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 train or play loud music. Recently, the agency added to its list of conduct violations the selling of illegal drugs.
– The total cost of law enforcement contracts with Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Long Beach Police Department will grow 3.7%, from $169.5 million to $175.8 million.
– After hearing from the public at town hall meetings about dirty train cars, Metro responded. The budget includes a $23.6 million increase over last year to hire 24 more full-time custodians and 50 temporary cleaning workers for the B (Red) and D (Purple) Lines, which run through central L.A. and Hollywood. Instead of cleaning trains and buses only at the end of service, they will also be cleaned while in service, Metro reported.
“We know riders want our system to be cleaner — and that a cleaner system is a safer one,” said Metro in a prepared statement on the budget.
Bart Reed, executive director of The Transit Coalition, which keeps watch over Metro, said foremost on riders’ minds are the troubling sights, sounds, smells and actions, such as people doing drugs on platforms and train cars, and recent stabbings at B (Red) Line stations.
“The important thing is accountability,” he said on Thursday, May 4. “How will pouring more money to improve the system work, and how will we know?”
Last month, Wiggins said homeless outreach teams in March connected 1,093 people to services and of those, 15 were placed in permanent housing. A Metro survey counted 800 homeless sheltering on the Metro system on any given night.
Reed said the homeless problem, affecting all of L.A. County as well as transit systems in Philadelphia, Seattle and Portland, for example, is not unique to Metro, calling it “daunting.” But the presence of hundreds of the unhoused, as well as recent incidents of Metro-related crime that led the radio and TV newscasts, has kept away potential riders, he said.
“We do see the increase of funding toward mental health services and outreach as the right direction for Metro,” said Scarlet De Leon, campaigns director for ACT-LA, a coalition of 44 organizations focused on transit and housing justice. As far as attending to the homeless, she added: “If we want long-term results we have to connect them to housing.”
But De Leon objects to the large amount being spent on law enforcement. She pointed out that many Metro board members wanted more input on how police and sheriff deputies patrol the system but were voted down when the board approved extending the contracts. Some claimed that law enforcement officers just drive around a station and do not get out of their patrol cars.
“This is the most they’ve ever spent on law enforcement contracts and it is not getting them the result they want and need,” De Leon said on Friday, May 5. “Metro should look at root causes.”
ACT-LA has suggested Metro make physical improvements to stations that so riders feel safer, such as better lighting, and hiring elevator attendants to watch for illegal activity — something the BART system in Northern California is doing. She said the 6.6% increase in bus service is not enough, considering that up to 70% of all Metro riders take a bus.
“Bus service needs to be a priority in the budget. Some people are waiting 30 or 40 minutes for a bus to come,” De Leon said.
Rail costs are rising, as Metro operates new lines. In October, Metro opened the K (Crenshaw) Line in South L.A. and Inglewood. The downtown Regional Connector is set to open by the end of June, according to the budget document.
Metro continues to pay construction costs for the L (Gold) Line extension to Pomona, and the D (Purple) line extension to Westwood. Also, money is budgeted for improvements to the G (Orange) Line in the San Fernando Valley and for pre-construction work on the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Project, a light-rail train to run along Van Nuys Boulevard.
While capital funds often come from federal and state grants, Metro also gets considerable dollars from four sales tax measures: Proposition A, Proposition C, Measure R and Measure M. Revenues have gone up $757 million, or about 16.3%, over last year.
Other revenues sources on the rise include:
• Fare revenues are estimated at $146.8 million, a nearly 38% increase from last year’s budget.
• ExpressLane tolls collected were estimated at $125 million net revenues, Metro reported last month. In next year’s budget, the revenues are estimated at $65.5 million.
• Federal grants are expected to increase by $766 million over last year’s budget.
Metro’s $1.3 billion from the Federal American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) has been exhausted. With the ending of COVID-19-related funding, the agency in 2025 will face operating deficits, according to the budget. That cloud hangs over the agency as it moves toward approval of the 2023-2024 budget in late May.
Metro Budget Facts
– The $9 billion budget is more than the 2022-2023 budget of $8.8 billion. It is available at: https://budget.metro.net
• A public hearing on the budget will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17. The meeting can be attended in person on the third floor of Metro headquarters, 1 Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles. It will be livestreamed at this site.
• Comments can be sent to budgetcomments@metro.net.
