Metro Sees Ridership Increase To Over 26 Million In August

LOS ANGELES, CA — Summer events across the Los Angeles region spurred public transportation, with Metro Wednesday announcing ridership for the month of August totaled over 26.5 million boardings, an increase of more than 5% compared to the same period last year.

There were similar increases in ridership on weekdays and Saturdays at 5.05% and 5.85%, respectively, with a slightly larger increase on Sundays at 6.15%, according to Metro. Overall, August ridership averaged 608,366 boardings on Sundays and 702,526 on Saturday. The average weekday boardings were 952,906.

Metro attributed the increase to several events that occurred in August, such as KCON in downtown LA, Rams and Chargers preseason games at SoFi Stadium, the Nisei Week Parade in Little Tokyo, DayTrip in the Park at the LA State Historic Park, the Pomona Swap Meet and Classic Car Show at the LA Fairplex, and the Just Like Heaven Music Festival at the Rose Bowl.

Students returned to class for the new school year as well. There were 1,538,572 boardings using GoPass, a program that provides free transit to students in grades K through community college at participating schools.

Metro said rail ridership continued to grow in August, rising by 12.1% over the same month in 2025, to 6,458,238 boardings. Sunday saw the highest growth at 17.1%, with average boardings of 168,243. Metro said it was the first time heavy rail has seen Sundays beat Saturdays in boardings.

For example, the D Line saw a 71.62% increase in ridership on Sundays and averaged 16,417 boardings.

Other year-over-year rail ridership highlights include the following:

• A Line ridership increased 14.3% to 2,106,929 boardings, and Saturdays grew nearly 17% to 59,315 average ridership;
• B Line ridership increased by 6% in August to 1,420,635 boardings, with the biggest growth on Sundays, which increased by 32.4% to an average ridership of 46,815 boardings;
• D Line boardings rose by nearly 63% to 650,857;
• E Line ridership totaled 1,579,553 boardings, a 10% increase, with weekdays showing the strongest growth at 11.27% to 55,043 average ridership.

Buses experienced growth too, with ridership increasing by 3.3% year- over-year in August. There was a 3.37% increase on both weekdays and Saturdays. Weekday ridership averaged 729,858 boardings while Saturday ridership averaged 515,923 boardings. The J Line, a bus rapid transit route, had a ridership increase of 4.4%.

Total bus ridership in August stood at 20,107,248 boardings.

City News Service