Houston Strategies

Metro's fiscal 2026 completed at the end of September. Final financial and ridership numbers will be available when the annual statement is released in April, but using monthly data I can estimate fiscal 2026 ridership.

2026 ridership is just slightly above flat. 2026 average weekday ridership is up 0.08% compared to 2025, and weekend ridership is up 1.44%. The estimated overall ridership increase is 0.33%.

Bus ridership is strong, back to pre-Covid levels. Light rail ridership is weak and has been declining since its post-Covid peak in September 2023 (47,650), which was well below pre-Covid September 2019 ridership of 65,020. September 2026 ridership was 38,727.

The World Cup appears to have provided a small bump to ridership in June, mainly on the weekend (not visible in the chart). June weekday ridership was up 4.2%, Saturday was up 16%, and Sunday was up 8.5%. However, June 2025 Saturday ridership (137,157) was unusually low, 9.8% below 2024, so June 2026 (158,864) is probably a combination of returning to typical values and a small World Cup bump.

Flat 2026 ridership ends the Covid ridership recovery which has been in progress since fiscal year 2022. Fiscal 2025 ridership was 12.6% below fiscal 2019. Reducing the 2025 taxpayer subsidy of $13.07 per boarding will require a reduction in the 2026 operating loss.

Los Angeles Ridership Update

I previously reported about the public transit ridership disaster in Los Angeles. Los Angeles County has ended virtually all freeway improvements and put all their resources into public transit, only to get drastic reductions in ridership. I updated the Los Angeles ridership calendar year (not fiscal year) chart through calendar 2025. (official data site)

2025 ridership was down 1.9% compared to 2024, ending the Covid ridership recovery. Overall ridership is down 37% compared to the 2013 peak and 20.6% compared to 2019. Los Angeles has spent heavily on rail lines, only to see rail ridership go down 43.6% compared to the 2013 peak and 30.8% compared to 2019. I have seen a report that ridership is up this year due to sky-high California gasoline prices.