Metro Transit officials say ridership was up and crime was down last year.
The agency's General Manager, Lesley Kandaras, says more than 70 new 'TRIP' agents are a big reason why the numbers are heading in the right direction.
"They've completed over 500,000 fare inspections," says Kandaras. "Those are both TRIP agents as well as our community service officers, and that's a notable increase from the amount of fare inspection we were able to do in 2023."
As for crime, Metro Transit police say smoking was the number one offense in 2024. Joe Dotseth is interim police chief for the agency.
"So really, the increase from smoking citations from 2023 to 2024 really focuses on our overall philosophy on problem oriented policing, right? We knew there was a problem there, so we have our patrol officers and our staff out there really focusing on those issues that that are affecting safety on the light rail," says Dotseth.
Metro Transit has made some inroads in the number of crime issues since 2023. The total number of crimes reported in Q4 of 2024 was 1,842. That is up slightly from Q2 and Q3 of 2024, but down from early 2023 where numbers were over 2,400 in Q1.
Beyond just smoking, drug use, vandalism and disorderly conduct continue to be the most commonly reported of the serious crimes.
Kanderas says they had around 140,000 people ride buses or trains on an average weekday in 2024. The ridership numbers have been trickling upward since a sharp drop off in 2020 at the start of the COVID pandemic. Ridership in parts of 2019 saw over 250,000 people per day on public transit but work from home changes plus the perception - and reality - of increased crime have kept riders from coming back to those levels.
As shown in the image above, total ridership continues to be about half what it was pre-pandemic.
Metro Transit is getting ready to launch three new rapid bus routes in 2025, hire more operators and maintenance workers, and beef up security around the Green Line in downtown St. Paul.