Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Metro Headquarters Building, a high-rise office tower located next to Union Station

The agency develops and oversees transportation plans, policies, funding programs, and both short-term and long-range solutions to mobility, accessibility and environmental needs in the county. The agency is also the primary transit provider for the city of Los Angeles, providing the bulk of such services even though the city's Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) operates a smaller system of its own within the MTA service area in the city of Los Angeles: LADOT's Commuter Express bus service to outlying suburbs in the city of Los Angeles (with a few terminating in adjacent cities), the popular short distance DASH (Downtown Area Short Hop) mini-bus service in downtown and other neighborhoods exclusively in the city of Los Angeles. Metro's headquarters are in a high-rise building adjacent to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.[5]

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates the third-largest public transportation system in the United States by ridership with a 1,433 mi² (3,711 km²) operating area and 2,000 peak hour buses on the street any given business day.[6] Metro also operates 105 miles (169 km) of urban rail service.[1] The authority has 9,892 employees, making it one of the region's largest employers.[1]

The authority also partially funds sixteen municipal bus operators and an array of transportation projects including bikeways and pedestrian facilities, local roads and highway improvements, goods movement, Metrolink regional commuter rail, Freeway Service Patrol and freeway call boxes within the County of Los Angeles.

To increase sustainability in transportation services, Metro also provides bike and pedestrian improvements for the over 10.1 million residents of Los Angeles county.[7]

Security and law enforcement services on Metro property (including buses and trains) are currently provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Transit Services Bureau via contract, in conjunction with Metro Transit Enforcement Department, Los Angeles Police Department (Union Station and all LACMTA rail services within the City of Los Angeles) and in the city of Long Beach, the Long Beach Police Department.

Weekday mode share in 2018

    B & D Lines (11.3%)

   A Line (5.3%)

   C Line (2.5%)

   E Line (5%)

   L Line (4.2%)

   G Line (1.9%)

   J Line (1.2%)

  Metro Bus (72.3%)

The Metro B Line has the highest ridership of all the Metro Rail Lines. The Metro B Line's operational cost is the lowest of all of the Metro Rail lines because of its high ridership. The Metro Liner Metro J Line has the lowest ridership of all color-branded lines. Average daily boardings and passenger miles for all of 2018 are as follows:[2]

Service	Weekdays	Saturdays	Sundays and Holidays	Average Weekday Passenger Miles
Heavy Rail
B Line  D Line	137,142	81,837	70,250	648,132
Light Rail
A Line	64,648	32,075	29,013	482,659
C Line	30,839	16,504	13,588	219,700
E Line	61,024	37,321	32,966	424,643
L Line	50,523	31,280	24,937	441,140
Bus and BRT
Metro Bus	878,862	550,391	423,771	3,739,826
G Line	22,573	12,698	10,212	148,944
J Line	15,059	6,346	5,127	152,706
Total Bus and Rail	1,214,893	752,462	601,200	5,824,359

Metro is governed by a Board of Directors with 14 members, 13 of whom are voting members.[15] The Board is composed of:

• The five Los Angeles County Supervisors (Solis, Ridley-Thomas, Kuehl, Hahn, Barger)
• The mayor of Los Angeles (Garcetti) (currently chair)
• Three Los Angeles mayor-appointees (at least one of whom must be an L.A. City Council member)
• Four city council members or mayors from cities other than Los Angeles, but within L.A. county representing those 87 cities (selected by the L.A. County City Selection Committee): currently, the representatives are from Duarte, Glendale, Long Beach, and Santa Monica
• One non-voting member appointed by the Governor of California (traditionally the Director of Caltrans District 7)

In addition, Service Councils, composed of political appointees from various regions of Los Angeles County, approve service changes and oversee bus routes within a region. There are five regions: Gateway Cities, San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, South Bay, and Westside/Central. Service councils advise on planning and implementation of service within their area; call and conduct public hearings and evaluate Metro bus programs to their area; make policy recommendations to the Metro Board; and participate in quarterly meetings with the Metro Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Deputy CEO and management staff.

Service councils were created as governance councils in 2001, in response to complaints about the effectiveness of Metro service in suburban areas. Communications between sectors and riders was poor, according to a report by the California State Auditor which was released one year into the new structure.[16] In addition, each sector had its own scheduling, operations, and maintenance divisions, causing effort duplication, organizational silos, and inefficiency.[17] Thus, in 2009, the sectors were eliminated, and transportation, maintenance, service planning, and administration were recentralized under the guidance of Metro's Chief Operations Officer. Governance councils, renamed service councils, now have more responsibility over local issues such as stop placement and service changes, while larger issues are handled by the Metro board.[18]

In some cases, governance of Metro lies in the hands of local governmental bodies, such as school boards, and local elected officials. The Beverly Hills Unified School District board, along with its president Lisa Korbatov, is one such example. In 2018, Korbatov was serving her second term as president of the board. She led a public campaign opposed to the extension of the Purple Line subway underneath Beverly Hills High School. Additionally, she rounded up enough signatures to send a petition to President Donald Trump, asking him to withhold federal funding and force the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to re-route the subway tunnel away from the high school.[19]

A complex mix of federal, state, county and city tax dollars as well as bonds and fare box revenue funds Metro. The Metro budget for 2020 is $7.2 billion. Below is the funding breakdown from Metro's fiscal year 2020 budget.

