Ridership tops 80 million trips, marking the highest total since FY 2019
San Diego – The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) announced that annual ridership surpassed 80 million passenger trips for the first time since the pandemic. The transit agency recorded 81,181,071 boardings during Fiscal Year 2025 (July 2024–June 2025), a 7.1% increase from the 75,663,343 trips taken in Fiscal Year 2024.
“Surpassing 80 million trips shows that more San Diegans are choosing transit than ever before,” said Stephen Whitburn, MTS Board Chair and San Diego City Councilmember. “It’s a testament to the investments we’ve made in reliability, safety, and service quality—and to the dedicated MTS team that works every day to keep our region moving.”
During the pandemic, MTS experienced a steep decline in ridership as hundreds of thousands of San Diegans stayed home. Since that time, ridership has continued to rebound year after year. This is due in part to the agency’s efforts to attract more riders by adding more service, increasing Trolley service frequency and bolstering security. These efforts have resulted in strong customer satisfaction and high community value ratings from riders. The annual ridership growth marks a major post-pandemic milestone for MTS, with annual boardings now at 95.1% of the pre-pandemic peak in fiscal year 2019 (85,357,495 trips).
“We’ve recovered more than 95% of our pre-pandemic ridership, which speaks volumes about the trust our riders place in MTS and the value of public transit in San Diego,” said Sharon Cooney, MTS Chief Executive Officer. “This milestone shows just how far we’ve come since the pandemic’s lowest point, and we’ll continue building on that momentum to reach even more riders in the years ahead.”
(MTS ridership totals for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025, broken down by bus service and Trolley service. Copper Line and MTS Access [paratransit] totals are not broken down in the chart above but are included in the total ridership column. Copper Line ridership is 464,981, with service starting September 2024. Paratransit ridership is 314,099 for 2024 and 350,777 for 2025, a 11.7% increase.)
In October 2024, MTS logged 7,720,681 passenger trips, the highest ridership month in the fiscal year. During a week in the same month, the agency reported an average of 281,972 passengers per day, the highest week on record since the onset of the pandemic. Other ridership milestones for MTS include:
- Twelve (12) bus routes experienced ridership increases of 15% or higher (Routes 1, 227, 815, 894, 904, 907, 932, 944, 946, 967, 985, 992)
- Eleven (11) bus routes surpassed the million-trip mark (Routes 3, 7, 10, 13, 30, 201, 202, 215, 235, 929, 955)
- Bus Routes 7 and 13 surpassed 1.9 million boardings (1,900,135 and 1,900,795 respectively – a 660 boarding difference)
About MTS
The Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) operates 92 bus routes and four Trolley lines in 10 cities and unincorporated areas of San Diego. MTS is a leader in advancing initiatives to create a greener, cleaner and better-connected transit system in San Diego. Each weekday more than 250,000 passenger trips are taken throughout the MTS system taking people to work, school, health appointments and other essential trips. In FY 2024, MTS served more than 75 million riders. For service schedule updates, news, alerts and more information on how you can use public transportation, go to www.sdmts.com.
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