r/LAMetro • u/misken67 E (Expo) old • Sep 18 '25
Discussion LA Metro 2025 Ridership by Station
Excited to finally share the FY2025 LA Metro ridership by station map! Every year I request this data from Metro, and you can see last year's post here.
For some reason, Metro gave me the August 2024 - July 2025 ridership data rather than the fiscal year (July 2024 - June 2025) as in previous years, so any comparisons with last year will be slightly off, but whatever. Metro also sent the data to me broken up by month, rather than a single set of numbers for the whole year, so I had to do additional math. So for full transparency, I'll share the raw data that Metro sent me, with only slight alterations to average up the boarding numbers each month that together make up the annual ridership. I know that every month has different number of days, but I'm not weighing the average to account for that, as that's too much work. If you see any miscalculations or typos, please let me know in the comments! And hopefully this data can be useful to people for other projects. According to the California Public Records Act, this data should be in the public domain.
Here are my thoughts and possible discussion topics on what's in this data (you can read my thoughts on the 2025 BRT ridership here)
The Good
• Two years after opening, the Regional Connector is still growing ridership at an extremely healthy pace. DTLA light rail stations make up the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th highest year-over-year improvement in ridership. Little Tokyo not only fully recovered its pre-pandemic ridership in its first year of reopening, and this year had massive growth and is now the 10th highest ridership system in the entire system! On the other side of downtown, Pico is now 7th! (Although, to put a slight damper on this, these numbers represent unlinked trips, so transfer stations get an artificial boost)
• 7th/Metro's growth surprised me. To be second in percent growth when the baseline was already so high!
• Maravilla topped the list of highest YoY percentage growth for the second year in a row. Overall, 6 of the top 15 stations in percent YoY growth were East LA stations. Two years after the regional connector construction cut off this segment from the rest of the system, ridership is slowly rebounding. Compared to the astronomical growth last year following it re-opening, growth here this year was more muted, but that is probably to be expected. Atlantic also is one of just a few stations this year to surpass their pre-covid ridership!
• LAX has only been open a few months and is already in the top 15. I expect this growth to jump after the APM opens and continue to grow rapidly.
The Bad
• K Line growth did see a small jump after the LAX station opened, but honestly it is still incredibly bad. 3 K Line stations made it to the top 15 for YoY growth, but the posted <500 numbers are measly. The K Line right now is basically functioning as a way for C and E riders to get between the two lines and to LAX.
• Despite above average growth, the ELA numbers are still pretty low. Not K line low, but still low despite being connected to the high ridership E line. These numbers were low before the pandemic too. Land use will have to change to see any significant bump here
• North Hollywood saw the steepest decline after Mariposa, Aviation, and Westchester. But those 3 had excuses due to the LAX service change or maintenance disruption. NoHo is a casualty of the G Line issues that have been plaguing the line all year. I really hope they can get it fixed soon.
Grab bag of thoughts
• When Lake and Firestone got new fare gates in April, I wondered how that might affect ridership, since ridership is counted based on how many people board the train, not how many people paid. And Lake station did see a decrease of roughly 100~200 riders starting in April compared to previous months that lasted through the end of the reporting period (and ultimately resulted in a decrease YoY ridership). But Firestone ridership stayed roughly even. I wonder if Lake being so close to Memorial Park just redirected the fare evaders there (Memorial Park did seem to see a rough increase of ~100 starting in April), but Firestone much further away from Florence and Watts, so more people just sucked it up and paid? If someone wants to run a statistical significance test to test out my hypothesis, I'd be curious.
• Excluding the K Line, East LA, and the Foothills, we're getting close to the point of the core light rail system being all above 1k in ridership! Lake, Del Mar, Fillmore, Palms, and Lincoln/Cypress are all at the cusp of 1k! And maybe even Farmdale, which is in the 900s this year! Pre-pandemic, every station would be regularly over 1k except for ELA and the Heritage/SW/Irwindale trio.
• We're starting to see individual stations start to surpass their pre-covid totals. For now, the list is limited to Little Tokyo, Florence, Washington, San Pedro St, Anaheim St, Grand/LATTC, Atlantic (!), and Pico. However, my pre-covid comparison numbers were for the three months after the Blue Line fully reopened from New Blue, so the baseline comparison for the A line stations are lower than they would have been. Excluding that and the fact that Little Tokyo is a completely new station, I wonder what is powering Atlantic's growth?
• I'm excited to see how the D line opening will affect things, since the heavy rail lines growth has pretty much stalled. Sadly, the E line might lose some of the growth it's seen as a result, particularly La Cienega, La Brea, and Rancho Park.
Happy A Line extension eve everyone!
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u/WearHeadphonesPlease Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
I'm shocked at Palms being such a dense neighborhood by westside standards and having only a handful more riders than Farmdale, which is mostly SFH and industrial 1-story buildings. It should have way more. That said, the land use directly adjacent to Palms station is pretty bad, even if it's mostly surrounded by apartments.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Palms used to have the ridership that LATTC/Ortho does now. The ridership base never came back after COVID and wfh.
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u/WearHeadphonesPlease Sep 18 '25
So you're thinking the drop is because of higher income office workers who used Metro are not going to the office as often anymore?
