Mayor Karen Bass today assumed the role of LA Metro Board Chair, delivering her State of the Agency Address and outlining a comprehensive vision for the transit agency. Her priorities are sharply focused on enhancing safety, improving affordability, ensuring reliability, and preparing the system for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Mayor Bass detailed her four-pronged vision: "Metro Safe, Metro Affordable, Metro Reliable, and Metro Ready." She highlighted the development of a new Metro police department, a unique model combining traditional law enforcement with social service support. This approach aims to address quality-of-life issues such as homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness, which often do not require an armed officer.
On affordability, Mayor Bass championed the permanent GoPass program, which allows K-12 and community college students to ride Metro for free. She also expressed a long-term ambition for Metro to become entirely fare-free, stating, "This is the Metro that I've fought for since my first term and as Mayor in this city." To boost reliability, she noted recent timetable adjustments on over a hundred bus routes and plans to expand peak-hour bus lanes to more than 100 miles by 2028.
The Mayor underscored Metro's readiness for the 2028 Games, citing the recent World Cup as a successful "dress rehearsal" where 45,000 fans safely utilized the system. She celebrated significant progress on major projects, including the Sepulveda Transit Corridor and the D Line extension to the Westside, which will eventually reach UCLA, the designated Olympic Village.
"Public transit, quite literally, is one of the most powerful tools to change and improve the quality of life," Mayor Bass said. She envisions a Los Angeles where residents can navigate the region without cars, leading to expanded opportunities, a stronger local economy, and cleaner air. "I believe that this is our moment," she concluded, emphasizing the transformative potential of a robust public transit system.