Warner Center Transit Hub.

E Line train arriving at La Cienega/Jefferson station.

All Metro buses are CNG-powered, the largest such fleet in the United States.[21] The CNG fleet reduces emissions of particulates by 90%, carbon monoxide by 80%, and greenhouse gases by 20% compared to diesel powered buses. Alternative fuel buses have logged more than 450 million operating miles since 1993, an industry record.

As part of Metro's ATMS project, most buses include a marquee displaying the date and time, Automatic Voice Annunciation (AVA) for audio and visual announcements for each stop, and an audio and visual Stop Requested announcement.

MV Transportation, Southland Transit, and Transdev are bus contractors; these contractors currently operate a few NABI 40-LFW (7600-7949) series, all NABI 31-LFW (3100-3149) series, and some NFI XN40 (5600-6149) & (3850-4199) series.

Metro Local buses are painted orange ("California Poppy"), Metro Rapid buses are painted red, and Metro J Line buses are painted silver. Metro Local buses acquired prior to the adoption of these colors in 2004 are white with a gold stripe around the bus; these buses been painted orange during their mid-life rehabilitation (except for the 5300-series New Flyer buses assigned to Metro Rapid lines, which were repainted in red livery in 2004-05). The 7000- and 7600-series buses acquired for Metro Rapid service in 2000 and 2002 are red with a white stripe along the top (7102-7112, 7617-7618, 7628, 7643, 7646 were white with a red Metro Rapid logo on all sides and some of these buses have been repainted to standard red and white and a few have been converted to Metro Local service), but some have been repainted to the current red and silver livery. Most had been repainted beginning in 2007; some have been repainted either in the updated Metro Rapid scheme or in Metro Local colors.

Metro operates the nation's largest fleet of CNG-powered buses. The CNG fleet reduces emissions of particulates by 90%, carbon monoxide by 80%, and greenhouse gases by 20% over the 500 remaining diesel powered buses in the fleet. Alternative fuel buses have logged more than 450 million operating miles since 1993, an industry record. Metro has retired all diesel buses (not including contracted buses) and became an entirely clean-air fleet in January 2011.

Beginning December 17, 2006, Metro Local Lines 233 (Van Nuys Blvd.) and 204 (Vermont Ave.) were the first Metro Local lines to use 60-foot (18 m) NABI articulated buses (9400-9494 and some 9500-9594 series). These buses are also currently in use on Metro Local Line 40 (Hawthorne Bl./Crenshaw Bl./MLK Bl./Broadway Ave.), Metro Local Line 66 (8th Street/E. Olympic Bl.) and Metro Local Line 207 (Western Ave.).

LACMTA was formed in 1993 from the merger of two previous agencies: the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD or more often, RTD) and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC). RTD was during the 1960s to 1980s (until the LACTC was created) the "800 pound gorilla" in bus transportation in Southern California, operating most public transportation in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, although outlying services began to be divested in the early 1980s.

A TAP validator at a Metro station

Metro has expanded its Metro Rapid bus system with a goal of 28 lines since 2008.[22] A Special Master ruling in December 2005 requires Metro to increase service on all Rapid bus routes to every 10 minutes during the peak period and every 20 minutes during the mid-day and evening. Service would be required to operate between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. on all Rapid routes. Metro has chosen not to appeal the ruling and began implementation on all Rapid routes in June 2006.

In addition, the agency is embarking on a massive bus restructuring effort entitled Metro Connections. The project is designed to convert the current grid-based bus system, implemented in 1980, to a hub and spoke system focused on activity centers.[23] The system is to be phased in the next four years, and will include new express routes and reconfigured local service. Suburban service and low ridership shuttles will be considered for operation by municipal agencies, restructuring, or cancellation.

The Universal Fare system called 'TAP' which stands for Transit Access Pass was introduced to the public in early 2010. The TAP smart card uses near-field communication allowing bus and rail passengers to physically tap their cards on the farebox or fare-gate for faster boarding.

In 2015, Metro studied renaming its rail and bus rapid transit lines using a letter-based scheme.[24]

• 
  Interior of Metro Local Bus – NABI 40 LFW.
• 
  Metro Local Line 166 using a NABI 45C bus.
• 
  Line 166 at the Chatsworth Orange Line Station.
• 
  Metro Local Line 166 departing.
• 
  Interior of a Metro Gold Line train car – Breda P2550 train.
• 
  Metro Silver Line bus departing Manchester Silver Line station.
• 
  Metro Local Line 232, a contract (pre-2015) bus line using a now retired Orion Bus
• 
  Inside a NABI 45 compobus on Los Angeles Metro Local line: 81.

The Metro rail and bus fleet often make appearances in films and television shows produced in the Los Angeles area, including 2012, Crash,[34] Lethal Weapon 3, Volcano,[35] Superbad, Collateral,[35] The 40-Year-Old Virgin,[36] Battle: Los Angeles,[37] and Captain Marvel.[35] One of the earliest appearances was in the 1994 movie Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, in which the Metro plays a key part in the plot.[35]

• Transportation in Los Angeles
• List of Los Angeles County Metro Rail stations
• List of Los Angeles County Metro Liner BRT Stations
• List of former Metro Express routes

People

• Hal Bernson, former Authority chairman

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

• Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority