Ridership throughout the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System rose by more than 10 percent over the past fiscal year and is now nearing pre-pandemic levels, the agency says.
And in May, the system logged the week with its highest average daily ridership since the pandemic began.
During the last fiscal year, the transit agency logged 75,663,343 enger trips, up 10.4 percent over fiscal 2023’s 68,511,363.
“The recent ridership increase has put MTS on a path to welcome even more engers in the coming years,” Stephen Whitburn, MTS board chair and San Diego city councilman, said in a statement.
Sharon Cooney, the agency’s CEO, chalked up the ridership bump to a variety of factors, including affordability amid rising costs of living.
A total of 13 bus routes saw increases of 20 percent or higher, with eight routes suring a million trips.
And ridership by young people using a Youth Opportunity rose by 22.7 percent over the year before. But those numbers could drop later this year, as the agency prepares to institute new requirements that advocates worry could be a big barrier to access.
According to the transit agency, the highest ridership month in fiscal 2024 was October 2023, with 6,929,191 enger trips. MTS leaders also said that in May 2024, the agency experienced a week with an average of 271,000 engers per day, the highest week on record since the onset of the pandemic.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, MTS experienced a decline in ridership as hundreds of thousands of San Diegans stayed home. Because of that loss in ridership — a quarter of MTS’ system operation is ed by fare revenue — the agency faces a multimillion-dollar structural budget deficit.
But the higher numbers this past fiscal year mean the agency is regularly reaching 85 to 90 percent of pre-pandemic ridership levels, officials said.
Efforts to bring back riders include an increase in security presence system-wide and a new Bus Rapid Network route connecting Imperial Beach and Otay Mesa.
And since the pandemic began, the agency opened its much-anticipated Blue Line extension to UC San Diego and University City.
MTS also plans to keep implementing improvements in the coming years to make transit more reliable and accessible — including an overnight express bus service between the border and downtown San Diego, increased bus and trolley frequencies, infrastructure rehabilitation on the Orange Line Trolley and charging infrastructure for the zero-emissions transition.
The improvements will be funded in part by state funding secured by Senate Bill 125 and implemented once the funds are delivered to MTS, according to the agency.