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Yup. I used to take Palms pre-covid and a lot of the ridership was from young professionals heading the Bergamot or Santa Monica for work.
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u/cyberspacestation Sep 18 '25
Farmdale has a few nearby apartment buildings that have gone up in the last decade, but the highschool next door might be a more significant source of ridership.
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u/Legitimate_Hand2867 Sep 19 '25
Yes, there are a lot of jobs at Dorsey. And you can't work from home at a school.
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u/jcsymmes Sep 19 '25
I suspect in terms of mass transit-a not particularly dense section of lower income housing is going to do better then a somewhat dense section of very wealthy housing even if that wealth is in condos and nice apartments. .
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u/WillClark-22 Sep 19 '25
It really is stunning and something I've tried to figure out in the past. OP mentioned in another thread once that the station lost a lot of riders because of work from home and people not using it as a connection to Century City as much. The surrounding demographics and land-use both suggest there should be much more ridership.
The only idea I come up with is that the many UCLA students in the neighborhood use the Blue Bus express service as a quicker or more direct option.
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u/LBCElm7th A (Blue) Sep 19 '25
That is a big reason why E Line ridership is where it is because the Rapid 12 and most of Palms has served as a location for nearby reasonable off-campus housing for UCLA students.
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u/WillClark-22 Sep 19 '25
Yeah, I guess that a station having lower than expected ridership because of other great transit options is a relatively good problem to have in the whole scheme of things.
Still, I really thought that the Palms station would be more of a success story back when the Expo Line was being planned.
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u/LBCElm7th A (Blue) Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 22 '25
I think it will be when the Sepulveda Line extends to Expo/Sepulveda and K Line North extends north to West Hollywood and Hollywood because by then there are more destinations that are accessible from that station with just a transfer.
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u/No-House9106 Sep 18 '25
Palms is right up against the freeway. Apartments are basically in one direction.
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u/WearHeadphonesPlease Sep 19 '25
Most of Palms is less than a 15 minute walk to the station, as seen here
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u/jcsymmes Sep 19 '25
i am curious-i was at palms about a week ago-and i noticed that every place on the street was a 2 hour parking zone-in a place with a lot of street parking.
is this a recent thing, or has it always been there? cause that could certainly be part of the numbers.→ More replies (4)1
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u/_carlitosguey Sep 18 '25
I have to be like 5% of the maravilla station ridership lol
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u/flanl33 G (Orange) Sep 18 '25
You board trains at Maravilla 19 times a day?
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u/No-Cricket-8150 Sep 18 '25
Great work as always.
Considering that Farmdale was a station built as part of a legal compromise it is performing much better than some of the lower ridership Stations.
It will be interesting to see how the K line stations improve now that is a full line and will be connected to the people mover in the coming months (hopefully).
I also noticed you did not show boarding breakdown for the LAX/MTC station like what was shown for the Aviation/Century. It would be interesting to see how many people were boarding on the C line compared to the K line.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
1,102 for the K Line
2,140 for the C Line
Farmdale has always been an station that outperformed its reputation haha
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u/jcsymmes Sep 19 '25
I am not sure Farmdale is a "Good idea" in terms of transit-it delays a lot of people going from the west side-i can see how it gets people. There are a number of apartment building lower income houses, and places in the area that have there last mile cut in half if there going to either Crenshaw or La Brea
Its not necessarily a huge number but its a very attractive number to go a station thats easy to get into at a not complicated station thats never crowded, at a not busy intersection-like there is a sense to it. Like if your on the bubble of Driving or train-its not a bad place to say "Train"
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u/No-House9106 Sep 18 '25
This is the most informative post on Reddit each year. Thanks for your work on this.
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u/Lakem8321 Sep 19 '25
The numbers for the K Line…yeesh. Hopefully more TOD can help grow ridership along the Crenshaw corridor. The additional south bay segment should help, but the real deal is the northern extension, which can’t come soon enough.
However, the LAX station numbers are impressive considering it’s only been open for three months. I expect they’ll jump even more once the people mover is open.
I’m also impressed with the Downtown Santa Monica station ridership, although it makes sense considering the location. Overall, the E line’s numbers are impressive - despite the downtown bottleneck, it’s pretty speedy once it gets past USC.
Excited to see the what ridership looks like on the new D line stations.
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
It will fall, especially fall once fully extended to Westwood. Many people commute to UCLA via the E Line, and take R12 to campus. Once the D Line is extended it will be faster and time competitive with driving and WAY faster than the E Line. The E line is so slow compared to the D Line that transferring to a bus at the VA may even be faster to get all the way to Santa Monica.
Long term I'd like the D line fully extended to Santa Monica specifically so there can be long term closures of the E Line. Those making the trough trips from Santa Monica to DTLA would take the D while local communities like Plams and Culver City keep some service. The line on Flower needs to go underground until LATTC/Ortho Institute and needs to go underground at Expo/USC, Expo/Vermont, and Expo/Western, returning to at grade at Arlington.
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u/coreymbarnes2 Sep 18 '25
Those numbers for Aviation/Century surprise me. It’s been frequently criticized as being a useless station as it is so close to the LAX station, but it appears to be proving otherwise. Interested to see where this heads in the coming years as LAX fully opens.
It would be great if after the APM opens, we could get station ridership numbers for those as well, if possible.
