automated Passenger Counters (APC) which give an extremely accurate ridership count. I am not sure why rail vehicles are not equipped by APCs; I assume it is because Metro does not want to get into a hassle with the union by laying off all the remaining schedule checkers.
Loading...
Brian:
Partly due to some of the “open entry” environments of Metro. IE, the orange line, which has no turnstile at the station or farebox on board. Additionally, up until recently, gates on the subway stations either did not exist or were not locked, so it’s impossible to get a truly accurate count when you look at ALL of the factors – metrolink transfers, tap cards, paper passes, day passes, and so on. Metrolink transfers to the Red Line aren’t counted still in ridership TAP data, so they have to make estimates. Since we’re now TAP-only they can get better numbers, but old data is still less accurate.
Loading...
Why are some called estimates?
Loading...
Glad to see the Silver Line ridership continue to increase. We now need those ticket vending machines at the stations.
Orange Line
Silver Line
Red/Purple Line
Blue Line
Expo Line
Green Line
Gold Line
You gotta listen to the people, public transport is not an imposition. If you fine people as if they are criminals without investing in proper boarding gates people will not not take the system seriously or not use it. Treat people how you would want to be treated, ask people what they want obviously staying open to 2am was a major factor. These numbers could easily be 20% higher if rail went thru Sunset/La Cienaga.
John Walsh: I can’t tell if the ridership statistics are accurate or not, but that argument of Bus vs Rail is kind of unreasoneable.
1. You state that the bus ridership has been growing. Don’t you think that could be because the growing popularity of rail transit and not despite it? a transit system is, well, a system, so all the components are necessary. If more people are draw to transit, because they see rail as a more reliable and convenient transportation mode, it is likely that the bus system get benefited as well, as many patrons must use buses to get on / off the stations. NYC has by far the highest ridership of heavy rail in the USA, but it has as well the highest ridership in buses by far also.
2. Orange and silver lines are counted differently because they are branded differently. They use buses, but larger ones, in exclusive lanes and with more spaced stops, so they are faster and with higher capacity. Their operation is more similar to that of rail than conventional buses.
If Metro would just move to a tap-in and tap-out format system wide across all buses and rail lines, not only will we get true figures, but better data on how to coordinate schedules better for transfers.
MTA COULD EASILY INSTALL THE HARDWARE NECESSARY TO ASSURE PERFECTLY ACCURATE RAIL PASSENGER COUNTS IF MTA HAD THE WILL TO DO IT!INSTEAD WE ARE LEFT WITH THESE WHOLLY UNRELIABLE AND PROBABLY INFLATED RAIL PASSENGER COUNTS EMANATING FROM MTA.
ON THE OTHER HAND, BUS PASSENGER COUNTS ARE PERFECTLY ACCURATE.
MTA ALSO LOWERS THE BUS PASSENGER COUNT DELIBERATELY BY REMOVING THE MONTHLY BUS PASSENGER STATS OF THE SILVER AND GOLD LINE BUSES FROM THE BUS OPERATIONS GRAND TOTAL.
DON’TVFORGET THAT THE BUS PASSENGER TOTALS ARE INCREASING PRODIGIOUSLY DESPITE THE POTENTIALLY DEVASTING BLOW DEALT BY THE MTA BOARD DECISION TO
ELIMINATE ONE MILLION HOURS OF BUS REVENUE SERVICE WHILE ADDING TWO NEW RAIL LINES.
THE BUS PASSENGERS COUNT PER HOUR OF REVENUE SERVICE HAS SKYROCKETED OF LATE. A STATISTIC THAT MTA NEVER PUBLISHERS BY THE WAY. UNITED RIDERS OF L.A. (URLA)
DID THE MATH!
MTA WISHES TO CREATE THE FALSE IMPRESSION THAT THE PASSENGER POPULARITY OF RAIL IS GROWING BY
LEAPS AND BOUNDS WHILE THE POOR BUS PASSENGER STATISTICS ARE LIMPING ALONG AND FADING FAST!
THAT’S THE NARRATIVE EMPLOYED IN THE RECENTLY UN-SUCCESSFUL EFFORT TO PASS MEASURE J.
INCIDENTALLY, THE SCHEDULE CHECKERS JOBS ARE NOT AT RISK. MANY OF THEM ARE OPERATORS WHO ARE PARTIALLY DISABLED. IN ANY CASE, THE UNION CONTRACT GUARANTEES THEY CAN’T BE LAYED OFF.
And those people say no one takes public transportation in the city of angels
The rail lines are estimates because the ridership is counted occasionally by schedule checkers, people who get paid to count how many people get on and off transit vehicles. All buses now have Automated Passenger Counters (APC) which give an extremely accurate ridership count. I am not sure why rail vehicles are not equipped by APCs; I assume it is because Metro does not want to get into a hassle with the union by laying off all the remaining schedule checkers.
Brian:
Partly due to some of the “open entry” environments of Metro. IE, the orange line, which has no turnstile at the station or farebox on board. Additionally, up until recently, gates on the subway stations either did not exist or were not locked, so it’s impossible to get a truly accurate count when you look at ALL of the factors – metrolink transfers, tap cards, paper passes, day passes, and so on. Metrolink transfers to the Red Line aren’t counted still in ridership TAP data, so they have to make estimates. Since we’re now TAP-only they can get better numbers, but old data is still less accurate.
Why are some called estimates?
Glad to see the Silver Line ridership continue to increase. We now need those ticket vending machines at the stations.