LA Metro
In October, LA Metro again achieved ridership gains, averaging more than one million weekday riders and marking the 23rd consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth, the agency reported Nov. 20.
LA Metro’s combined rail and bus ridership in October reached 86% of its October 2019 pre-pandemic ridership level. The agency’s average weekday boardings reached 83.9% of October 2019 pre-pandemic levels and on the weekends, ridership attained 97.5% of its pre-pandemic level.
Rail boardings grew by nearly 8.6% in October 2024 over October 2023, and LA Metro’s rail ridership now stands at 85.1% of its October 2019 pre-pandemic level. Weekday rail boardings grew by 14.2% year-over year. Weekday rail ridership in October 2024 was 95.8% of its October 2019 pre-pandemic level while October 2024 weekend rail ridership exceeded October 2019 pre-pandemic level by 3.1%.
In October LA Metro’s light rail system saw the biggest ridership gains on the K Line with 23% year-over-year growth and the E Line with 18.5% year-over-year growth. Ridership on the A Line grew 13.3% year-over-year, while ridership on the C Line grew 7.1%.
According to the agency, leisure riders continue to drive overall ridership growth, especially on the weekends. In October weekend rail ridership exceeded its pre-pandemic level reaching 103.1%.
Additionally, LA Metro’s Low-Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program, which provides free rides and reduced fares to low-income customers saw a 28% year-over-year ridership increase in October as riders used the subsidized program. LIFE ridership in October 2024 saw 2,042,922 boardings compared to 1,592,478 in October 2023.
TriMet
TriMet announced Nov. 20 that it will be rolling out a more convenient way to purchase and reload Hop fare cards beginning in early December with the introduction of new touchscreen vending machines at five locations.
The new machines, TriMet says, will allow riders to buy and reload plastic Hop cards at MAX stations and transit centers rather than the single-day-use Hop tickets dispensed by ticket vending machines today.
With the introduction of the transit fare card machines, riders will have a more convenient way to buy a Hop card or reload their card using cash or a credit or debit card, the agency noted.
Following an initial pilot of the new Hop card machines, running through early 2025, TriMet says it plans to start replacing all ticket machines across the MAX system in February 2025 as the agency phases out its ticket vending machines to help improve reliability.
The first of the new machines will be installed at five locations: Willow Creek Transit Center, Beaverton Transit Center, Rose Quarter Transit Center, Gateway Transit Center and Portland International Airport. While installation of the machines will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 20, they will not be ready for riders to use until early December.
The machines will offer Adult, as well as Honored Citizen cards (people 65 and older or who receive Medicare cards) and Youth fare. All new cards purchased cost $3, but once customers have the card in hand, there are no additional service fees. Customers can reload at one of the machines or online at myhopcard.com. Card holders also have the option of setting up auto reload.
TriMet will have personnel on hand at the stations and transit centers during the initial launch to help guide riders through the process if they have questions.
To improve accessibility, the machines offer Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian and Simplified Chinese language options. For visually impaired riders, audio instructions are available, and the buttons and labels are marked in Braille and raised letters.
More information is available here.