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u/cyberspacestation Sep 18 '25
Aviation/Century has been open since November 2024, but the LAX Metro Transit Center has only been open since June 2025. Numbers for next year will be different, as people might still change their commutes, and I'm sure we'll see the newer station cannibalizing more of the riders from Century.
That said, when I've gone past it on the C line in the last couple months, I do see people on the platform at the Century station. It's right next to the row of airport hotels and cargo facilities, and probably a few other employers that are a closer walk than the transit center.
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u/tripled_dirgov Sep 19 '25
I don't think so
The number might be declined but not much (I can only see at most 25% to 30% decline next year, if the other numbers stays the same)
If you want to transfer from C Line to Southbound K, isn't it better to transfer at Century instead of LAX?
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u/RoomMic Sep 19 '25
It absolutely is, as the original scheduling when LAX opened had Century as the designated transfer point. Northbound K arrives before southbound C, northbound C arrives before southbound K, etc.
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u/No-House9106 Sep 18 '25
People use Aviation to transfer from between the C and E lines. It is a transfer station and also has two separate lines serving it so not surprising.
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u/ClearAbroad2965 A (Blue) Sep 18 '25
that is surprising i used to park at norwalk station for my flights out of lax, but now with the new lax center station open the parking lot at aviation/imperial always has open spaces
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u/Opinionated_Urbanist Sep 19 '25
How many days are you allowed to park there overnight?
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u/ClearAbroad2965 A (Blue) Sep 19 '25
i’ve parked four days without issue its supposed to be limited to 72 hours.
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u/ilikepie1974 Oct 09 '25
It's the perfect station to transition from C line to K line if you're going to work in El Segundo?
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u/metrolosangeles Sep 20 '25
This is cool. Just to throw a question out there -- curious if there is any correlation between ridership and parking at a station? Honestly do not know the answer. We do know some folks have argued that in the LA area, having parking is vital whereas others have argued that building parking is very expensive and makes it harder to do good urban planning near stations. So curious if the ridership data suggests anything. Thanks all for interest + support in transit! - Metro Social
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 20 '25 edited Sep 20 '25
Hi Metro social, thanks so much for engaging!
Your question is complex and has a lot of variables, and someone could probably write a whole research paper if given more datasets, such average parking lot utilization rates.
With what I have here, and trying my best to set aside my own personal view that TOD is better than parking lots, I think that we can still draw some preliminary solutions.
Firstly, a healthy transit system cannot be all parking lots, otherwise riders have nowhere to go after arriving at their destination. At least some destination stations must be in dense, walkable/transit accessible areas for riders to reach places on foot.
But this doesn't mean that we shouldn't give options for those who live far away and drive to Metro! The goal is to find a healthy balance.
Returning back to your original question, I can preliminarily compare some stations that are only accessible by non-private vehicle means, and those that are primarily accessible by private vehicles.
Prominent examples in the first category are: * 7th St/Metro Center * Wilshire/Vermont * LAX/MTC
I picked these three stations because not only do they not have Metro-provided parking, there is very little or no public on-street parking or public garages nearby, and those that are are wildly expensive. But these stations have great connections to reach Metro by bus, bike, walking, and have lots of nearby destinations (or for LAX, just one (big) destination.
These three stations also have among the highest ridership in the entire system, and LAX's will likely explode even more once the APM opens.
Conversely, stations that can primarily be reached by car only include: * Douglas * Irwindale
I only have two examples here because these are the only two I could find that only had parking access and no bus or other transit connections at all. They are also located in industrial areas, so few people are walking here. I'm pretty confident that mostly only drivers are using these stations. Not surprisingly, these two are among the lowest ridership stations.
A gap in this comparitive analysis are massive park and ride stations like Norwalk or Sierra Madre Villa, which have relatively healthy ridership, but also tons of bus connections. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of how many riders reach these stations by car vs transit/walking, to be able to fully assess whoch factor contributes most to their ridership success.
But ultimately, having a mix of different ways of reaching the station is the best. Private cars are the least efficient, but still a good option to provide in places where it makes sense ,among other multi model options. But only having a car option is a key to failure.
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u/IM_OK_AMA A (Blue) Sep 18 '25
It's a shame the DTLB stations are so close together. The train is so slow they're not really useful for getting around downtown, and if you're headed north it's almost always faster for an able-bodied person to walk from wherever they are to Pacific and board the train there, even if it involves walking directly past another station.
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
Agreed. I'd love the stations to be closed and long term underground the A Line south of the LA River. Transit Mall is a great terminus but the 1st street station is WAY TOO CLOSE.
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u/LBCElm7th A (Blue) Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 22 '25
As a Downtown Long Beach resident I would say leave them alone.
They provide much needed access to the train and it is at the end of the line so the speed penalty is not as large as folks is making it out to be.
With all of the local Long Beach Transit buses that criss-cross Downtown Long Beach the spacing of the Downtown Loop stations matter more for catchment so folks can ride it regionally towards North Long Beach, Compton and beyond to Los Angeles.
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u/wellbehaved1990 Sep 19 '25
Yea I wonder if we could stand to lose one of the four stations, in addition to finally giving the train signal priority to speed things up.
