Ridership on Metro makes gains in October; new records on four lines

by ,

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.

  Expo Line

Oct. 2012    
Average Weekday Boardings 21,382
Average Saturday Boardings 13,279
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 13,146
Total Calendar Month Boardings 597,496    

  Green Line

Oct. 2012 Oct. 2011 Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 46,544 42,810 40,385
Average Saturday Boardings 28,022 22,256 24,079
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 17,964 17,523 17,254
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,254,462 1,097,915 1,054,743

  Gold Line

  Oct. 2012 Oct. 2011 Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 42,417 36,784 34,440
Average Saturday Boardings 23,743 23,688 21,960
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 14,859 21,833 18,495
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,129,997 1,000,060 925,502

Rail Systemwide Ridership Estimates

  Oct. 2012 Oct. 2011 Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 360,901 303,068 295,526
Average Saturday Boardings 226,432 188,810 189,287
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 192,490 159,424 156,290
Total Calendar Month Boardings 9,976,406 8,105,607 7,933,941

Includes Expo Line ridership.

 

Systemwide Ridership Estimates

  Oct. 2012 Oct. 2011 Oct. 2010
Average Weekday Boardings 1,551,163 1,468,378 1,435,260
Average Saturday Boardings 989,843 955,325 941,393
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 763,271 720,816 694,427
Total Calendar Month Boardings 42,689,199 39,216,641 38,319,558

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

9 replies ›

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  9. Glad to see the Silver Line ridership continue to increase. We now need those ticket vending machines at the stations.