LA Metro adopted a $9 billion budget on Thursday, May 25 that increases funding for bus and rail operations, law enforcement, transit security officers, homeless outreach teams and custodians in an effort to improve safety and boost ridership on Los Angeles County’s mass transit system.
The 2023-2024 budget attempts to address sagging rail ridership stemming from a post-pandemic increase in remote workers, combined with recent high-profile crimes and the presence of 800 homeless individuals sheltering on Metro rail trains every night that keep riders away.
At three townhall meetings to discuss the 2023-2024 budget, the public focused on safety, cleaner stations, homeless issues, sheltered bus benches and system reliability. In response, the budget includes $201 million for cleaning — an increase of 13% — plus authorization to hire 40 more Metro Transit Security Officers, mostly to patrol buses.
“We do have our challenges on bus and rail lines with safety and security,” said Whittier City Council member and Metro board member Fernando Dutra. “It is critical we up our game.”
On Wednesday night, May 24, a bus driver was stabbed at an intersection in Woodland Hills. He remained in critical condition Thursday. Metro has announced a $25,000 reward for anyone providing information that leads to the arrest of the suspect.
Arrests for violent crimes on rail and buses were down in March, Metro reported on Thursday. Metro’s implementation of anti-drug use enforcement is mostly what led to a 32% jump in arrests on the rail system in March. The bus system did not see an increase in violent and property crimes in March.
Metro reported it saw more than 23.4 million rides in April, averaging 880,000 weekday riders on bus, rail and “microtransit” service. Total ridership was 10% higher in April 2023 over April 2022, the highest ridership level recorded since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March of 2020.
Metro’s budget allocates $2.4 billion to…
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