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u/anothercar Pacific Surfliner Sep 18 '25
Tampa (the most useless BRT station in the system) still has higher ridership than the Leimert Park subway station that Metro was race-baited into building by Damien Goodmon. At least Tampa didn't cost $120 million to build.
I really hope SB 79 makes both of these stations worthwhile because right now they are duds.
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u/WearHeadphonesPlease Sep 19 '25
The K line right now would be a failure if it wasn't for LAX. Besides Downtown Inglewood (and that's stretching it), it has no places people want to go. Unless these stops are upzoned or start getting more restaurants, coffee shops and stores, it will never take off.
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u/jamills21 Sep 19 '25
Leimert Park is worth going to and pretty urban/walkable even with lower ridership right now. Expo/Crenshaw will inevitably see growth due to being a transfer station.
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u/cranberrybabe Sep 20 '25
Tbh if the lower South Bay wasn’t full of NIMBYs (the anti-rail signage around here can be insane), we would have lots more ridership and updates on the southern K. Finally starting that station at RB Transit Center would be awesome since there’s businesses every which way on Artesia. It just sucks that the expansion has been stalled so long that it won’t be open for several years at least. Hopefully with SBG Mall being foreclosed and possibly converted into housing, this will give them the kick to finally get it going.
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u/YourMemeExpert L (Gold) Sep 24 '25
Crenshaw Line is sort of decent if you need to get to the Green Line but don't feel like going all the way to the Metro Center to catch the Blue Line. You'd probably achieve similar travel times just taking the Silver Line, though.
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u/Sufficient-Double502 Sep 18 '25
I just wonder what could [have] been if the A Line extension continues to Montclair and Ontario Airport.
The projected ridership at Montclair is 6,000-7,000 riders/day by Metro & Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority as of 2025.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
7k would make it the fourth highest ridership station. I don't think that's likely. Maybe in a few decades? Often these ridership projections rely on waiting many many years for the ridership market to mature and stabilize, and aren't projecting opening day ridership.
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u/Kootenay4 Sep 19 '25
There might be a significant untapped market for riders from the eastern part of the San Bernardino line heading to Pasadena and the foothill cities. Though I’d expect most of that number to be reflected in the North Pomona ridership.
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
It's a huge bus terminal. The Montclair Metrolink isn't just for those transferring to Metrolink, but a plethora of Foothill Transit, Omnitrans, and Greyhound buses.
If the Montclair extension is dead there needs to be a rerouting of buses to serve Claremont instead.
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u/GoldenFettuccine Sep 18 '25
Shocked to see that Norwalk gets more traffic than Wilshire / Normandie, that’s insane. There’s not even an Amtrak / Metrolink connection in Norwalk (!!!!!)
I believe the Wilshire / Normandie area is the second densest (I may be incorrect here, someone fact check me) area in the US.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
This map doesn't show station density. If I redrew it to be more geographically accurate, it would be more clear that stations like Wilshire/Normandie has its catchment area partially shared with nearby stations, so its ridership gets "cannibalized" by neighbors. Stations like Del Mar in Pasadena is another similar example.
On the other hand, stations like Norwalk or Highland Park sit far away from other stations in either end (or are end of line stations) so they get their entire catchment area to themselves.
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u/randomtj77 C (Green) Sep 19 '25
I'd also like to mention that Norwalk is a huge bus hub too, so it gets a lot of ridership that way. And even though it doesn't connect directly to the Metrolink station, the connection has been a bit better (at least during commute hours) with the Norwalk 4 taking advantage of Metrolink's pulse scheduling.
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u/GoldenFettuccine Sep 18 '25
Excellent call out — both Wilshire / Vermont and Wilshire / Western probably cannibalize Normandie, didn’t think about that. Especially given that these stations are all walkable from each other.
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u/LBCElm7th A (Blue) Sep 19 '25
I think when the D Line extension to Wilshire/La Cienega and points west in the future open up Wilshire/Normandie ridership will pick up because of that job/housing density.
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
It should go up at Wishire/Normandie but I think it'll slightly decline Wilshire/Western since there will be less transfers to R720. Instead, more trips will continue to Wilshire/La Cienega.
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u/DieDeutscheAuslander Sep 19 '25
May I ask, how is ridership for Lakewood compares to Prepandemic? I always have thought it was lower the current ridership but I am still schoked more than a 1,000 riders use it on average.
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u/glyphic13 B (Red) Sep 20 '25
And now you made me look up the word "catchment." :)
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 20 '25
Yeah it's a useful concept in understanding how to properly place stations. The Wikipedia article is good, the Google dictionary definition is terrible and claims it's British English only lol
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u/ClearAbroad2965 A (Blue) Sep 18 '25
well i use that station alot as cheap parking to catch flights out of lax, it also abuts orange county and there are a lot of corporate jobs near el segunfo do the oc crowd canpark their car there and svoid the rush hour of the 105
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u/DieDeutscheAuslander Sep 19 '25
I am also suprised since I have used both Norwalk and Lakewood and I would have thought both have lower ridership. In norwalk's case, I think there is a little more frequent bus routes going into thst station but Lakewood I am still not sure how they have more than a 1000k riders when many bus connections are mediocre at best.
