LA Metro posts progress on FY23 strategic goals

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials yesterday marked growth toward agency goals during fiscal-year 2023 at the annual State of the Agency event.

L.A. Metro's FY23 progress included increasing ridership, expanding rail and bus service and creating new safety, cleanliness, equity and customer service programs, announced L.A. Metro Board Chair Karen Bass, former Chair Ara Najarian and CEO Stephanie Wiggins at the event. Bass, who is also mayor of Los Angeles, succeeded Najarian July 1.

Successes during the year included:

• improvement and expansion of rail and bus service to provide new transit options for riders, including the opening of the K Line in South Los Angeles and Inglewood and the Regional Connector downtown;
• growth of special fare programs designed to provide equity and support the next generation of L.A. Metro riders. The low-income LIFE program registered 89,036 more riders, while students took more than 16.7 million free rides using the GoPass, which provides free rides to students at participating schools; and
• implementation of a new human-focused public safety plan, which called for interventions across the rail system that have reduced crime by 53% in recent months. Additionally, the pilot L.A. Metro Ambassador program added visible unarmed staff to assist riders and watch for issues on the network and at stations.

Goals for FY24 include expanding the network to reach more parts of Los Angeles and getting ridership back to pre-pandemic levels, said Bass. L.A. Metro consistently gained ridership in FY23 compared to FY22; in June 2023, average weekday ridership was 76% of pre-pandemic levels measured in June 2019. Weekend ridership hit 91% of pre-pandemic levels.

"Metro is truly an essential service. But for Los Angeles to thrive — and for Los Angeles to survive in the future —  Metro cannot be mostly a system of last resort. It must be a system of choice," Bass said. "As we prepare to host the World Cup as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will work toward that reality by building ridership and making our system safer and more accessible for all."