LA Metro has crafted a proposed $9 billion budget with a two-pronged goal: increasing ridership to fit a post-pandemic workforce and adding resources that will shift the perception that its transit system is unsafe to ride.
A look at the numbers in a 2024 fiscal year spending blueprint that runs from July 1 through June 30, 2024 points out the mammoth transit agency’s priorities.
First, ridership on its seven rail systems is at 58% of the pre-pandemic level, while bus use is at 78% of the pre-pandemic level. As more remote workers return to the workplace, Metro wants to entice motorists with cleaner, more reliable service. “Demand for transit services has changed, especially on weekdays as L.A. County’s traditional employment centers have become less busy due to remote work,” CEO Stephanie Wiggins wrote in her budget letter to the board.
Another approach to attract riders is to enhance weekend ridership, which is rising as more L.A. County residents use Metro rail to and from sports and entertainment events.
Metro’s budget allocates $2.4 billion to operate its system, a modest 5% or $113 million increase over last year’s budget. It will provide 8.9 million hours of service — 9.6% more than pre-pandemic levels, and for rail, that comes to 27.5% more than pre-pandemic levels. It will increase investment in bus service by 6.6% over last year.
But the larger percentage increases address safety, homelessness and cleanliness:
– $13.5 million more for outreach to the homeless sleeping on trains and buses or encamping outside train station or at end-of-line neighborhoods in North Hollywood, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Downtown L.A. and Azusa. Another $10 million will go toward a new partnership with the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, plus $1.8 million for short-term shelters. This represents a 65.6% increase from last year.
– A 43% increase in its in-house Metro Transit Security force which informs people they can’t smoke dope on the…
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