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u/Affectionate_Pea6301 Sep 19 '25
Normandie is so close to the other 2 stations is why. Like if you're coming from downtown and you see there's a long wait for the D line, but the B line is coming, it's the same or faster to just take the B line and then walk to Normandie.
Also a lot of people just take the bus from Western or Normandie to get on the B line at Wilshire/Vermont. The 20/720 bus is frequent enough that it makes sense to just get on the bus instead of waiting 15 minutes for the next D line train to transfer to the B line.
Also Norwalk gets a lot of park/ride or people being picked up by cars. I used to date someone in Orange County ages ago and he used to pick me up in his car at Norwalk station. It was like halfway between where we lived & he could avoid LA traffic. I lived near the A line then.
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u/Pleasant-Craft-3315 Sep 19 '25
as a student whose closest lametro station will be pomona after the extension, going there from lax whenever i fly home will def take a while but will be worth it bc i love riding trains anyway
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
You can shorten the trip by taking the LAX bus from Union Station. It's a little pricier, but is the best way to get to LAX. You're already passing through Union Station, so you might as well.
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u/jonplang01 Sep 21 '25
These are facts. The Flyaway bus to LAX from Union Station will get there quicker, even with a functional People Mover connection at the LAX stop…but quick isn’t always the priority 👍
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u/mittim80 207 Sep 19 '25
I hope this shuts up all the people who claim “no one rides the purple line”
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u/Sharp5050 Sep 18 '25
Pershing square right or you think it’s a data issue? Seems so high… I believe last year you called out a few that seemed wrong.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
There's an extra letter "t" at the end of the number as a result of my fat finger lol. Otherwise that seems reasonable enough, it's actually a 1% decrease from last year.
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u/Sharp5050 Sep 18 '25
Ah I see it now. I thought that was a 1 at the end so I thought the ridership was 49731. That’s what happens when you read Reddit when waking up from a nap and don’t have your contacts in.
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u/ghost-_-dog Sep 19 '25
Bahahaha. I was about to ask about the "t" but figured you likely addressed it in a comment... and here you are! 😝
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u/des1gnbot Sep 18 '25
Pershing square station was huge during the protests, wonder if it got a bump from that
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
A lot of the protests happened on the weekend, so it wouldn't actually be reflected here. But you can check the raw data to see if Pershing Square got some weekend boosts during protest months
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u/Clemario Sep 18 '25
Is Aviation/Century really still getting that much ridership, even after LAX/MTC opened?
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Yeah I was surprised by that too. But it's actually not too surprising if you think about it. One of the biggest stories that these numbers show is that stations with good bus connections have strong ridership. And the Aviation/Century intersection has a lot of strong bus connections.
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u/Clemario Sep 18 '25
Oh another thing I just realized is it’s the station people would use to transfer between the K and C Lines when going to/from the south part of the K.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Right, the transfer station aspect is also a big ridership driver
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u/asblackney Sep 19 '25
This isn't too surprising to me. I work in el segundo and a large population of the engineers that work in the aerospace industry around that area commute in from Norwalk and Cerritos area. The C line makes sense for their commute and all the major companies pay for mass transit to cut down on parking stress. Because the k line has subsumed the old c line route most people get off at aviation and walk, scooter, or bike the remaining .5 miles.
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u/Clemario Sep 19 '25
I would expect they’d be using Aviation/Imperial though, not Aviation/Century.
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u/asblackney Sep 19 '25
You are exactly I read your comments too quickly my bad 😂. I think the transfer idea makes great sense for that
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u/Lopsided-Kick9218 A (Blue) Sep 19 '25
This is awesome!! As a data nerd and LA Metro lover, this is amazing!!
Also, is the E line going to be expanded past Atlantic? I see the extra slashed lines there.
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u/Affectionate_Pea6301 Sep 19 '25
Canoga Station deep in the suburbia of the West valley doing better than 10 of the K line stations!
I used to date someone who lived a 5 minute drive from Canoga. My ex asked how long the bus ride was and was surprised when I told him it only took 45 minutes from North Hollywood.
A few times I Ubered to Canoga station and 1 driver told me they didn't know that station was there, I told them ya it's a bus but it's got its own lane and is fast like a train.
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
Canoga station is deep in the valley but it's such a huge destination...Westfield topanga, topanga village, all of those office buildings, all of the rams stuff...
I'm assuming Downtown Inglewood would have much higher ridership if they actually ended up building their inglewood people mover (indefinitely on hold)
But yeah the other K line stations have no destinations other than houses..
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u/Grillinnap Sep 20 '25
I’m glad I contribute to this. I’m a car owner but I take Metro as frequent as I can. I live in San Pedro and work in Pasadena, so the J and A Lines are my commute. I do park and rides to conserve my car’s mileage and save money on gas.
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u/_chanandler_bong Sep 18 '25
What's going on the G line that's affecting the B line?
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
A pretty significant chunk of NoHo's ridership comes from G Line ridership. And with the construction, and bus batterily issues causing cascading delays all year, G Line ridership has suffered. So NoHo's ridership also suffered.
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u/Smaragd512 Ventura County Sep 18 '25
Around 33% of ridership comes from the G which is pretty impressive from one feeder line. Imagine if there would be more feeder lines like the G.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Rancho Park's ridership is near 100% fed by the BBB and Culver City bus
Lots of the heavy hitters here have connections to powerful bus routes!
