Women’s ridership down on L.A. Metro, and satisfaction with buses, trains falls as a share of total ridership
The percentage of riders who are pleased with their commute down on Metro has dropped to its lowest percentage since 2001.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
I was surprised by how badly Metro riders were dissatisfied with their commutes, and how dissatisfied they were. I was surprised because I thought most people would be able to tell that their commutes were not only safe but highly dependable.
The percentage of riders who were very satisfied with their commutes has also fallen to its lowest level since 2001, and it is on the verge of falling for the year.
Metro officials said the drop in riders’ satisfaction came as a combination of riders’ dissatisfaction with a deteriorating service and low prices, both of which helped to produce a drop in ridership.
Metro said it did not know why riders were less satisfied, but some possible culprits included a reduction in the number of on-time trains, a reduction in their frequency and more crowded trains.
Metro also said it had been reducing the number of trains, and added that trains run every 1 to 2 hours on certain lines. The average number of trains that run daily has fallen about 10 percent, Metro officials said, and the average time between trains has also dropped about 5 minutes.
The city and county have been losing more than 20,000 people a year on transit since 2013 on what had been a steady increase in ridership, according to data published online by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Metro, which has been struggling to grow in the face of declining ridership, has been adding service and improving it. But it has been operating at a loss for many years, and for many years, only managed to increase ridership. And it also has taken a major hit because the fare increase on June 1 and Sept. 1 is less than it had planned.
And riders
