LACMTA
LACMTA reported releasing a $9.4-billion balanced budget proposal for FY26 (see above). Up 2% from FY25, it will be considered by the Board of Directors next month following a May 15 public hearing.
Among the budget highlights:
- Public Safety. LACMTA said that it continues to implement a layered approach to safety. The FY26 Public Safety Resource Deployment Proposed Budget of $392.5 million is up 1.9% from FY25 and includes the Metro Ambassadors; Community Intervention Specialists (CIS); Homeless Outreach; Crisis Intervention Teams; Metro Transit Security Officers; Transit Community Public Safety Department (TCPSD); Taller Fare Gates; Tap-to-Exit; CCTV Expansion; and Weapons Detection Systems Pilot Program .
- Cleaning. The FY26 proposed budget includes $316.1 million for comprehensive cleaning, reflecting a 13.1% increase over FY25. This includes 34 new custodial staffers; 84 new service attendants; Daily bus cleaning, with four terminals cleaned every day; daily division cleaning for rail with three end-of-line (EOL) cleaning shifts every day; new mid-line cleaning with trains cleaned while in service; rail custodial staff will be positioned at 17 station “hot spots”; facility graffiti control, power sweeping and trash removal; and $9.9 million allocated to support Station Experience program expansion.
- Increased Service. LACMTA reported that in FY26 it will launch several projects, including the A Line Extension to Pomona and Section 1 of the D Line Extension Project to Wilshire/Fairfax.
- Revenue Service Hours. LACMTA will increase systemwide bus, rail service and Metro Micro plan service by 2.2% over the previous fiscal year to 8.9 million Revenue Service Hours in FY26.
- Enhanced frequency. Efforts will continue to expand NextGen Bus Speed and Reliability initiatives, LACMTA said, including new bus priority lanes and transit signal priority. Rail improvements include year-round operation of enhanced service frequencies. According to the transit agency, these upgrades are designed to accommodate increased ridership from the D Line Extension and improve systemwide rail ridership. The agency will offer 8-minute peak weekday service frequency on the C and K Lines; 5-minute peak/10-minute off-peak frequency on the D Line; and 10-minute all day frequency on the B Line after Section 1 of the D Line Extension begins operations.
- Fare Programs. The FY26 budget funds GoPass, which provides free fares for K-12 and community college students in Los Angeles County, and has 503,884 participants as of March 2025; Low Income Fare Is Easy (LIFE), which has 435,391 total participants as of March 2025; Fare capping, which ensures that riders never pay more than $5 per day or $18 per week for using the bus and rail system; Mobility Wallet, which was launched in collaboration with LADOT to reduce transportation expenses for low-income families; and Wildfire Fare Program, whose eligibility requirements are being modified to make it easier for riders to access essential resources, recover and rebuild.
Further Reading: Fourth of a Series: New Through Tracks Proposed for L.A. Union Station
Sound Transit
Sound Transit has received the FTA’s Record of Decision (see above), allowing the West Seattle Link Extension project to advance to the design phase.
Approved by voters in 2016 as part of ST3, the 4.1-mile extension will include four stations (at SODO, Delridge, Avalon, and the Alaska Junction). The price tag is estimated between $6.7 billion and $7.1 billion and service is slated to start in 2032.
FTA’s April 29 sign off on environmental work is the culmination of the planning phase that began in 2017, according to Sound Transit. In that time, the agency said the project team has worked closely with the West Seattle community and agency partners to develop an alignment and future station locations that will serve more than 24,000 riders per day and cut travel times from Alaska Junction to Westlake in half, while improving station access and the transfer experience from buses to light rail.
Sound Transit will now advance engineering and design on the route and station locations selected by its Board in October 2024. At the same time, the transit agency said it will continue work “to inform a financially sound West Seattle Link Extension project, including financial, programmatic and project-level measures to improve affordability.”
In related news, Sound Transit is readying for the Downtown Redmond Link Extension opening this month.