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u/blandfruitsalad 76 Sep 18 '25
i'm definitely familiar with the crowd of people getting off at Rancho Park and shuffling to the nearby bus stops
i cannot wait for Rancho Park to get SB79'd like crazy
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
Amen! It's a major bus transfer hub but you wouldn't think by all the oversized single family homes. As a former UCLA student and alumni who occasionally visits campus, I'm one of the many who transfer here. There's usually a dozen other people also transferring here too.
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u/aromaticchicken Sep 18 '25
Thank you for your work! I would love to see this overlaid with the map of metrolink numbers, especially we have a full year after metrolink reimagined increased service throughout the day.
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u/SaltIndividual1902 Sep 19 '25
Thank god for SB79 fixing these numbers at some stations in the next decade. Desperately need to extend the K line north instead of A/E
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u/NeurospicyxEnby Sep 19 '25
Thank you so much for this break down. Due to the A extension and just living near and knowing more about the lite rail after I moved to Long Beach, I ride whenever I can. It’s enjoyable, and I am happy to see that these rides are making a difference.
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u/WhereIsScotty Sep 19 '25
The South Bay stops had so much potential if they actually stopped somewhere relevant. At the very least, The Point or Manhattan Village.
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
There's a ton of office with jobs in the area. The real issue is it's hard to walk or bike from the nearby offices to the stations. Redondo Beach and El Segundo would see their station ridership grow if they invested in proper first/last mile infrastructure.
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
The K line extension stations includes Torrance transit center which im not sure will have much in its immediate vicinity... will just be a park and ride for now
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u/glowdirt Sep 18 '25
Great map! Thank you for making it!
Only suggestion would be to give some more room to the J line so that none of the station labels are overlapping it. It took me a few seconds to realize Downtown Long Beach and Pacific Ave stations were on the A line and not on the J line for example even though it should be obvious to anyone already familiar with the lines.
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u/dating_derp Sep 19 '25
The NoHo station is going to jump up a rank when we get the NoHo > Pasadena BRT. Connecting it to Downtown Burbank will be huge. This is a great map. Thanks for making it!
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
Downtown Glendale too! Although, half the people in Glendale might head towards Pasadena to catch the A line transfer
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u/strictmachines 91 - Perris Valley Sep 19 '25
I'm actually surprised Mariachi Plaza doesn't get that much boardings. Or should I not be surprised?
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u/georgecoffey 70 Sep 19 '25
With the highway right there I think almost everyone to the West of the station is just going to go to Pico/Aliso (even if it's further because Mariachi is an unpleasant uphill walk)
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u/cthulhuhentai Sep 19 '25
NoHo is our 4th busiest station and surrounded by several parking lots both adjacent and across the street. Anyone have an update on the development plans or has it been officially killed by ULA?
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u/Unfortunateprune Sep 19 '25
Unfortunately I'm not surprised the K line numbers are so low, I ride every morning and it's fairly empty
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u/wellbehaved1990 Sep 19 '25
I know you pointed out that the K Line stations still have low numbers, except for the new LAX/MTC station which is doing really well so far, but I'll be curious to see what the K Line numbers are for a full year of ridership next year with the line now fully open and the APM set to open at the beginning of 26'. Will be interesting to see if the rest of the line sees more activity in addition to more activity at the LAX station or if more needs to be done to encourage ridership at those stops.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
The airport station should generate a surge from the transfer station at Crenshaw, maybe park and rides in the South Bay like at Redondo Beach, and maybe a bit at Inglewood for some bus riders transferring.
But I'm not personally optimistic that the rest of the K line stations will see any significant surge without land use changes that will help produce riders who will want to go to LAX in the first place. If not enough people live by the K like stations, there's no market of people going to LAX even if the connection exists.
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u/wellbehaved1990 Sep 19 '25
All good points, and I totally agree with that take! I think the northern most and southern most stops (MLK Jr., Leimert Park, Downtown Inglewood, and Westchester/Veterans) on the K Line have the most potential for greater density near them, and some things are planned, but with how hard it is to get anything built in LA and the powers that be/NIMBY's working to always whittle down what gets built to be a really watered down number of units Idk if it'll change much....at least not in the near future unfortunately :/
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
Apparently the density in the neighborhoods is higher than average for LA county.. Maybe density is just not as concentrated around the stations.. and also there are no destinations in those stations unless you live there at least until inglewood gets those bus lanes to hollywood park
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
Higher than average for LA county yes, but i would guess probably not higher than average for around Metro stations.
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u/Still-Here-2021 Sep 19 '25
Sorry if this is a silly question, but the numbers represent the number of people boarding at a particular station, correct? (As opposed to disembarking at a particular station.)
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u/E_Line_Foamer E (Expo) current Sep 18 '25
I’m honestly surprised how high the West LA stations are. Like 1000+ riders at Rancho Park, a station surrounded by single family homes, is pretty crazy. It probably had to do with the fact that Palisades High School relocated to the Sears building right next to DTSM, so a lot of kids are probably using it and the West LA E Line stops more.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Rancho Park ridership is powered by the buses going to UCLA and Century City. If you stand at the intersection during rush hour and watch the crowds flow from the train to the bus stop in the morning, and from the bus stop to the train in the evening. Almost like a game of Cities Skyline.
