Metro's August ridership estimates: Expo Line reaches new high, Red/Purple Line have second-best month

by ,

August Metro ridership graphs

UPDATE: Post corrected below in bold, 4:20 p.m. I need to double-check the Red/Purple Line ridership with Metro staff in the morning.

Both the Red/Purple Line and the Expo Line had their best months yet, with 164,081 and 27,280 average weekday boardings, respectively — slightly higher than their previous bests (see the graphs above). The Expo Line had its best month yet with 27,280 average weekday boardings and the Red/Purple Line had its second best month with 164,081 boardings. The Gold Line had its third best month with 44,451 average weekday boardings; the numbers for the Gold Line were a tad higher in both June and July of 2012.

While the bus system had more boardings than August in the previous two years, ridership on the Metro bus system remains flat.

Overall, August 2013 was a strong month for ridership with 41.22 million boardings on Metro buses and trains. That was higher than the previous two Augusts — there were 39.29 million boardings in Aug. 2011 and 40.78 million boardings in Aug. 2012. Ridership on Metro tends to fluctuate depending on the seasons and calendar (i.e. how many weekdays there are in any given month).

Graphs showing the last two years of ridership numbers for individual rail lines and the bus system are above and more precise numbers for August in the past three years is below.

Bus Ridership Estimates

Bus – Directly Operated

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 1,088,003 1,074,951 1,048,258
Average Saturday Boardings 739,531 723,663 728,213
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 564,750 552,120 547,722
Total Calendar Month Boardings 29,892,721 29,827,005 29,213,674

Directly operated bus ridership includes Orange and Silver Line ridership.

Bus – Contract

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 52,295 45,836 41,327
Average Saturday Boardings 31,088 26,702 24,266
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 23,458 20,881 18,727
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,399,762 1,244,551 1,122,490

Bus – Systemwide

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 1,140,298 1,120,787 1,089,585
Average Saturday Boardings 770,619 750,365 752,479
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 588,208 573,001 566,449
Total Calendar Month Boardings 31,292,483 31,071,556 30,336,164

Directly operated bus ridership includes Orange and Silver Line ridership.

Orange Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 28,101 27,513 22,977
Average Saturday Boardings 17,678 17,776 14,187
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 14,269 13,601 11,420
Total Calendar Month Boardings 763,688 758,307 630,899

Silver Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 12,597 11,449 9,730
Average Saturday Boardings 5,379 4,441 3,825
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 3,951 3,168 2,517
Total Calendar Month Boardings 319,833 293,763 249,158

Rail Ridership Estimates

Red/Purple Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 164,081 154,025 159,302
Average Saturday Boardings 107,995 90,817 100,728
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 74,028 79,423 80,785
Total Calendar Month Boardings 4,445,878 4,223,540 4,389,998

Blue Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 87,723 92,006 82,189
Average Saturday Boardings 60,840 65,686 57,645
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 48,487 54,087 47,924
Total Calendar Month Boardings 2,428,066 2,595,229 2,312,624

Blue Line estimates do not include Expo boardings.

Expo Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012
Average Weekday Boardings 27,280 19,776
Average Saturday Boardings 20,063 12,569
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 15,014 10,722
Total Calendar Month Boardings 760,524 548,009  

Green Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 42,593 45,536 43,373
Average Saturday Boardings 27,691 27,291 23,058
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 16,142 16,143 18,901
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,140,066 1,221,076 1,165,424

Gold Line

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 44,451 42,125 39,598
Average Saturday Boardings 21,506 21,050 24,460
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 19,033 17,075 20,868
Total Calendar Month Boardings 1,161,576 1,121,376 1,092,062

Rail Systemwide Ridership Estimates

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 366,128 353,469 324,462
Average Saturday Boardings 238,096 217,413 205,890
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 172,704 177,450 168,478
Total Calendar Month Boardings 9,936,110 9,709,229 8,960,107

Includes Expo Line ridership.

Systemwide Ridership Estimates

Aug. 2013 Aug. 2012 Aug. 2011
Average Weekday Boardings 1,506,426 1,474,255 1,414,047
Average Saturday Boardings 1,008,715 967,778 958,370
Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings 760,912 750,451 734,927
Total Calendar Month Boardings 41,228,593 40,780,785 39,296,271

Includes Expo Line ridership.

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

13 replies ›

  2. To address the lower ridership on the Green Line, Metro needs to connect both ends of the line. (i.e. LAX, South Bay Galleria and Norwalk Metro Link Station. This line (and the I-105). goes nowhere on both ends.

  3. I question the Red Line data. Weekdays are up about 3% (over two years) and Saturdays are up about 7% but Sundays are down about 9%? That’s a huge drop that makes no apparent sense. The line has lost almost 10% of its Sunday riders in two years? When every other day has gained riders?

  4. This is fantastic news. And these numbers are presumably based on TAP card data? Does anyone have a sense for how much higher the numbers would be if the free riders were accounted for?

  7. God forbid, the MTA acknowledge an INCREASE in bus ridership! It might mean they might ACTUALLY HAVE TO CONSIDER INCREASING BUS SERVICE!

  8. Great news on the Expo Line! I can attest to the increase in ridership as the Culver City station parking lot is now completely full by about noon on weekdays. Today it was full, with additional cars illegally parked and more cars searching around for a spot.

  9. You forgot to mention that the Expo Line reached a major milestone in August: for the first time ever the average weekday ridership (27,280) surpasses the official ridership forecast for the Phase 1 alignment (27,000). Of course, this milestone was reached seven years ahead of schedule, since the official forecast was for ridership in the year 2020.

  11. Steve,
    You might want to double check those Red Line numbers. July 2011 had 171,163 average weekday riders. Thats per my spreadsheet, and also shows on the link to your ridership statistics page.

    Robert

    • Hi Robert;

      I’ll send your comment along to our ridership staff. Thanks for pointing out!

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source