LA Metro’s highs and lows of the past fiscal year included more uniformed officers, a drop in violent crime and 30 months of sustained ridership growth, paired with federal immigration raids in the past five weeks that scared off many riders and affected some of Metro’s own employees, said CEO Stephanie Wiggins.
“It has been a very difficult time for many in our immigrant community, including members of our own Metro family” who come to work despite facing fears, pain and uncertainty, said Wiggins on Wednesday, July 9, during the annual “State of the Agency” event at Union Station in DTLA in front of 400 Metro employees, state and local officials and riders.
Without elaborating further on the raids, Wiggins went on to talk about dual issues of safety and ridership, citing 53% ridership growth over the past four years. Also, some train and bus lines saw a 55% drop in vandalism and other crime-related incidents, a Metro survey revealed. Metro data from May 2025 showed a 28.9% drop in violent crime per one million boardings year-over-year. Violent crime on the system is at the lowest levels since May 2019, the agency reported.
Metro installed full bus driver enclosures in all its 2,200 buses last fiscal year, she said. Assaults on bus operators dropped by 66% from last year, she emphasized.
The agency had seen spikes in violent crime starting in 2023. Since then, the agency has added additional law enforcement, transit officers, and Metro ambassadors. They paired them with homeless outreach teams whose job is to stop the homeless from using the system as a mobile shelter, and instead help them find proper housing placements –– including for those with untreated mental illness and drug addictions.
Included in the safety blitz are weapons detection systems and taller fare gates at train stations with the highest incidents of crime and fare-skipping. The agency wants to ensure that people are paying their fare, because data found many who caused disturbances and committed crimes were fare-skippers.
While many say that there are fewer disturbances on the trains and buses, not everyone feels safer.
“Not safe, not safe,” said Aura Cuevas, who was waiting to board the A Line toward Azusa from Union Station. “You never know who will be on the train. Sometimes there are fights,” she said. Cuevas said she always carry a can of mace spray just in case.
At the event, outgoing Metro Chair and Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said she advocated for weapons detection systems during her tenure this past fiscal year and said so far, where they are installed, officers had identified three bladed weapons per shift. “Officers have watched individuals turn around and leave that station,” after seeing the weapons detection system up ahead.
Hahn passed the gavel to Fernando Dutra, the new board chair. Dutra is a Whittier City Councilmember and was appointed to the board by the Gateway Cities, which includes 28 cities in Southeast Los Angeles County. Dutra is a general contractor and chaired the Metro Construction Committee.
He spoke of ongoing Metro rail, freeway and bus lane projects, including “some of the most difficult projects being built in the United States, that are right here at LA Metro.”
The county transit agency and many officials who spoke pointed to several bus and train projects as highlights from the past year. However, while each represents concrete progress, some connections are not yet fully realized:
• The LAX Metro Transit Center. The 500,000-square foot, $900 million station on both the C and K lines, opened June 6 and is a major milestone for the agency, officials said. But connecting to LAX terminals is at least six months away. The station is about 2.5 miles from airport terminals. Riders must disembark and take shuttle buses to flight terminals. The completed connection to LAX will happen when the LAX Automated People Mover Project, a 2.25-mile elevated train, connects the LAX horseshoe to the train/bus station in early 2026. The people mover is being built by Los Angeles World Airports.
• Extension of the A Line. The 9.1-mile, $1.5 billion light-rail project includes four new completed stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona. The finished extension built by the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, was turned over to LA Metro for testing on Jan. 3. The project that started in late 2017 is built, but not yet operating. The agency, responsible for running the longest light-rail line in the country, will open the extension of the line to the public in late summer. Once open, the A Line, formerly Gold Line, will become the first train line extension since the Regional Connector in DTLA opened in June 2023.
• A longer D Line connecting to L.A.’s Westside. This project, which broke ground in 2014, is being constructed as three separate projects that will extend the subway nine miles, creating seven new underground stations. The new rail will take riders from the Wilshire/Western Station to the VA Hospital west of the 405 freeway. While LA Metro cited progress this past year, it has not yet opened after 11 years of construction. Phase 1 extends the subway from Koreatown through the Miracle Mile, adding three new stations at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega, according to LA Metro. The first phase is scheduled to open at the end of this year, according to LA Metro reports and LA Metro social media posts. “Sections 2 to Century City and 3 to Westwood/VA Hospital are anticipated to open, respectively, during the second halves of 2026 and 2027,” read a recent LA Metro Facebook post.
• Faster bus travel. When buses travel on a busy thoroughfare, they get stuck in traffic just like single-passenger automobiles. This makes taking the bus frustrating. To decrease time spent on the bus, LA Metro created 21 miles of dedicated bus lanes. Many riders flooded social media with pictures of cars parked in the bus lanes. So, the agency expanded bus lane enforcement as a pilot program.
Some other new on-the-ground projects that either opened or saw construction start this past year include the restart of the Topanga Beach Bus. This popular service was paused due to the Palisades fire in January and roadway impacts. The service resumed in late April from Warner Center in the San Fernando Valley to Santa Monica Beach; opening of a 5.5-mile Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor in Inglewood and South LA; beginning of construction for the 9.2-mile East San Fernando Valley Light Rail project — the first phase of the $3.57-billion project would extend 6.7 miles between the G (Orange) Bus Rapid Transit Line in Van Nuys to the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road in Pacoima.
“Metro is stepping into its next chapter with clarity, urgency and a shared purpose. We want a transit system that works, is reliable and efficient, and worthy of the people we serve — and that is what we will deliver,” Dutra said.
He spoke of Los Angeles hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028 as challenges for the transit system.
Wiggins said the agency is prepared to add 2,700 temporary buses for the two week summer Olympics, to take spectators from hotels to 40 game venues. LA Metro has identified more than 700 buses it can borrow from other transit agencies, she said.
“These global events will bring the eyes of the world onto Los Angeles. Metro will rise to the moment,” Dutra said.