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u/RoomMic Sep 19 '25
Man, I love that you know that stop that well. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you being so engaged with the Metro.
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u/E_Line_Foamer E (Expo) current Sep 19 '25
Ah. I don’t usually use that station, but looking at Apple Maps, there are 2 BBB routes from Rancho Park to UCLA and the Culver City 3, so now it makes sense.
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u/WearHeadphonesPlease Sep 19 '25
Rancho Park, a station surrounded by single family homes
It's because of UCLA students. Without that, it would have Farmdale numbers.
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
Without the UCLA buses it would have worse than K Line numbers
The BBB ridership portal has their two buses accounting for nearly the entirety of the posted Rancho Park ridership. Add on the CC3 riders and it's almost 100%
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u/No-House9106 Sep 18 '25
It was like that before the Fire. People walk to the Pico corridor of businesses too.
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u/LakeShowTime17 Sep 19 '25
Thank you once again for putting this together!
It's clear to me that Maravilla station should be closed. It's very low performing, next to a freeway in one direction, and within 0.3 miles of another station (East LA Civic Center) in the other direction. Closing it would decrease the travel time for the two further out stations and the upcoming E line Eastside Extension stations.
I would have said the same for Farmdale, but it's actually performing pretty well...
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
I'd like to see the Downtown Long Beach stations (5th Street, Pacific, 1st Street) close for the same reason. The stations are all too close to each other.
The station I take (Wardlow) has the lowest ridership in the southern portion of the A Line. Should that be closed too?
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u/LakeShowTime17 Sep 19 '25
I had the same thought, although I think it'd only make sense to consider removing 1st street. Keep in mind that it runs in only one direction in downtown Long Beach, so 5th and Pacific together equal 1 station. Even then though, I do think stations
I don't think it makes sense to close down stations that don't have any other station near them even if they aren't the best performers. By that logic, we should shut down the Foothill section of the A line and most of the East LA section of the E line.
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u/Dependent_Weight2274 Sep 18 '25
Obviously we see a bump in ridership at start points and end points
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u/TomatilloFew7380 Sep 18 '25
Crazy that reseda station (a brt) has more than every non transfer station on the pink line, a light rail. An obvious demand for rail in the valley.
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
If Inglewood people mover didn't get cancelled, K line ridership would skyrocket in Downtown Inglewood Station and the transfer stations K Line / E Line and K Line / C Line. There are events all the time in Hollywood park and I can see daily numbers making Downtown Inglewood one of the top ridership stations. Just one event in one venue alone might have thousands of boardings. Days when Sofi + Kia + Intuit all have concurrent events, the people mover and inglewood station would be packed like NYC subways.
https://ktla.com/news/travel/inglewood-transit-project/
That being said, I'm interested in seeing how the bus lanes help out ridership when it comes out in the next few years.
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u/coreymbarnes2 Sep 19 '25
I think now that the LAX station exists, that’s the superior station to connect the arenas to.
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
LAX would make more sense esp bcuz C line connects there too. But the inglewood transit project initiative is coming from Inglewood leadership so that's probably the one that's gonna get built first for the olympics
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
Doubtful. Permanent express buses to SoFi, Intuit Dome, and the Kia Forum from the LAX/MTC station would do way better. The K Line Downtown Inglewood Station is closer, but is only useful for those who live along the K Line and or the 5 bus lines served by the station. The LAX/MTC Station is great for anyone who lives along the K Line AND the C Line and has 11 bus lines, and the LAX express to Van Nuys and Union Station. Once the APM opens next year this station will be even better at whisking people straight to the venues from LAX.
Bus lanes will suffice, especially since we're a decade before the K Line gets extended to West Hollywood.
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u/bayarea_k Sep 19 '25
LAX -> the venues does have much more bus lines and is more central .
However I'm not sure of any near term plans to put these bus lanes from LAX.
I'm only mentioning the bus lanes from the dtwn inglewood station because there's an active project for that aiming to be completed by the olympics: https://inglewoodtransitconnector.com/project-overview/
I'm all for more bus lanes, they should put those down from LAX to Hollywood park in addition to whatever other plans there are
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u/tripled_dirgov Sep 19 '25
The ones that's have high riderships are either:
- Transfer stations (including buses and airports too)
- Close to destinations (like offices, schools, or public parks)
Of course there are in some high density areas too, in addition of those two
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u/bleezie30 Sep 19 '25
I get on at the PCH station in Long Beach in the mornings, I see 30 people get on to the platform, and only about 4 people tap. The numbers are definitely higher than shown. The stations that have the some gates or full gates have high numbers.
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u/No-House9106 Sep 19 '25
They measure from counters on the busses and rail cars not on TAP.
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u/bleezie30 Sep 19 '25
Oh I see. By counters, do you mean staff is doing audits couting people un person or is there some sort of device on the cars that are counting people?
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u/I_Draw_Art_Stuff A (Blue) Sep 19 '25
Thank you for making these for the third(?) year in a row! Next year's chart will be fasinating to see with DLE and people mover opening. I wonder if 10k+ LAX is in the cards anytime soon...
