Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pounded the gavel one last time, ending her tenure as chair of the LA Metro board, then passed it to Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who raised the wooden gavel above her head triumphantly.
The ceremonial changing of leadership of the county’s massive transit agency took place in front of 300 Metro employees, media and officeholders at the annual “State of the Agency” ceremony Wednesday, July 10 at Union Station’s historic ticket hall.
Minutes before, Bass had announced Hahn as the new chair, who represents the Fourth District in the South Bay and Southeast L.A. County. Wearing a wide grin, Bass said, “Yes, I am smiling, Supervisor Hahn.”
Bass and Hahn could not be more different in terms of their familiarity with LA Metro. Bass assumed the helm of the 13-member board a year ago, seven months after being sworn in as mayor of Los Angeles. Getting up to speed on LA Metro was an uphill battle, though she made good on a promise to set up a homeless navigation center in South L.A. where unhoused Metro riders ushered off the trains and buses can go for the night.
Bass was thrust into LA Metro’s troubles with mentally ill riders who have been committing violent crimes and scaring away riders, including women whose use of Metro lags behind that of males.
After several crimes in the spring, including two murders of passengers in unprovoked attacks, Bass ordered a “surge” in law enforcement and Metro security across the system’s six rail lines and 108 stations and 120 bus routes covering 1,447 square miles.
“If you are on transit, you demand to be safe, feel safe and demand a clean bus or train,” Bass said in her closing remarks.
Hahn, who has served eight years on the Board of Supervisors, brings to the position — which rotates every year — a legacy of transit experience from her family roots.
She spoke of her late father, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who in 1980 rallied voters to approve the first county transit tax, Proposition A. The half-cent sales tax paid for the first rail line, the Blue Line from downtown L.A. to Long Beach (now part of the A Line). Kenny Hahn’s 1980 sales tax measure led to three more half-cent sales taxes passed by L.A. County voters: Prop. C in 1990, Measure R in 2008 and Measure M in 2016.
Local tax dollars helped pay for the Regional Connector which opened in July 2023 with three new stations in downtown L.A. The project, which cost $1.8 billion, was partially funded by the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, pushed by President Joe Biden.
Completion of a 9.1 mile extension of the A Line through Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona is slated for early 2025. The extension of the D (Purple) line under Wilshire Boulevard will open some stations late next year and eventually the line will connect DTLA to the VA facilities in Westwood.
Construction of the East San Fernando Valley line, the first light-rail line in the San Fernando Valley, is set to begin later this year, announced CEO Stephanie Wiggins. “We’re bringing rail for people from Van Nuys to Pacoima,” she said.
Plans to extend the Green Line to Torrance have begun. Also, the new Airport Metro Connector Transit Station is set to open later this year. But passengers and employees going to LAX will need to take a bus shuttle from the Metro station, until the LAX Automated People Mover Project is ready. That project is scheduled for completion around April 2025.
Wiggins said despite safety concerns, overall ridership has increased every month for 18 months. Weekend ridership is nearly at the same level as in 2019 before the pandemic, she said. Wiggins said more families are riding during off-peak hours to music and sporting events.
“I’m optimistic because we’ve taken the most car-dependent region in America and built the second-most busiest transit system in the country,” said Wiggins. “In the face of incredible challenges in our region, we are coming back.”
LA Metro serves about a million people every day. As board chair, Hahn will make that a million-and-one, pledging to ride the system more regularly and report what she sees.
“And at every Metro board meeting, I’m going to call out what was wrong and needs to be fixed and I’ll also praise what was right,” she said during an interview. “It will help me, as the chair, to have a rider experience.”
Hahn spelled out four priorities: safety, homelessness, rider experience, and supporting Metro’s 11,800 employees.
A new Metro Public Safety Department approved by the board in June will focus its own officers at trouble spots, while adding more homeless outreach teams, as well as teams to help those addicted to drugs, she said.
“We’ve heard from riders afraid to take Metro home, and bus operators worried about their safety,” Hahn said, adding she’s heard from many who feel safer seeing uniformed law enforcement on their routes.
She said the new police force will take several years to get going, so until then more law enforcement presence is the answer. “We need to have law enforcement right now on our platforms and on our trains and our buses.”
Several Metro Transit Security officers stand at the entrance turnstile of the A Line Lake Station in Pasadena, stopping those who do not TAP and pay their fare as seen on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (photo by Steve Scauzillo, SCNG).
At the A Line Lake Station in Pasadena on Wednesday, Metro Transit Security officers were standing at the gates, making sure people paid their fare by tapping the electronic reader with a pre-paid TAP card. One man was turned away. And a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputy was asking passengers to present their TAP cards as they boarded the train at Union Station.
Commuters use their tap cards to exit at the North Hollywood Metro station on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Locking of the exit gate is a way to catch those who have not paid their fare and remove from the train those who ride without paying. Some see this as a way to ward off unhoused or drug users, who often ride the trains for shelter. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Metro began locking the exit gates a few months ago in the North Hollywood B (Red) Line station. By requiring tapping to exit, it alerted nearby officers to those who did not pay their fare. Some got warnings, others paid on the spot, while others were handed citations for non-payment.
Wiggins mentioned the enforcement of those who don’t pay, along with more teams addressing homeless riders and those with unaddressed mental illness and extra law enforcement, when asked if the agency was turning the corner on crime and safety.
“I’m optimistic about where we are headed due to our contributions to address those issues,” she said in an interview. “I see a path forward.”
She said more safety measures will be introduced at the board meeting on July 25.
Related links
LA Metro beefing up police patrols, ‘hardening’ stations to stop rise in violence
Downtown Regional Connector train opens after 10 years and $1.8 billion
Light rail to Pomona ‘halfway there’ but proponents of extension to Claremont, Montclair ‘living on a prayer’
Rep. Cardenas, Metro CEO Wiggins, tour route of future East San Fernando Valley rail line
State funds Pomona-to-Montclair light rail, first LA Metro project to San Bernardino County