TO: AC Transit Board of Directors
FROM: Salvador Llamas, General Manager/Chief Executive Officer
SUBJECT: FY 24-25 Annual Ridership and Route Performance Report
BRIEFING ITEM
AGENDA PLANNING REQUEST: ☐
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
Title
Consider receiving the FY24-25 Annual Ridership and Route Performance Report in accordance with Board Policy 545 - Service Standards and Design Policy.
Staff Contact:
Ramakrishna Pochiraju, Executive Director of Planning & Engineering
Body
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE:
Goal - Convenient and Reliable Service
Initiative - Service Quality
The ridership report is a key metric to measure the District’s improvement in service quality. Since adopting the Strategic Plan, this report has served as the baseline for measuring future improvement.
BUDGETARY/FISCAL IMPACT:
There are no budgetary/fiscal impacts associated with this report.
BACKGROUND/RATIONALE:
The FY24-25 Annual Ridership and Route Performance Report provides a summary and assessment of the District’s service performance with respect to ridership, productivity, passenger loads, frequency, and on-time performance. Detailed analysis by service type and route-level are provided in the attachments and highlight post-COVID-19 pandemic impacts on ridership recovery.
Post-Pandemic Impacts (Recap)
1. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced ridership in 2020 following similar trends across the transit industry. Ridership remained stagnant through FY20-21, but has since partially recovered, with a positive ridership trend in the last four fiscal years (+36% Y-Y growth in FY21-22, +20% FY22-23, +13.5% FY23-24, +1.9% FY24-25.
2. FY24-25 saw ridership growth of +1.9% year-over-year, contributing to the fourth consecutive year of positive ridership recovery and maintaining the uptrend. As of June 30, 2025, ridership has recovered to 75.4% of pre-Covid (FY18-19) levels. Year-over-year growth in FY24-25 has moderated significantly compared to double-digit growth in prior years.
Ridership - Summary [Attachment 1 - Chart 1.1, 1.2]
For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, system-wide ridership across all service modes totaled 40.7 million annual riders, reflecting a 1.9% year-over-year (Y-Y) increase. Fixed-route service averaged 3.3 million monthly riders, down from 4.4 million riders per month pre-pandemic. Compared to the previous year, ridership increased across the majority of service modes: Local (Motor Bus) service [MB] gained 1.9% Y-Y to 34.6 million annual riders; Commuter service [CB] gained 9.7% to 537,000 annual riders; however, this commuter total represents only 20.8% of pre-pandemic levels due to the significant drop off in Transbay riders at the start of the pandemic; Dumbarton service [MB-PT] declined 5.5% in riders, while Paratransit services [DR-PT] gained 8.2% in riders. TEMPO (BRT) service [RB-DO] gained only 0.8% in riders but continues to experience strong ridership demand, contributing 4.8 million (12%) of total annual riders last year.
Ridership - Productivity; Top 10 Routes [Attachment 1 - Chart 1.3; Attachment 4]
In line with the ridership changes across service modes, productivity across service types saw similar changes. Weekday service, when grouped by service type, ranged from an average of 9.6 passengers per hour for Owl Service, to 65.6 passengers per hour for Supplemental service. Among the Top 10 routes, TEMPO (1T) service continued to rank at the top in productivity, averaging 63.6 passengers per hour, and approximately 16,000 average weekday riders. Rounding out the top routes by productivity include lines 1T, 51B, 52, 701, 6, 51A, 79, 40, P, 73. Individual route profiles and performance statistics are provided in Attachment 4.
Bottom Quarter Performing Routes [Attachment 3]
The bottom quarter of low-performing routes within each service type are ranked and listed in the table in Attachment 3. Peak frequency, total revenue trips, and revenue hours for each of these routes are provided as a reference to highlight their relative productivity across the District’s service. Staff is monitoring the performance and ridership impacts of these routes post-realign service changes for improvement in the winter sign-up.
On-Time Performance (OTP) [Attachment 1, Chart 1.4]
During FY24-25, system-wide OTP averaged 74.6%, a marginal increase compared to 74.5% in the prior year, continuing to perform above the District targeted KPI level of 72%. In the scatterplot comparison, OTP is further grouped by service type to further differentiate the performance. OTP performance contains more variation when compared to the service type level. Excluding Supplemental service routes, the majority (67%) of individual routes exceeded the District’s 72% OTP target. Both Transbay and Supplemental service as a group were below the 72% target; however, both groups saw year-over-year improvements (Transbay improved from 67.8% to 69.9%, Supplemental increased from 68.2% to 69.7%). Supplemental service experiences high variations in boardings and alightings of large numbers of passengers/students at limited stops that can create longer dwell times, negatively impacting overall OTP on those lines.
Passenger Trips, Service Hours [Attachment 2 - Service Type Performance]
In FY24-25, service levels consisted of 5,487 average daily weekday trips, and 5,487 average daily revenue hours of service. This was -0.2% fewer trips and 1.6% more hours compared to the prior year, as minor service and reliability adjustments were made across Sign-ups. Through FY24-25, service levels were maintained at approximately 85% of pre-pandemic service levels.
Passenger Loads [Attachment 1, Chart 1.5]
Overall, FY24-25 average passenger maxloads saw only minor increases across service types, which were in line with the modest overall ridership gains. Across the District service types, the most significant increase came from Early Bird service, which saw a 49.4% increase in passenger loads (increased from an average of 7.6 to 11.4 max passenger load from the prior year). Of the Early Bird lines, line 701 increased 75% Y-Y, from 16.1 to 28.0 average passenger maxloads.
Industry and emerging trends [Attachment 1 - Chart 1.6]
Ridership data from other transit providers were summarized to compare post COVID-19 ridership recovery trends across the transit industry. Filtering by the largest transit providers with at least 15 million annual riders in the same period, the sampled agencies collectively averaged +3.3% Y-Y increase in riders, slightly above the District’s +1.9% Y-Y gain. Taking the aggregate total ridership across all these agencies yielded an average 84.1% ridership recovery rate compared to pre-pandemic levels. The District’s 75.4% recovery rate is in line with SFMTA’s 73.2% recovery rate (bus mode) when compared within the Bay Area region. With the District’s Realign service plan now in effect since August 2025, staff will actively monitor route performance changes across the new service to assess impacts on future ridership trends.
ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES:
There are no advantages or disadvantages associated with this report as it solely reports on service and route performance as required by Board Policy 545.
ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS:
There are no alternatives associated with this report.
PRIOR RELEVANT BOARD ACTION/POLICIES:
SR 24-451 FY23-24 Annual Ridership and Route Performance Report
ATTACHMENTS:
1. FY24-25 Ridership Performance Summary
2. Service Type Performance
3. Bottom Quarter Performing Routes
4. Route Performance (Weekday, Sat, Sun)
Prepared by:
Campbell Jung, Manager of Business Analytics
In Collaboration with:
Howard Der, Senior Transportation Planner
Approved/Reviewed by:
Ramakrishna Pochiraju, Executive Director of Planning & Engineering
Aaron Vogel, Chief Operating Officer
William Tonis, Director of Business Sciences
Robert del Rosario, Director of Services Development & Planning