MTA Says Subway Riders Over-Counted

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced a large decrease in Los Angeles subway ridership, with officials attributing the change to more accurate counting methods rather than a decline in actual passengers.

The new statistics, released Tuesday, also show that Los Angeles County’s mass transit system was unable to lure a significant number of new riders over the last eight months despite rising gas prices and a worsening economy.

On weekdays in May, an average of 97,400 people boarded the Red Line subway, which runs from the San Fernando Valley to downtown Los Angeles. That count was about 30,000 passengers fewer than in October, the last month measured by MTA .

Rod Goldman, an MTA deputy executive director, said many recent Red Line estimates were based on methods now seen as faulty. Under new counting methods that Goldman said were more precise, MTA planners are using larger samples of riders to come up with ridership estimates.

“We saw some anomalies and figured out a more accurate way,” Goldman said. “We were over-reporting the Red Line and under-reporting the other lines.”

According to the May count, MTA buses averaged 1,088,467 passengers on weekdays. That was down about 100,000 from last October.

The Green Line, which runs from Norwalk to Redondo Beach, averaged 31,750 weekday riders, about 1,000 more than the October count.

The Blue Line, which runs from Long Beach to Los Angeles, averaged 69,200 weekday passengers, down about 600.

Revenue for the MTA mass transit system remained unchanged at about $21 million per month, spokesman Marc Littman said.

The MTA has struggled to count ridership accurately. The agency must use estimates and mathematical modeling because its rail system relies on passengers paying fares using an honor system and bus drivers don’t count riders.

By 2005, the agency hopes to introduce a fare card using a computer chip that would be scanned as riders enter buses and trains, allowing precise passenger counts.