Another One Rides the Bus

Scott, Mike, and Olga convene a transportation sickos roundtable to discuss Metro’s State of the Agency, how the system fared during the World Cup, and big changes to the board’s structure. Will the LAX people mover ever open — and will anyone actually call it SkyLink? Then: Karen Bass’s sudden pivot on the Lineage disaster in a mayorship that has been defined by disasters. Watch Metro’s State of the Agency featuring Metro’s magnetic CEO Stephanie Wiggins Metro ridership numbers in June increased by over two million year over year during the World Cup Alissa was on Spectrum talking about how well it all went and wrote more about the lessons learned on Torched More than 560,000 fans attended the eight matches altogether, according to the Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee. There were approximately 212,000 boardings to and from SoFi. This means about 1 in 5 fans going to the matches took Metro’s shuttle service Los Angeles Times: “The World Cup was an L.A. public transit success. The Olympics will be a much bigger test” Bass, now in her second go as Metro board chair, suddenly started caring about transit, and is promising fare-free transit that advocates have been demanding for years As advocates — including a direct plea from CicLAvia — begged Metro to find $1 million for open streets events while pouring over $100 million into freeway expansions Metro’s board is changing — and is about to undergo more significant changes. Two small city reps are no longer elected councilmembers, so they’re out: Whittier’s Fernando Dutra who lost his council race and Glendale’s Ara Najarian who didn’t run again. Long Beach mayor Rex Richardson is replacing Dutra, but the obscure L.A. County City Selection Committee rejected Santa Clarita councilmember Jason Gibbs Due to Measure G, which expands the LA County Board of Supervisors to nine members, Metro’s board composition has to change. The board approved a motion — a combination of a staff recommendation, and motions from Bass, Janice Hahn, and Lindsey Horvath — that will recommend including two rider representatives. There are still a few final wrinkles to iron out, but soon these proposals will proceed as Metro’s recommendations to the state legislature, which may have its own ideas about changes to Metro governance The LAX people mover contractor has now sued the city, raising even more concern over when/if the three-years-late, $1 billion over budget, 2.25-mile connection from the airport to the LAX