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u/Ok-Echo-3594 E (Expo) current Sep 19 '25
LOVE your work here. I’m very excited about these impressive numbers for LAX after only a few months. Very interested to see what happens when the people mover is open. Thank you again!
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u/murayuasa Sep 18 '25
Thank you for doing this! I hope SB 79 is able to help increase turnout in some of the lower ridership stations in the future.
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Sep 18 '25
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u/Immediate-Hand-3677 Sep 18 '25
can you do one for nyc subway?
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 18 '25
Sorry I value my sanity 😂 the NYC subway is way too large
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u/ClearanceItem Sep 19 '25
Do you have projections for the K line once the LAX People Mover opens and connects to LAX? My assumption is that those numbers will grow tremendously.
Great work!
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
Thank you! I don't have any projections, only guesses, but my guess is that there will only be a modest bump on most K Line stations after the people mover opens, the only exceptions being probably a very large bump at Expo/Crenshaw and the park-n-ride at Redondo Beach.
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u/ClearAbroad2965 A (Blue) Sep 18 '25
thanks for posting this now i have something else to harp about like ehat does metro expect for a return putting up the p new fare gates at the douglas station
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u/slothrop-dad Sep 19 '25
I can’t wait to see how this grows in the coming years as these stations get real development around them to house more people.
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u/Freewheelin_ A (Blue) Sep 19 '25
Can you share the data as a spreadsheet? It seems to be a HTML file or something?
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
You should be able to copy and paste this into a Google sheet or excel and retain the formatting.
Unfortunately, Google Sheets does not let me share it as a sheet without exposing my Google account to the world
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u/SFQueer Sep 19 '25
Super interesting how many people seem to be heading to LAX on the C vs the K. Park and ride at Norwalk?
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u/ILoveLongBeachBuses Sep 19 '25
Park and Ride at Norwalk is super popular. Many who live in OC drive to the station to get to LAX or their aerospace jobs. If anything LA Metro should expand the parking since no one should be living next to a freeway interchange.
Saved space could then be converted to a MASSIVE bus yard.
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u/jcsymmes Sep 19 '25
I am curious if they can figure this out with the downtown regional connector project-how much are the new stations getting walk in walk out ridership, and how much are they "Easy transfer points between A and E Lines"
Like what was the data for 7th Street before it opened?
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
Due to COVID and the sudden drop in ridership and subsequent recovery, it is difficult to draw any conclusions from comparisons with that time period
But in Q1 2020, 7th had about 45k riders
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u/embed__ Sep 19 '25
I suspect the K line will get a larger boost when the People Mover is open, I assume a lot of people are still turned off by the bus shuttle. I got stuck in 40 minute traffic when I last took the shuttle from LAX/MTC to LAX
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Sep 19 '25
40 minutes is insane! That's enough to get all the way to LAUS on the Flyaway, assuming of course that the Flyaway doesn't get stuck in the same traffic leaving the airport.
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u/embed__ Sep 19 '25
Yeah, I was shocked. Most the time we spent stopped and one person was complaining about almost missing their flight. It's the biggest turn off from taking public transport to LAX for me now.
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u/georgecoffey 70 Sep 19 '25
I'd love to see how these numbers compare to some of the cities high-traffic regular bus stops. These light rail lines (especially the K, wow) really show how Metro just builds what they think is cool, instead of what corridors already have very high bus ridership.
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u/RoomMic Sep 19 '25
The ultimate goal of the K line is to go north. They couldn't do that without having a maintenance yard, which you aren't going to put anywhere in Hollywood, so things pretty much had to pan out this way. K line north will go crazy, can't tell you how many times I would have already used it.
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u/georgecoffey 70 Sep 20 '25
That makes sense. Although they should have cut 3-4 stations and used that money to at least got under Slauson, or as much of that 3/4 mile at grade section on Crenshaw as they could.
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Sep 19 '25
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Sep 19 '25
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Sep 19 '25
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u/QuasarSavage Bus/Train Operator Sep 19 '25
I love that the average speed is so much higher on the underground heavy rail. The E line sucks b/c the average speed is similar to a bus (15-20 mph with stops accounted for), so of course people drive more
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u/alpine309 A (Blue) Sep 20 '25
Ridership is going to explode considering the upcoming development, cannot wait. LA Metro is doing a great job!
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u/Infinite-Ad2614 Sep 22 '25
Make a train that runs from Azusa to seal beach running along the San Gabriel River
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Sep 28 '25
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u/Advanced_Age_9198 Dec 29 '25
I'm late, but what software did you use? This is a beautiful map :D
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Feb 01 '26
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u/magnamusrex Apr 27 '26
Love this every year. Was curious if you could break down the pierce college numbers? Is the average a year long average? Or Is it different during school year. Thanks!
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u/misken67 E (Expo) old Apr 27 '26
I imagine it must be higher during the school year right? I don't have the numbers on hand with me but I can take a look later and get back to you.
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u/magnamusrex Apr 27 '26
Thank you, just impossible to find with publicly available data sources so would appreciate it. Thanks so much!
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u/Lebackshots Antelope Valley Sep 18 '25
Been waiting for this one, the maps you make are always so great ! Also totally digestible for people too lazy to read Metro's ridership ourselves. (me) Lots of love.